Another walk along the riverfront today, this time with Andrew and Barb from Render / DodoLab. Windsor’s meadows are looking incredible, and if this strike ends it’ll be quite disappointing to see so many patches of long grasses and wildflowers cut down.
I can understand that there was a point at which people could have thought that things looked “messy,” but I think we’re well past that now. Windsor is now into a full-on prairie meadow stage and it’s gorgeous.
So, this sign, and this area pictured above, is as the sign says, a Wildflower Garden. It’s official, it was made official by that simple blue sign on a galvanized pole. So, if all it takes is a sign, why don’t we make official some other prime Windsor meadow locations and reclaim some space for “naturalized areas.” I’m going to be on the look out for particularly great locations to formalize as Windsor’s naturalized meadows.
Or if signs aren’t your thing, but you still want to work with these amazingly wondrous meadows, head out with Leesa Bringas at 8am every morning for some grass braiding.
Related Posts: Naturalized Area: Accidental Meadow Math, Markers, and Measurements + Eric’s micro-documentary Windsor Signage
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I’m not sure if you know, but these Wildflower/Naturalization areas already exist all along the riverfront and are labeled. There’s a huge one on the old Ford property along the river just west of Drouillard too. East of Drouillard also, and down by Goose Bay Park, along the riverfront trail…
When the grass was cut, these areas were left as is.
Yes, I’ve seen a number of these patches along the riverfront (though I hadn’t realized it went as far down as Drouillard) and they’re really beautiful, I suppose I’m just wishing that the entirety of the riverfront could be kept as it is now. It’s in that spirit that I’d love to see some of the better stretches of these “meadows” demarcated as such, if that’s what it takes to keep it that way.
I think it’s time to pay FastSigns another visit. I’d be more than happy to chip in.
These would be good in a number of places apart from the riverfront, as well. If you haven’t made the trek down Huron-Church recently, walking the stretch from my place down to the shopping plazas has been made immeasurably more pleasant by the shoulder-high vegetation. There are spots along the way where you can //almost// pretend you don’t hear the truck traffic.
“Naturalization Area,” “Mitigation Area,” or “Conservation Area” would all be good, as they sound plausibly bureaucratic. Any signs would obviously taken down sooner or later, but I think the investment would be worth it in the mean time.
YES! Ok, that’s it, I’m sold. We’re going on Monday. We’ll talk details over the weekend.
Alright. On looking at other companies’ more comprehensive websites, it seems that aluminum signs can be made by fusing vinyl somehow (permanently, they say) to a blank. If that’s the case, the turnaround time should be pretty quick—same day seems doubtful, but maybe by mid-week?
Online prices seem to be in the $25-35 range (presumably not including the pole). Being Canada and being a brick-and-mortar establishment, I would anticipate something in the neighbo[u]rhood of $50-75 per, but I’m kind of making that up. Depending on how much people are able/willing to chip in, I’m guessing we could probably make about four? That seems sufficient: maybe one on the riverfront, one downtown somewhere, one either in Sandwich or the University area, and another on Huron-Church. If need be, I should be able to front the total cost on my MasterCard, and we can work out the details later.
Each company seems to have their own set of blank sizes, but I’m guessing that either we’ll be able to just tell them, say, Helvetica bold in white on blue with a 1/4″ border, or, with laptops in tow, we can work up a file in the lobby in about two minutes.
Thanks for looking into that Steven. I think you’re probably right on in terms of turnaround and pricing. I agree that we should probably bring our laptops if it’ll make it that much quicker for them.
The locations you suggested sound good as well, exact locations can probably be determined with a quick tour around some of those areas on the way back from the shop.
Monday should be fun!!!!