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Click on the objects around me to learn about plants in the history of Goulbourn!

Heirloom plants are types of plants that were found in local gardens more than 50 years ago. We still plant these types of plants in our gardens today to feel a connection to the past. Have you ever taken a look at the four text panels located around the Museum property? Each panel talks about a different type of heirloom plant grown in the Goulbourn area. Next time you’re at the Museum, see if you can find the four “Heritage Blooms!”

In a natural ecosystem, all the plants and animals live together and help each other grow. Pollinators, like bees or butterflies, are especially important in any ecosystem because they help plants grow and stay healthy. Check out the map below to see all the different types of ecosystems around Ontario! Map taken from: https://www.ontario.ca/page/ecosystems-ontario-part-1-ecozones-and-ecoregions

Did you know that children used to do gardening at school? Learning to grow vegetables and other plants was very important because it helped prepare children for farming life. Beginning in the 1900s, children would grow different vegetables and plants such as radishes, beets, carrots, onions, beans, tomatoes and turnips at their schools! Look at this photo of a class working at a school garden in Richmond from 1905. Don’t they look happy to be gardening!

Heirloom plants are types of plants that were found in local gardens more than 50 years ago. We still plant these types of plants in our gardens today to feel a connection to the past. Have you ever taken a look at the four text panels located around the Museum property? Each panel talks about a different type of heirloom plant grown in the Goulbourn area. Next time you’re at the Museum, see if you can find the four “Heritage Blooms!”

Many people are inspired by nature when creating artwork. Painters in one of Canada’s most famous painting groups, the Group of Seven, often featured nature and the Canadian Landscape in their paintings. You can see many of their paintings in art galleries and museums across the country, including right here in Ottawa at the National Gallery of Canada and the Canadian War Museum! At the Goulbourn Museum, the Poppies of Goulbourn exhibition honours Canadian veterans on Remembrance Day by hanging poppies. The art installation is made up of hundreds of poppies sewn by members of the community hung up for all to enjoy.

Native plants are important to the survival of our ecosystems because they attract different pollinators and help other plants to grow! Did you know that there is a Native Plant garden right outside the Museum? The garden has 18 different types of native plants, including beebalms, goldenrod, and swamp milkweed. You can see these plants and many more in front of the Growing Goulbourn garden next time you’re at the Museum!

Ready to learn more?Click on the objects to start the activities!

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Click around me to learn about native plants and ecosystems.When you're ready for the activity, press START!

When European settlers came to North America, they brought European plants along with them. Some of these plants were brought over for farming, medicine, or to keep in gardens. Other plants were brought here accidentally because seeds easily mixed with one another. Plants that are not native to an area are known as “invasive species” because they can sometimes harm natural ecosystems by taking up soil, water, and sunshine from other plants. To learn more about invasive species in Ontario, click here!

In a natural ecosystem, plants and animals live together and help each other out! For example, the monarch butterfly and the milkweed plant need each other to survive. The butterfly needs the milkweed to eat, and the milkweed needs the butterfly to pollinate it and help it grow. We have milkweed growing around the museum, and even some monarch caterpillars!

Native plants are good for the environment in many ways. They can help add nutrients into the soil and keep water supplies clean. They are also eaten by animals and insects, which helps keep the ecosystem healthy. Check out the image below showing the root systems of different types of native plants. Having deep roots can help native plants survive floods and droughts, and also help hold the soil together and keep the area that they are planted in stable!

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Make a Seed Bomb!

We are going to make seed bombs to help spread native plants and support pollinators! Press START to begin the activity!

Materials

Hand blender or food processorConstruction paperFlower seedsScissorsBowl to blend inWater

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Step 1:

Cut or shred your construction paper into small pieces and put them in a bowlAdd water so that the paper is covered and let it soak for about 20 minutes.

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Step 2:

Once the paper is soft, plend it with the water.Blend it until it is a pulp-like consistency.

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Step 3:

Mix the seeds into the pulp.

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Step 4:

Squeeze the pulp into a ball. Try to get as much of the water out as possible.

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Step 5:

Form the pulp into a ball and set it out to dry.Plant the seed bombs in your garden!

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Welcome to the Greenhouse! Click around me to learn more!When you're ready for the activity, press START!

Canada has a climate that is constantly changing, which makes it hard for people to grow food here. When settlers arrived, they had trouble learning how to farm in Goulbourn. It was so difficult to live here that early Irish settlers nicknamed the area “Struggletown”! This picture from the Goulbourn Museum collection was taken around 1920. It shows teams of horses and men moving logs in winter.

Plants need light, warm temperatures, air, water, and nutrients to survive and grow. Greenhouses are a great way to help you grow fruits, vegetables, and other plants that wouldn’t normally survive in our Canadian climate. Take a look at this diagram to see how greenhouses work!

People have been growing plants in climate-controlled areas since Roman times! The first modern greenhouse was built in Holland by a man named Charles Lucien Bonaparte in the 1800s. Today, the Netherlands has some of the largest greenhouses in the world. Some of them are so big that they grow millions of fruits and vegetables every year! Check out this picture of giant greenhouses in the Netherlands!

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Build Your Own Greenhouse

Now that we have learned about greenhouses, we are going to make one! Press START to begin the activity!

Materials

Two paper platesPaper towelZiploc bagsStringScissorsBean seedsA staplerColouring materials

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Step 1:

Cut a square out of both of your paper plates to create a window

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Step 2:

Decorate the plates!

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Step 3:

Fold up a piece of paper towel and run it under water so it is damp.

Place the paper towel in your ziploc bag with your bean seeds.

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It's now time to assemble your greenhouse! Place your plastic bag between the paper plates so you can see it through the window.

Then, staple your two plates and the bag together at the top, right above the zipper, and staple the plates together below the bag. Don't staple the bag!

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Step 5:

Make a hole at the top of your greenhouse.

Put string through the hole and tie it so you can hang it

Hang your greenhouse in a sunny window and watch your beans sprout! Once it has sprouted, you can move your bean plant into the garden!

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Click around me to learn about plants in art!When you're ready for the activity, press START!

In the 1800s new scientific discoveries made people excited to learn more about plants, animals, and the world around them. As new people arrived in Canada, they were surprised and excited to find many types of plants they had never seen before. Look at these pictures drawn by a man named Louis Nicolas when he was visiting from France. The drawings were made before 1700, making them some of the oldest colonial images of Canadian wildlife! Do you recognize these animals? You might notice that some of the animals don’t look very realistic. That’s because Louis had never seen them before! Louis Nicolas, Les Amphibies, Les oiseaux, s. d. Encre et aquarelle sur papier, 33,7 x 21,6 cm Codex canadensis, pages 37, 41 Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa, Oklahoma

Catharine Parr Traill was one of the first people to write about the different plants in Canada. Take a look at these pages from one of Catharine Parr Traill’s journals! Do you recognize any of these plants? Images: Jennifer Doubt/Carolyn Leckie, Canadian Museum of Nature. Catalogue: CAN 588170.

Some people, like Catharine Parr Traill, collected plants for science and learning. Other people like to preserve flowers for art. The practice of pressing flowers dates all the way back to Egyptian times! Many people still use natural materials to make their art today. Check out these two videos of artists who use plants and insects in their work! TURNING FLOWERS INTO "INSECTS"? INSECTS AS ART

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Create a Plant Collage!

Lots of people use plants and nature in their art. Today, we are going to make collages with plants! There are three techniques you can use to decorate your artwork, but you can also add your own drawings or words!

Materials

Some plants/leaves PaintPaint brushesCrayonsThin/Printing paper

Before you start: Pick a few colours that work well together and think about your deisgn. You might want to write your name or draw a picture in the middle!

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Leaf Rub

Place a leaf under your paper, with the textured side facing up.Use a crayon to colour over the area, pressing hard to get all of the little details.

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Tracing

Place a leaf on top of your paper and trace around the edge of it.It might move around, so you can hold it down or tape it if you need to!

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Leaf Print

On a scrap piece of paper, put paint directly on your leaf. You can use one colour, or you can mix them! Then, pick it up and place it paint-side-down onto your page. Press it down flat, and peel it off to reveal your leaf print!

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Now you have learned these three techniques, you can use them to decorate your page!

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Click around me to learn about pollinators!When you're ready for the activity, press START!

Pollinators spread pollen between different plants, which helps the plants. Animals like bees, butterflies, and birds are all pollinators! Without pollinators, plants would not be able to grow fruits for us to eat or make seeds to grow more plants! Check out this image of different pollinators hard at work! Can you think of any pollinators that are missing in this picture?

For thousands of years, people have kept bees in hives so they could eat the honey they produce. Honey was so important that European settlers brought honeybees with them to North America as early as the 1600s! Check out this photo from the Osgoode Township Historical Society and Museum's artefact collection of a man tending to a bee box near his farmhouse. Identification number: 2009.151.01

Mason bees are a type of solitary bee that are even better pollinators than honeybees! Can you spot the difference between a honeybee and a mason bee?

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Make a Bee House!

Not all bees live in hives. Some bees, like mason bees or leafcutter bees live in hollow stems or holes in dead wood. For this activity, we are making “houses” for these types of bees. Press START to begin!

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Materials

A clean canCardboard strawsPopsicle sticksScissorsColouring utensilsString

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Step 1

Make sure that your can is clean and dry before you start.Measure out how long to cut your straws by placing them in the can and marking where they stick out.The materials you use need to be shorter than the can so they don't get wet!

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Step 2

Start to fill your can with straws, popsicle sticks, folded paper, and twigs you find on the ground.Make sure nothing sticks out!It should be packed tightly enough so the materials don't move around or fall out.

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Step 3

Decorate the outside of your bee house! The more colour the better, bees are attracted to bright colours!

Step 4

Tie two pieces of string around your bee house, one near the top and one near the bottom.Your bee house should be hung up tightly and securely.

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Step 5

Take time looking for a good location! A bee house should: - BEE somewhere that gets sunlight in the morning - BEE close to flowering plants - BEE somewhere stable where it won't be shaken too much by the wind

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Step 5

You should hang your bee house in Spring 2023 as the bees come out after the winter.When the bees lay their eggs they plug the hole with bits of leaves or mud. Check your bee house in Spring 2024: if you see little holes in the plugs, it means the bees have left and it's safe to take it down!

To learn more about bees and how to care for your bee house, click here!

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Click around me to learn more about the language of flowers!When you're ready for the activity, press START!

For thousands of years, people have thought that different plants had specific meanings. This idea became popular in the 19th century when people began to study and learn about plants in a scientific way. Check out this book from 1895 that talks about the symbolic meanings of Canadian wildflowers: To look through the book, click here!

In the 1800s, people often used flowers to send secret messages to each other. This was called the language of flowers, or “Floriography.” Check out this postcard that shows different types of flowers and their meaning. Do any of these flower’s meanings surprise you? Image: Dumbarton Oaks Archives

Even today, many people think that different flowers have special meanings. For example, a rose is usually a symbol of love and Valentines Day, and poppies often make us think of veterans and Remembrance Day. These Valentine’s Day cards from the Goulbourn Museum’s artefact collection both feature different types of flowers that remind us of love and romance.

Flower Decoder Sheet

For this activity, you will become a detective and decode a secret message using flowers!

Click here to download!

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