Galaxy Lawn

An overlay of an image of the Galaxy onto our front lawn to mock up and use as a guide for the positioning of the Galaxy Lawn

A project currently in development at House of Wonder is to create a Galaxy Lawn. The idea is to create the image of our galaxy on the front lawn using a mixture of common lawn flowers. The lawn will provide a sense of both the scale and placement of our solar system we call home, within the wider context of our galaxy, with the side benefit of providing some additional sustenance for pollinators. Daisies are right now in production (being cultivated separately) to be planted out on daisy/flower-only areas of the front lawn, to represent the different ‘arms’ of the Milky Way Galaxy. Other potential lawn flowers are also being investigated.

This project was inspired by the Galaxy Garden created by Jon Lomberg at the Paleaku Peace Gardens Sanctuary in Hawaii. Andrew Buckingham of the Auckland Astronomy Society (AAS) had first pointed me to this project, following Jon’s recent visit to New Zealand and his presentation of his wider work to the Society. There is currently discussion for the AAS to develop a Galaxy Garden for the Southern Hemisphere in an Auckland Park. Failing this implementation, House of Wonder is offering the space at Miranda for a potential garden in the future.

Meanwhile, The Keeper of the House wishes to play with the idea of creating a smaller scale representation, and to provide project documentation so that others who might also have a lawn to play with, might be helped along in creating their own Galaxy Lawn, should they so desire.

 

 

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