Join our partners at The New York Botanical Garden for a Horticulture Symposium.
The great American naturalist Aldo Leopold said, “Ethical behavior is doing the right thing when no one else is watching—even when doing the wrong thing is legal.” Consider what “ethics” means in the context of gardening at our morning symposium. Leopold’s granddaughter Susan Freeman, her husband Scott, designer Larry Weiner, and horticulture activist Jan Merryweather will discuss their work in ecological restoration, landscape design, and organizing. You’ll feel empowered and inspired to become part of the shift toward a “new garden ethic.”
Our gardens are places of beauty, sources of food, and expressions of our creativity. They are also windows into the magic of nature and are inextricably connected to the natural world that sustains us. But can our gardens help clean our air and water, sustain wild plants and animals, and restore ecosystem heath? In this symposium three distinguished speakers explore how our gardening practices can satisfy our desire to create bountiful beauty while helping heal the larger environment. We'll end with a panel discussion and a Q&A with the audience.
Integrating Restoration Techniques and Garden Design
Award-winning landscape designer Larry Weaner discusses techniques for gracefully integrating native plants and ecological processes to create diverse, low- maintenance gardens. The author of Garden Revolution, Weaner's design and restoration work has been profiled in The New York Times, Garden Design, and The Wall Street Journal, among other publications.
Saving Tarboo Creek: A Case Study in Ecological Restoration
Scott Freeman shares lessons he has learned on the massive restoration project he and his wife, Susan, lead in Washington, where they are transforming a badly damaged creek into a meandering stream that supports abundant wildlife again. A lecturer at the University of Washington, Freeman has authored biology and ecology textbooks now in their six editions, as well as the newly published Saving Tarboo Creek.
PlantRight: Growing Healthier Landscapes Starts in Our Gardens
Jan Merryweather, Program Director at Sustainable Conservation, shares how their PlantRight initiative has built a robust network of volunteers, retailers, horticultural and landscape leaders, and state agencies—all working together to keep invasive plants out of California nurseries, gardens, and wildlands. PlantRight's success is based on a collaborative, science-based, and voluntary approach to solving environmental problems in ways that make economic sense.
CEUs available: LACES, APLD, NY CNLP, NJ CNLP, and SER CERP.
