Start Date
10/30/2024
End Date
10/30/2025
Description
The Boston chapter has a longstanding partnership with Grow Native Massachusetts. This annual spring lecture series, Evenings with Experts, does just that: bring national experts to speak about topics related to native plants and ecology as relates to the work of landscape architects and designers. These workshops are recorded in a live (virtual) presentation and then available online for the next year.
SESSION DESCRIPTION
We are entering an era of purposeful and thoughtful gardening, where we strive to create landscapes that are both aesthetically beautiful and ecologically vibrant. Wild plant communities are a prime source of inspiration for naturalistic design, and understanding how plants interact and function within these environments is key to establishing successful plantings at any scale. Join author and hort-ecologist Kelly Norris in an exploration of North American wild plant communities and the flora within them. He will share how he interprets native ecosystems in the design of beautiful and functional residential landscapes, with plant layers and palettes defined by nature, not humans.
Kelly D. Norris is the author of New Naturalism: Designing and Planting a Resilient, Ecologically Vibrant Home Garden (February 2021), and previously served as the Director of Horticulture and Education for the Greater Des Moines Botanical Garden.
Distance Learning
Yes
Course Equivalency
No
Subjects
Horticulture / Plants
Health, Safety and Welfare
Yes
Hours
1.50
Learning Outcomes
• Learn about Kelly Norris vision for the future of home gardening—landscapes designed and planted to support positive environmental change, increase biodiversity, and convey nature’s inherent beauty—as described in his new book, New Naturalism.
• Explore several wild plant communities from North America that can serve as inspiration for naturalistic designs, and understand the key structural and ecological dynamics of these communities that must be incorporated into designs in order to create resilient plantings.
• See how this can be done even in compact, urban settings with examples from landscapes Kelly has designed and installed.
Instructors
Kelly D. Norris, author New Naturalism; & (former) director of horticulture, Greater Des Moines Botanical Garden
Course Codes
Provider
Boston Society of Landscape Architects