Landscape Lessons Learned: The Educational Value of "Mistakes"

Start Date

11/19/2025

End Date

11/19/2027

Description

An old horticultural adage, “You don’t really know a plant until you’ve killed it,” suggests that gardeners can learn as much from their mistakes as their successes. In 1982, when Larry founded his landscape design-build firm, little practical guidance was available for translating landscape ecology into designed environments. Consequently, the need to experiment was instrumental in developing some of the protocols that guide his
practice today. But as is the way with experiments, not all yielded the expected result. In this session Larry will show how these wayward experiments led to more effective protocols. His presentation will help attendees to skip over the “experimental” and proceed directly to the “proven.” He will also illustrate how to insert small experiments
into landscape projects, allowing the learning process to continue indefinitely.

Distance Learning

Yes

Course Equivalency

Subjects

Horticulture / Plants

Health, Safety and Welfare

Yes

Hours

1.25

Learning Outcomes

Learn how to anticipate the vegetative results of various landscape design, planting, and management processes based on a better understanding of ecological process.
Learn to access research from the discipline of restoration ecology in order to increase the effectiveness of landscape design, planting, and management protocols.
Learn how to incorporate small vegetative experimentation into larger landscape projects without jeopardizing the overall success of the project.

Instructors

Larry Weaner, FAPLD

Course Codes

Provider

New Directions in the American Landscape

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