This seven-part in-person Berkshire Botanical Garden course will introduce students to the design process—the systematic way designers approach a site and client. Taught by Tyler Horsley, this course will include a series of simple projects, ending with a garden designed by the students. Learn design principles such as form, balance, repetition, line, texture, color and spatial relationships. Additionally, students will be introduced to history and how it helps the designer resolve and inspire garden design. As the adage goes, we cannot escape our history, so we have to understand where we came from. Classes start March 3 and continue through April 14, from 5:30 – 8.
A New York City resident for 30 years, Tyler Horsley was a member of the Green Guerrillas and the 6th Street and Avenue B Community Garden in the East Village. He holds a Master of Architecture degree from the University of Virginia and a Certificate in Horticulture from the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. He created Tyler Horsley Garden Design, LLC in 2005 and has since moved to Hudson, NY, where he joined Wagner Hodgson Landscape Architecture. $215 for BBG members, $240 for nonmembers. Register at https://www.berkshirebotanical.org/events/landscape-design-i
Do you have an idea for green space in your neighborhood. If you are interested in becoming a 2026 Community Client of GOGdesign (Community Outreach Group for Landscape Design), apply now at https://cogdesign.org/community-app/. The 2026 application process is in full swing.
Grow Native Massachusetts hosts Evan Abramson on February 11 at 7 pm at the Cambridge Public Library, 449 Broadway in Cambridge. Cities, towns and watersheds have a vital role to play in strengthening, expanding and enhancing regional biodiversity, ecological health, and climate resilience. On sidewalks, parks, campuses, working lands, conservation properties, front lawns and backyard gardens, functionally diverse native pollinator habitat can serve as a building block for linking intact natural areas across a fragmented landscape. But what to plant, where to focus on first and how to measure the results? Evan Abramson of Landscape Interactions will present a series of case studies from project sites across the Northeast. An interactive discussion with audience members will follow. The program is free and open to all.
Evan Abramson is a results-driven designer and planner on a mission to rebuild biologically diverse ecosystems through pollinator-plant interactions. As Principal of Landscape Interactions, he works closely with project partners on every step of the process, from conception to design, implementation, and maintenance. Since 2019, his firm has been responsible for over 380 acres of habitat installed in the Northeast, specifically targeting at-risk bees and Lepidoptera at each project location.
This Berkshire Botanical Garden course, offered Saturdays, December 14 and 21, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., teaches students how to design a planting plan for private and public garden spaces. Explore the manipulation of space by using plant material through a series of exercises dealing with form, color, and texture. Students will consider the nature of plant characteristics in specific design settings. Style of house will be used for a source of inspiration while honoring the horticultural needs of each plant. Students will make presentations for each project, and class critiques will be positive, instructive, and essential to the learning process. This is a participatory class and will include completing various design projects throughout the course. Taught by Tom Smith of Springfield Technical Community College.
Tom Smith teaches at Springfield Technical Community College. His past career adventures include precision machining, HVAC ductwork fabricator, installer and apprentice service technician, and the U.S. Navy. He also wore many ‘hats’ within a small landscape company as a designer, estimator, salesperson, horticulturist, and construction crew leader.
The Harvard Graduate School of Design presents the Aga Khan Program Lecture on October 22 in Gund Hall’s Piper Auditorium in Cambridge. Jala Makhzoumi will speak on Landscape, Garden, and a Colonial Legacy. The program is free and open to the public. Complete details may be found at www.gsd.harvard.edu
Jala Makhzoumi’s search for a grounded language on landscape architecture relies in great part on the search for Arabic terms that capture the complexity of the layered English meaning of “landscape.” Until then, we must contend with inadequate translations—and sometimes transliterations—that reduce “landscape” to scenery and narrow the professional scope of the landscape architect to urban beautification. Moving away from the “borrowed” landscapes in cities, we encounter “rooted” conceptions in rural cultures. These ideas have endured over time and are in tune with the regional ecology and cultural values. Here, we find many iterations of “landscape,” even if they can’t be captured in a single word. For example, the traditional house garden typology, the hakura, which originated in the eastern Mediterranean, combines production and pleasure and is grounded in a love of nature and caring for the land. Can these examples inform and inspire a contextualized landscape architecture in the Middle East and beyond?
Jala Makhzoumi is an adjunct professor of landscape architecture at the American University of Beirut, and Acting President of the International Federation of Landscape Architects, the Middle East Region. Teaching and practicing in a region where landscape architecture is still an emerging profession has brought many challenges but freed Jala to engender a definition of landscape architecture that is responsive to the ecological, socio-cultural, and political context of the region. She applies this contextual landscape approach to the conservation of natural and cultural heritage, to framing human rights and citizenship and in her approach to postwar recovery.
Her publications include Ecological Landscape Design and Planning: The Mediterranean Context,co-author Pungetti, The Right to Landscape: Contesting Landscape and Human Rights,co-editors Egoz and Pungetti, and Horizon 101, a collection of paintings and prose, reflections on landscape and identity. Jala is the recipient of the Tamayouz Women in Architecture and Construction Award (2013), was profiled by the Aga Khan Women Architects (2014), received the Lifetime Achievement Award of the European Council of Landscape Architecture Schools (2019) and is the 2021 laureate of the IFLA Sir Geoffrey Jellicoe Award for her outstanding contribution to education and practice in landscape architecture.
Studio Lily Kwong’s practice sits at the intersection between horticulture, urban design, contemporary art, and climate awareness with a mission to reconnect people to ecology through transformative landscape projects and site-specific art installations. This American Horticultural Society talk on October 16 at 7 pm will focus on the studio’s philosophy and its unique approach of using plant life as an artistic medium, using exhibitions The Orchid Show: Natural Heritage and an upcoming public art piece for Madison Square Park as examples of works that embody the inspirations and goals of SLK’s projects. $15 for AHS members, $20 for nonmembers.
We will also delve into process – Studio Lily Kwong’s commitment to ecological work starts with our commitment to materials and community. From initial concept development through build, use and end of life, the materials and practices used for our programs are ethically sourced, executed, reused and recycled. In addition to exploring the philosophical framework of our projects, we will also share the technical and logistical aspects of approach that make our pieces thrive and grow.
LA-based Artist Lily Kwong works at the intersection between horticulture, urban design, contemporary art, and climate awareness, reconnecting people to nature through transformative landscape projects and site-specific botanical art installations.
Kwong has been part of numerous public art initiatives since beginning her practice in 2017, including botanical installations at The Highline, NY; Faena Arts, Miami; Grand Central Station, NY; Salone del Mobile, Milan; EXPO CHICAGO, Chicago; and many more. Most recently, she made history as the first female & person of color to take on the role of guest designer for the New York Botanical Garden’s 20th anniversary orchid show – The Orchid Show: Natural Heritage focused on Lily’s Chinese roots & broke attendance records with 265,000 visitors throughout the show’s 3-month run in 2023. She has received numerous accolades for her work: ARCHMARATHON & Dezeen Awards in 2020 for Glossier Seattle, and the World Spa Awards for Shou Sugi Ban House in East Hampton, NY. Kwong has also featured on the Forbes 30 Under 30 under the Art & Style Category in 2018 and ELLE Decor’s A-List. She has been selected to speak at MOCA, The Aspen Ideas Festival, The World Youth Forum, Design Miami and NeueHouse.
Kwong graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Columbia University’s Urban Studies program in 2012 and participated in the certificate program at the New York Botanical Gardens in 2017. She was a fellow at the Academy of Global Humanities & Critical Theory in Bologna, Italy (2019) and part of the New Museum’s incubator program NEW INC from 2018-2020.
Recognizing her efforts, Kwong was named one of ‘9 Young New Yorkers Poised for Creative Greatness’ by The New York Times and her work has been featured in the New Yorker, Vogue, Architectural Digest, Domino, Forbes, Fast Company and more. She previously served as Landscape Editor for Cultured magazine, where she profiled legends in her field from Agnes Denes to Fernando Caruncho.
Native plants are beautiful, drought-resistant, and beneficial to wildlife, but how do you make them look their best in your home landscape? Learn design principles and native plant selection in this free two-part workshop sponsored by conservation@home, Illinois Extension of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and Forest Preserves of Cook County. Register at https://go.illinois.edu/NativeLandscapes
Landscape design inspiration begins with observation of diverse natural settings, systems, and functions. We can learn from landscapes such as layered woodlands, succession meadows, and oceanside areas to address a spectrum of gardening conditions. Together we will learn how to partner with natural systems for healthy, beautiful landscapes; mimic nature’s processes in our own gardens; and make ecologically sound plant choices that will attract pollinators throughout the seasons. Join the American Horticultural Association’s Lifelong Learning program on Wednesday, October 18 at 7 pm Eastern online to hear Marie Chieppo speak of these issues. $10 AHS members, $15 nonmembers. Register at www.ahsgardening.org
Marie Chieppo is a landscape designer who works with nature and interconnecting systems to enhance biodiversity and the overall health of the environment. With an initial background in public health policy and research, she has designed beautiful resilient landscapes for over twenty years through her business, EcoPlantPlans. Her most recent work focuses on sustainable solutions for plastic plant containers. Chieppo is an Ecological Landscape Designer and Accredited Organic Land Care Professional.
Pacific Horticulture will sponsor a Zoom presentation on April 12 at 3 pm Eastern, 12 noon Pacific, on Culture & Place: The Art of Process-led Design, with Xanthe White.This webinar is part of the Multidisciplinary Approaches to Resilient Landscapes Event in collaboration with Garden Masterclass.
Xanthe White is a New Zealand designer second to none in her ability to articulate design issues. She uses the process of design itself as a key to her work. Pacific region gardeners and designers will appreciate White’s passion for connecting people to nature and sense of place and for integrating native plants of conservation importance into garden spaces.
“The art of garden design is always interwoven into the context of culture and place. It is these unique parameters which define the infinite variable outcomes of a garden. While these infinite possibilities might make the creation of a garden seem endless and overwhelming design is a process which guides us through a site to find the limitations and parameters. It is within the creation of these boundaries that a garden emerges. Process lead design can be applied to any place or situation to guide you to a destination woven with the unique magic of the occupier and the place of occupation.”
This Native Plant Trust online course teaches the basics of designing with native plants and shows how to incorporate native plants into the garden and landscape. Discover the variety of native plants found throughout New England and learn how to design a visually interesting landscape that also supports biodiversity. You can complete the course at your own pace. It typically takes at least 12 hours to complete. Download the syllabus. Course access is available from April 25 – September 12. $80 for NPT members, $98 for nonmembers. Register at http://www.nativeplanttrust.org/events/designing-native-plants-self-paced-online/
