The American Horticultural Society invites you to hear a virtual presentation on January 19 at 2 pm Eastern with Noel Kingsbury, PhD, author and garden designer, on New Nature for a Climate Change Future.
In a world of dramatically changing climate, garden and landscape design must conserve biodiversity as well as provide habitat for humans. Renowned author and garden designer Noel Kingsbury will guide participants in discovering models and approaches to accomplish these gardening goals. We will look at the range of nature-inspired planting created in recent years, captured in powerful images by leading photographer Claire Takacs, while examining how and why these designs and plant choices support nature.
Noel Kingsbury is an internationally known innovator, writer, and teacher in the fields of gardening and planting design. His doctoral scholarship analyzes the long-term performance of perennials, which he continues to research and disseminate in practitioner workshops. Kingsbury has published 25 books, including New Perennial Design that launched a movement in naturalistic planting design, and four publications with Dutch designer Piet Oudolf.
In a world of dramatically changing climate, garden and landscape design must conserve biodiversity as well as provide habitat for humans. Renowned author and garden designer Noel Kingsbury will guide American Horticultural Society participants in discovering models and approaches to accomplish these gardening goals. We will look at the range of nature-inspired planting created in recent years, captured in powerful images by leading photographer Claire Takacs, while examining how and why these designs and plant choices support nature. $10 for AHS members, $15 for nonmembers. Register at https://ahsgardening.org/lifelong-learning/new-nature-for-a-climate-change-future/
Noel Kingsbury is an internationally known innovator, writer, and teacher in the fields of gardening and planting design. His doctoral scholarship analyzes the long-term performance of perennials, which he continues to research and disseminate in practitioner workshops. Kingsbury has published 25 books, including New Perennial Designthat launched a movement in naturalistic planting design, and four publications with Dutch designer Piet Oudolf.
This is the second lecture in a six-week series of lectures which will look at the history and development of garden technology from Medieval times right up to the present day. The ‘technology’ of gardening has developed enormously over the past centuries due to mechanization, automation, advances in science – and we can now grow plants without soil, we have automated watering systems for our greenhouses and we can watch while the robot mower, controlled from our smartphones, trims our lawns to perfection. But although we may approach them differently, the tasks and challenges that face gardeners today are much the same as they were back in Tudor times and earlier: preparing the soil, planting, protecting, composting, propagating and so on and so on. The rise in the organic movement over the past few decades has reminded us that the gardeners of old knew at least as much about gardening and working in harmony with nature as we do now, so how have new technologies developed and progressed our gardening knowledge, practice, and techniques?
The Gardens Trust has engaged a series of expert speakers to examine this question, including the renowned garden writer and designer, Noel Kingsbury, National Trust curator James Rothwell, expert on lawnmowers through the ages Keith Wootton, as well as regular Gardens Trust lecturers Jill Francis and our very own David Marsh; who will take a different technology in turn – tools, fertilizers, pest control, glasshouses, lawnmowers and plant breeding – and explore their history and development in relation to gardening.
Speaker Noel Kingsbury will cover Plant Breeding on February 28. We owe our survival to plant breeding, the ability to produce productive, disease-resistant and resilient crops. This presentation outlines the basics of how we learnt the basics of plant genetics and applied them to the crops that feed us, along the way producing vast numbers of new varieties for our gardens. Although focused on edible crops, we’ll be introduced to some of the key breeders of ornamental garden plants: their plants and their methods. Attendees will be sent a Zoom link 2 days prior to the start of the talk, and again a few hours before the talk (If you do not receive this link please contact us). A link to the recorded session will be sent shortly after each session and will be available for 1 week. Tickets £24 or £5 each through Eventbrite. Register HERE.
Noel Kingsbury is best-known as a writer on gardens, plants and especially as a promotor of ecological planting design. Along the way he has written about garden plant history and developed unfashionable thoughts about how we feed ourselves, including Hybrid: The History and Science of Plant Breeding(University of Chicago Press, 2009).
Planting design today is undergoing a revolution. With an increased focus on sustainability, private gardens and public spaces alike have embraced naturalistic planting, a movement that is rooted in environmental reality and prioritizes ethical concerns over geometric precision. Using breathtaking images from their new book, Wild: The Naturalistic Garden, renowned garden designer Noel Kingsbury and award-winning photographer Claire Takacs will explore a range of forward-thinking green spaces that are wild by nature, including iconic, high-profile public projects by Piet Oudolf and Bernard Trainor, privately owned gardens, and NYBG’s Native Plant Garden. The lecture is $25 for New York Botanical Garden members, $29 for nonmembers.
Purchase a copy of Wild: The Naturalistic Garden along with your ticket for 10% off the retail price + free shipping. If you would like to receive the book in time for the event on June 8, please purchase your ticket/book by Monday, May 23. All copies ordered after May 23 will arrive within two weeks following the event.
The “marginal garden” explores the boundaries between the wild and the cultivated, particularly the interface of where native plant species meet naturalizing garden ones. Such places have ideally achieved a reasonably stable co-existence. Marginal gardens, including Innisfree, can be exciting and surprising, and can challenge our conceptions of both what ‘nature’ and ‘cultivation’ are.
However, like any natural or semi-natural habitat they are never completely stable. Their creation and management requires the insights, knowledge and skills of both horticulture and ecology, and suggests strongly we need a new profession that brings these two areas, formerly separate, together. We also need to look critically and objectively at our management techniques, particularly for managing invasive species, and ask how these can be used to enhance the biodiverse marginal garden.
Presenter Noel Kingsbury is a renowned planting-design consultant and writer on gardens and naturalistic planting, with over 20 books to his name. Noting that “few garden writers are as prolific or as influential,” Noel has been called ”the great chronicler of contemporary planting design…this generation’s Gertrude Stein.” His newest book, Wild: The Naturalistic Garden(Phaidon, March 2022) profiles gardens around the world including Innisfree. www.noelkingsbury.com
This is the first in Innisfree Garden’s 2022 Lecture Series, Romanticism at Innisfree: Nature as Muse. The public programs will explore the wide-ranging cultural and artistic embodiments of Romantic ideals and their impact on Innisfree Garden. Held as a lunchtime virtual series on Wednesdays at 1 pm Eastern time, they are free to all Innisfree members, $15 for the general public, or $75 for the series (one free lecture) Register now.
Noel Kingsbury, the author of Planting: A New Perspective shares his understanding of the naturalistic approach to planting design of landscape designers such as Piet Oudolf, Cassian Schmidt, Thomas Rainer, and Sarah Price. This Saturday, March 18 introduction to the naturalistic style explains the basic philosophy behind the practice of selecting plants for the ecology of the site and gives us lessons on how to create a landscape that looks natural and responsive to site, while also having the long season of interest that gardeners desire. Using his own extraordinary photographs, Kingsbury will illustrate the techniques used in creating these planting designs, with examples of his own work and that of the renowned Dutch garden designer Piet Oudolf.
Noel Kingsbury is an internationally known writer about plants, gardens, and the environment. Best-known for his promotion of what is broadly called an ecological or naturalistic approach to planting design, he has written some 20 books on various aspects of plants and gardens, 3 of them in collaboration with Dutch designer and plantsman Piet Oudolf. Over the years he has written for Gardens Illustrated, The Daily Telegraph, The Guardian, The Garden, Hortus, The New York Times, and many other publications. He also teaches and is a garden/planting designer and horticultural consultant.
Advance registration is highly recommended, but walk-ins are always welcome, space permitting. BBG members $30, nonmembers $35. Register at www.berkshirebotanical.org. The lecture takes place at Berkshire Botanical Garden, Stockbridge, Massachusetts from 1 – 2:30 pm.
This half-day Berkshire Botanical Garden workshop on Saturday, March 18 from 9 – noon aims to encourage participants to observe garden and landscape plants, focusing on their growth through the season and over the years, looking at how they compete with each other, and assessing prospects for their longevity and their suitability for a variety of garden locations. Noel Kingsbury addresses questions about how the garden will evolve: How long will plants live? How far will they spread? How will a newly planted border look in five years, or ten years?Gardeners and designers can then use this knowledge to maximize garden interest while minimizing maintenance. This workshop teaches participants about how plants are linked to their natural habitats and ecology, and how this connects to the way gardeners can use such plants in the garden to best effect. Students will walk away with a rabbit’s eye view—a perspective that will enable them, through close observation of growing habits and life cycles of various plants, to be better gardeners and designers, and to more deeply appreciate the traits of the plants that they grow.
The price ($75 BBG members, $85 nonmembers) of this workshop includes admission to the 1pm lecture, Wild about Perennials with Noel Kingsbury, on the same day. The workshop is limited in size and is likely to sell out. Reservations will be taken on a first-come, first-served basis. A bagged lunch can be ordered separately for an additional fee. Please call 413-298-3926 to order lunch.
The Harvard Graduate School of Design will conduct a panel discussion on Tuesday, March 7 from 6:30 – 8:30 in Gund Hall, Piper Auditorium, Quincy Street in Cambridge.
Plant life, long regarded in cities as an amenity, has throughout the twentieth and twenty-first centuries also become an accepted necessity integral to the urban fabric. Yet, there are multiple challenges facing plants and planting design in urban areas. Pollution, climate change, increasingly restricted space, and insufficient or nonexistent public budgets for plants are only some of the factors that make it difficult for vegetation in our cities to survive. Yet numerous new public urban parks have been created, tree planting programs persist, new plant cultivars are developed, spontaneous plant growth is studied, and new planting design paradigms are proposed.
In a series of short presentations and a moderated discussion, landscape architects, planting designers, and ecologists will assess the current state of the art in planting the public realm. The event seeks to draw out ideas for how plants can be used in the future design of urbanizing areas to create healthy, sustainable, inclusive, and appealing environments. What is the importance of planting the public realm today, and what are its biggest challenges? What are the roles of landscape architects, designers, ecologists, and plant scientists in accommodating plant life in cities and in areas that are becoming urbanized, and are we beyond botanical xenophobia? Moderated by author Sonja Dümpelmann, associate professor of landscape architecture, with Steven Handel, visiting professor in landscape architecture; Noel Kingsbury, writer and garden designer; Norbert Kühn, TU Berlin; Doug Reed MLA ’81, lecturer in landscape; and Matthew Urbanski MLA ’89, associate professor in practice of landscape architecture.
Anyone requiring accessibility accommodations should contact the events office at (617) 496-2414 or events@gsd.harvard.edu. The event is free and open to the public.
The Ecological Landscape Alliance presents the 23rd Annual ELA Conference & Eco-Marketplace on March 8 and 9 at University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Explore topics ranging from the role of aesthetics in ecological restoration to the carnivore’s role in the soil foodweb as we look for ways to design, build, and restore the landscape.
March 8 includes:
* Two workshops: The Power of Plants and Artful Stormwater Design
* Keynote speaker: Noel Kingsbury, international, master plantsman and author
Keynote Address: The Evolution of the Ecological Planting Design
March 9 features eight Sessions and four Idea Exchanges covering a range of ecological topics including:
* Landscapes as a Source of Environmental Change
* The Art of Gardening -Techniques from Chanticleer
* The Science of Soil Biology During Extended Drought
* Native Grass and Wildflower Seeding
Immerse yourself in this two-day exploration of principles and practices that support the living landscape.
Full conference brochure and registration information is available at www.ecolandscaping.org.
The Nantucket Garden Festival is back. Events are located downtown, under the tent at the Dreamland Theater Lot, at the Nantucket Lighthouse School, 1 Rugged Road, and in private island gardens. Complete details and registration opportunities may be found at www.nantucketgardenfestival.com.
Thursday, July 22, 2010
* A guided tour of four different ways to keep chickens
* A hands-on workshop with Amy Pallenberg on late summer container gardening
* Back by popular demand: A tour of three notable but very different vegetable gardens
* A late summer container competition, judged by the Nantucket Garden Club
* Opening Night Preview and Party featuring the many wonderful vendors in our Garden Marketplace !
Friday, July 23, 2010
* Early Bird Garden Marketplace with continental breakfast
* The Garden Marketplace
* An early morning tour of a very special seaside garden, hosted by Stephen Orr
* A talk by Noel Kingsbury on the ‘natural garden’
* A talk by Dean Riddle on context in gardening
* A hands-on Obelisk workshop with Janice Shields of Cut It Out
* A tour of three contemporary West End gardens with marvelous views
* A garden based workshop with Noel Kingsbury, from a rabbit’s point of view
* “Know your Geophytes!”: Russell Stafford’s talk about creative ways to use bulbs
* A Monomoy Garden Tour in the late afternoon with wine and cheese
* Dinner Alfresco and talk with Russ and Marian Morash
Saturday, July 24, 2010
* The Garden Marketplace
* A hands-on Trellis workshop with Janice Shields of Cut It Out
* A composting workshop with Katie Hemingway
* An interactive discussion with David Berry of Nantucket Honey Bee Co. on keeping bees
* Small group tours of island bee hives with David Berry
* Tracy DiSabato-Aust’s luncheon lecture on the Well-Designed Mixed Garden
* A garden tour focused on contrast, ending in a rarely visited garden where guests will linger over wine and cheese
Children’s Workshops:
Friday, July 23, 2010
* Create a Garden Fairy House (Kinderclass teacher Barrie Sanders)
* Make a Garden Mobile with found items (Primary teacher Erin Dancik)
Saturday, July 24, 2010
* Make a Mosaic Flower Pot (Kinderclass teacher Monika Geerling with ceramicist Nell Van Vorst)
* Birds of the Garden: stitch and adorn a colorful bird for your garden (Lighthouse School co-founder, Lizbet Carroll Fuller)
