Here is an interesting and humorous philosophical take on our relationships with plants. Author Michael Pollon hints that maybe it’s the plants that are controlling us! Watch at https://ed.ted.com/lessons/a-plant-s-eye-view-michael-pollan Again we thank Tower Hill Botanic Garden for the recommendation.
Ever since Tower Hill hosted the Growbots exhibition back in October 2019, Marketing and Communications Assistant Emma Witbeck has been thinking about how plants communicate. Well, Camille Defrenne and Suzanne Simard provide the answer for trees, animated into a wholesome video that shows how connected a forest really is. Watch at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4m9SefyRjg
The second in Tower Hill Botanic Garden’s recommendations for plant themed TED talks is How To Grow a Forest in Your Backyard. If you are looking for something beyond just a small, sporadic garden, why not grow an entire forest! Engineer and eco-entrepenuer Shubhendu Sharma has turned forest creation into a career and an art, but anyone can start their own wooded paradise with a little helping hand from Mother Nature. Forests don’t have to be far-flung nature reserves, isolated from human life. Instead, we can grow them right where we are — even in cities. Eco-entrepreneur and TED Fellow Shubhendu Sharma grows ultra-dense, biodiverse mini-forests of native species in urban areas by engineering soil, microbes and biomass to kickstart natural growth processes. Follow along as he describes how to grow a 100-year-old forest in just 10 years, and learn how you can get in on this tiny jungle party. Visit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjUsobGWhs8
Join The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum for its annual series of engaging and inspirational presentations from leading voices in the field of landscape architecture. Internationally renowned designers present their recent work articulating landscape as a medium of design for the social, cultural, and ecological life of the city.
On Thursday, September 14, the 2017/2018 season kicks off with a lecture by Kate Orff. Kate Orff is the founder and design director of SCAPE, a firm focusing on landscape architecture, broadly construed. She has designed projects across the United States and internationally. She lectures widely in the U.S. and abroad on the topic of urban landscape and new paradigms of thinking, collaborating and designing for the anthropocene era. A recent TED talk on Reviving New York’s Rivers with Oysters has been viewed over 300,000 times. Kate sees the oyster as an agent of urban change. Bundled into beds and sunk into city rivers, oysters slurp up pollution and make legendarily dirty waters clean — thus driving even more innovation in “oyster-tecture.” Orff shares her vision for an urban landscape that links nature and humanity for mutual benefit.
Landscape Lectures begin at 7 pm in Calderwood Hall. Lectures include Museum admission and require a ticket; tickets can be reserved online, in person at the door, or by phone: 617 278 5156. Museum admission: adults $15, seniors $12, students $5, free for members. Landscape and Horticulture public programs are supported by the Barbara E. Millen and Markley H. Boyer Endowment Fund. These programs also are supported in part by the Massachusetts Cultural Council, which receives support from the State of Massachusetts and the National Endowment for the Arts. Photo courtesy of www.architecturaldigest.com.
