All Scheduled Programs
Landscaping with Nature:
Turning Battles into Partnerships
A 4-part Virtual Intensive Course for Home Gardeners
Individual Sessions:
Meadow Making:
A Brains Over Brawn Approach
A 4-part Virtual Intensive Course for Home Gardeners
Individual Sessions:
Upcoming:
Ecology-based Landscape Practice
A 7-part Virtual Intensive Course for Professionals
Individual Sessions:
Previously Held Live:
(Register to view recordings for 3 months from live date)
Landscaping with Nature: Turning Battles into Partnerships | Session 1 of 4 | Design
Larry Weaner, FAPLD
Designing with site-adapted native plants is a good thing, but designing with the ecological processes that govern those plants in the wild is even better. Our opening session will examine a series of garden-relevant concepts from the ecological sciences including plant community, plant proliferation, competition, and ecological succession. Each concept will be defined and followed by a concrete example of its incorporation into a residential design. While rarely considered in traditional garden design, these ecological characteristics are actually key to achieving the environmental, aesthetic, and maintenance promise of ecology-based garden design.
6:00 - 7:15 PM ET
Intensive Course Session 5 of 7 | The Canopied Landscape: Woodlands, Edges, & Hedgerows
Professional Virtual Intensive Course
Instructor: Larry Weaner, FAPLD
An ecology-based approach to woodland design is more like guiding a vegetative process than implementing a static planting plan. Guided succession can foster the orderly transformation from an open field to a multi-tiered forest through planting, managed natural recruitment, or a combination of the two. Under existing canopy, where few herbaceous species can be established through direct seeding, we will discuss the planting of small “seed source colonies,” and management strategies to encourage their proliferation into the larger landscape. Management techniques that are unique to woodlands including selective height cutting, sunlight manipulation, and assisted seed dispersal, will also be described in detail.
Registration is open and the recording is viewable for 3 months after the live session date.
Meadow Making: A Brains Over Brawn Approach | Session 1 of 4 | Design
Larry Weaner, FAPLD
In our opening session we will illustrate how to select the meadow plants that are most likely to thrive on your property as well as fit your aesthetic and practical preferences. This will include guidance for site analysis, seed mix formulation, and the potential to hasten meadow development through the supplemental addition of live plants.
6:00 - 7:15 PM ET
Registration includes Sessions 1 - 4.
Landscaping with Nature: Turning Battles into Partnerships | Session 2 of 4: Planting |
Larry Weaner, FAPLD
In this session we will learn how “light touch” planting techniques can increase plant survival and reduce post-planting maintenance. The disturbance that results from deep digging, soil enhancement, and soil replacement always stimulates a flush of weeds. Applying fertilizer helps those weeds grow faster. In this session we will learn to match the plant to the soil, not the soil to the plant, an approach that avoids weed-enacting soil disturbance and places plants in soils that are familiar and conducive to their survival. We will also discuss how to select nursery plants that are most likely to thrive and proliferate in your landscape.
6:00 - 7:15 PM ET
Intensive Course Session 6 of 7 | Plants of the Canopied Landscape: Woodlands, Edges, & Hedgerows
Professional Virtual Intensive Course
Instructor: Ian Caton
In this session, native plant authority Ian Caton will examine plants of the canopied landscape that exemplify the ecological characteristics described by Larry Weaner in previous sessions. His presentation will include plants found at all of the woodland’s vertical layers, from canopy to understory. He will also discuss their specific abilities to integrate with the unique colonization strategies inherent in woodland development and enhancement. Finally, Ian will present a group of “workhorse” native species for the woodland, including those that combine reliability with desirable aesthetic characteristics.
Registration is open and the recording is viewable for 3 months after the live session date.
Ecology and Beauty: DIY Strategies for Creating a Landscape Full of Life (Spring Virtual Series)
Sarah F. Jayne
As the biodiversity crisis deepens, what you do matters. If you are eager to boost the ecological value of your own landscape or a community space, this fast-paced, practical workshop is for you. We’ll look at beginner to advanced strategies and resources for protecting the wildlife on your property; making room for ecologically beneficial plants; choosing the specific plants that your local caterpillars, native bees, and birds require for survival; procuring plants on a budget; and designing and caring for attractive plantings with wildlife in mind, all while ensuring community acceptance for a more natural landscape. Along with a detailed handout, you’ll come away inspired and empowered to fill your landscape with life.
Fee: $42
Meadow Making: A Brains Over Brawn Approach | Session 2 of 4 | Planting
Larry Weaner, FAPLD and Sara Weaner Cooper
From rototilling to fertilizing, many garden planting techniques are actually counterproductive when it comes to meadow making. In this session we will illustrate how to sow meadow seeds and plant live plants in a manner that puts them in a position to succeed without the intensive maintenance requirements of turf grass or traditional gardens. This session will also include a brief presentation by Sara Weaner Cooper who will describe her chemical-free/no kill lawn-to-meadow transition project, now in its highly successful second year.
6:00 - 7:15 PM ET
Registration includes Sessions 1 - 4.
Landscaping with Nature: Turning Battles into Partnerships | Session 3 of 4: Managing |
Larry Weaner, FAPLD
“Relative ecological stability” is a term used by ecologists to describe a highly competitive vegetative composition that allows few new individuals to enter the system. In garden-speak, that translates to “low maintenance.” In our final session we will illustrate how piggybacking on this and other ecological processes can change garden management from a battle to a partnership. Using examples from his own property as well as diverse client projects, Larry will share how a brains-over-brawn approach can result in compelling, easily managed landscapes that liberate both plants and people.
6:00 - 7:15 PM ET
Intensive Course Session 7 of 7: The Artistic Overlay: Making “Wild” Legible
Professional Virtual Intensive Course
Instructor: Larry Weaner, FAPLD
Ecological design need not be a bitter aesthetic pill that our clients must swallow to do the right thing. The order inherent in our wild native landscapes is widely considered beautiful. By translating that ecology-based order into the aesthetically-based language of fine garden design, the results can be much more universally embraced by our clients. In addition, Larry will illustrate how highly gardenesque - and even formal - elements can gracefully interact and intermingle with wilder woodland, shrubland, and meadow compositions. This approach can result in landscapes that are both ecologically productive and visually pleasing to clients with a variety of aesthetic preferences.
Registration is open and the recording is viewable for 3 months after the live session date.
Prescribed Fire as a Foundational Landscape Tool: From Campus to Residence (Spring Virtual Series)
Native Grasslands Restoration: Is Fire Needed?
Bert Harris, Ph.D.
Burning on the Run: Prescribed Burns in the Small Scale Landscape
Fritz Reuter
Fee: $58
Into the Weeds: How to Garden Like a Forager (Spring Virtual Series)
Tama Matsuoka Wong
Many a gardener, flower lover, or backyard farmer hates that most dreaded of garden chores: getting rid of weeds. Tama Matsuoka Wong offers a new approach to many plants deemed undesirable: manage them, turn them into delicious food, teas, structures....in other words reap their abundance. A self-described "failed" gardener turned garden contrarian, she looks to cues as to what plants grow wild naturally in situ and, besides that, sells many pounds of invasive weeds to markets and chefs. On a more personal level, she will share with you the "why" of her latest book Into the Weeds: How to Garden Like a Forager (Hardie Grant North America 2024): why weeds sit at the juncture of our food, environment and health, and how to use the most common weeds that grow around you.
Fee: $42
Meadow Making: A Brains Over Brawn Approach | Session 3 of 4 | Managing
Larry Weaner, FAPLD
Meadow management, particularly in the first two years, is every bit as important as planning and planting. Here we will show how piggybacking on ecological processes can preserve the meadow’s long term integrity without the need to add supplements, cut incessantly, and endlessly pull weeds. In scientific terms this vegetative condition is called “relative ecological stability.” In landscape terms it is called “low maintenance.”ir questions and individual meadow-making experiences.
6:00 - 7:15 PM ET
Registration includes Sessions 1 - 4.
Landscaping with Nature: Turning Battles into Partnerships | Session 4 of 4 | Conversation and Q&A
Larry Weaner, FAPLD
After a two-week opportunity to digest the information provided in the previous three sessions, attendees will have the opportunity to ask questions and discuss the course information. The freewheeling format will allow for exploration of the many variations inherent to an ecology-based approach.
6:00 - 7:15 PM ET
Register today for Landscaping with Nature
Photo by Steve Ford
Breaking the Grass Ceiling (Part 1): Native Lawns and Low Growing Meadows (Spring Virtual Series)
Dave Kaplow
How do we create true native habitat that is compatible with an urban and suburban environment? This lecture focuses on meadow/lawn hybrids, and how they can be used to create natural areas that are also accessible for frequent human use. Dave will emphasize the use of both cool and warm season grasses as the foundational species, as well as the broad leaf perennials that can visually and ecologically complement them. Illustrated applications will range from native lawn on residential properties, to the open areas surrounding business plazas and shopping areas, to the fields and meadows of public parks.
Fee: $42
Meadow Making: A Brains Over Brawn Approach | Session 4 of 4 | Conversation and Q&A
Larry Weaner, FAPLD and Sara Weaner Cooper
After a two-week opportunity to digest the information provided in the previous three sessions, attendees will have the opportunity to ask questions and discuss the course information. The freewheeling format will allow for exploration of the many “variations on the meadow theme” that can arise from the individual experiences and interests of course attendees.
6:00 - 7:15 PM ET
Register today for Meadow Making
Photo by Steve Ford
Breaking the Grass Ceiling (Part Two): A Historic Cemetery Reckons with its Lawn Legacy (Spring Virtual Series)
Sara Evans and Jenna Webster
Rural cemeteries were among the first public landscapes in America to adopt expansive formal lawns, a legacy with far-reaching ecological, social, and financial consequences. Today, in the face of the climate crisis, The Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn is working to adopt compelling alternatives, from less resource-intensive grass species to testing strategies for low native meadows. Learn the benefits and challenges of these approaches, understand what it takes to steward these dynamic plantings in a cultural landscape, and see how they could have applications beyond cemeteries.
Fee: $42
At Home With Nature: Beauty, Ecology, and Experience
Larry Weaner, FAPLD
Even on the smallest residential property, sharing garden decisions with nature changes everything. In this eye opening presentation, Larry will illustrate how an ecology-based, brains-over-brawn approach to home landscaping can reduce management needs, increase desirable wildlife habitat, and enhance the visual and intellectual experience of being in your yard.
FREE SESSION
Intensive Course Session 4 of 7 | Plants of the Open Landscape: Meadows, Old Fields, & Shrublands
Professional Virtual Intensive Course
Instructor: Ian Caton
In this session, native plant authority Ian Caton will examine plants of the open landscape that exemplify the ecological characteristics described by Larry Weaner in previous sessions. His presentation will span the successional period from herbaceous meadow, to mixed woody/ herbaceous old field, to the ecologically important but often neglected clonal shrub thicket. He will also present a group of “workhorse” native species for the sunlit landscape that combine reliability and weed suppression with attractive aesthetic character.
Registration is open and the recording is viewable for 3 months after the live session date.
Intensive Course Session 3 of 7 | The Open Landscape: Meadows, Old Fields, & Shrublands
Professional Virtual Intensive Course
Instructor: Larry Weaner, FAPLD
Wildflower meadows and native grasslands are in high demand, but effective protocols for successfully achieving them are in short supply. Here we will delve into the nitty gritty of meadow design: site analysis, species selection, seed mix formulation, live plant inclusion, planting and management. The inclusion of shrub thickets and drifts will also be covered, including the arrangement of clonal vs. clump forming species, and the use of shrublands as ecological and visual “connective tissue” between meadow and woods.
Registration is open and the recording is viewable for 3 months after the live session date.
Intensive Course Session 2 of 7 | Ecology-based Design
Professional Virtual Intensive Course
Instructor: Larry Weaner, FAPLD
*Sessions 1 & 2 recommended prerequisite for all other Sessions
Larry will expand upon the ecological principles described in Session 1 by illustrating them in the context of landscape plans, planting protocols, and management procedures. He will also describe often-neglected plant characteristics that are crucial to ecology-based practice. These will include habitat fidelity, colonization patterns, seasonal growth period, life spans, spatial and temporal niche, and proliferation strategies.
Registration is open and the recording is viewable for 3 months after the live session date.
Intensive Course Session 1 of 7 | Foundational Ecological Principles
Professional Virtual Intensive Course
Instructor: Larry Weaner, FAPLD
*Sessions 1 & 2 recommended prerequisite for all other Sessions
Our opening presentation will examine the species traits, vegetative patterns, and ecological processes found in spontaneous plant communities. The patterns and processes explored will include disturbance, succession, competition, and relative ecological stability. This session will serve as the theoretical basis for the practical design, planting, and management procedures detailed in all subsequent sessions.
Registration is open and the recording is viewable for 3 months after the live session date.
Landscape, Ecology & Culture: 36th Annual Design Symposium | Recordings
Founded in 1990, this annual two-day symposium has a long tradition of celebrating native plants and innovative ecological practice. Presenters reflect the diverse factors that shape our landscapes including landscape architects, landscape designers, horticulturists, ecologists, historians, anthropologists, artists and others. The series offers in-depth explorations of forward-looking and overlooked topics, always seeking to connect theory with practical application. Join us as we continue to connect the dots between ecological restoration, cultural landscape practice, and fine garden design.
Category: Professional
Register to view the recordings!
Registration open and recordings viewable until April 17, 2025