Presentation

Public gardens can benefit by focusing on women as past and future contributors of note to the field of landscape design. Three public gardens will reveal how the contributions of Beatrix Farrand and Ellen Biddle Shipman, groundbreaking women in landscape architecture, helped further the field of landscape architecture and bring women into the field. The public work of select contemporary female designers will then be profiled illustrating a sustained level of women’s impact on the design world.

Beyond gift shops, wedding rentals, and one-off plant sales, every garden has unique assets that could be leveraged to achieve the institutional mission and creatively generate revenue for the organization or reduce expenses. Identifying those assets is key. They might be specialty plant knowledge, existing composting operations, “excess” land, or savings from switching to gray water. But not all good ideas work out the way they are envisioned, and sometimes have to be abandoned before being realized.

Public gardens can demonstrate their economic, environmental, and social impacts to demonstrate their value to surrounding communities by utilizing valuation tools for development and sustainability policies. The use of impact studies can play a vital role for public gardens to garner support for additional funding and support.

Intensively managed landscapes, like those found in many public gardens, attempt to mitigate the impact of significant weather events through irrigation, improving soil characteristics, and mulching. At the same time many gardens purposefully push the boundaries of 'known hardiness' in an effort to keep their displays fresh and interesting. Onsite National Weather Station data was used to identify extreme weather events and compared those time periods with permanent plant deaths as recorded in the plant records database.

Public gardens, which are centers for expertise, often have concerns with earned-revenue generation and education seeing consulting income as a conflict with their mission. Our experience shows education, advocacy, and service can enhance relevance and build industry partnerships. Morris Arboretum’s Urban Forestry and Arboriculture Consulting program offers a strategic-planning based model that has evolved from an ancillary program to a mission-core, earned-revenue supported program serving municipalities, campuses, professional clients, and organizations region-wide.

Presenter: 

Seasonal color plants add to the beauty and ever-changing nature of the garden. These seasonal color plants each have different growing requirements, transportation distances, display durations, etc. In this presentation you will learn how a strategically developed matrix of decision-making criteria, incorporating sustainability factors, can help you select seasonal color plants that will have reduced environmental impact and resource demand.

It has become apparent that there is need for actionable steps that member institutions can take to become more welcoming for their visitors, staff, and volunteers. The “Creating a More Diverse, Equitable, and Inclusive Garden” workshop was born from this need. Based in positive organizational scholarship, this workshop has been developed so that any garden can adapt the activities based on their particular needs and resources, resulting in manageable action steps towards becoming more diverse and inclusive.

Opening a new or renovated garden/garden space doesn't end with construction and plants! That's when the communications and marketing teams gear up to prepare the space for visitors and then work to get the word out. Join us to hear from gardens across North America about lessons learned and to plan for the communications and marketing side of a new garden opening.

STEM careers and programs have gained prominence in recent years as youth are shown opportunities in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics through robotics, computer programming, and game development. Although often overlooked, horticulture provides an opportunity to utilize many STEM fields. Public gardens have a unique platform to highlight and promote opportunities in horticulture.

Educational programs in public gardens are connecting learners, both teachers and students, with the outside world. The BRIT professional learning experience allows teachers to build student-centered learning opportunities that engage learners in broadening their understanding of biodiversity and conservation for a local to global impact. The award winning Kids in the Garden program is creating numerous opportunities for students and teachers to connect with nature while the Green School is providing teachers with a new and exciting way to teach environmental concepts.