Turn water scarcity into water abundance! These books show you how to conceptualize, design, and implement sustainable water-, sun-, wind-, and shade-harvesting systems for your home, landscape, and community. They enable you to access your on-site...

This suite of resources provides an overview of EPA recommended best water management practices for landscaping, facilities, and stormwater. Each provides a good overview of techniques along with EPA site examples:  

Top 10 Water Management...

The history of the Morris Arboretum can be told through its eldest trees. Every scar and abnormality present on these immense specimens inspire awe, enrich visitor experience, and provide a glimpse into the past of the gardens. They also act as living...

The spotted lanternfly (Lycorma delicatula) is an invasive planthopper native to China, India and Vietnam.  It was first discovered in Pennsylvania and has spread to other counties in the eastern United States.  This insect has the potential to greatly...

Trees planted in cities face many survival challenges, but when they thrive they make our cities healthier, less hot, and more beautiful. Historically, professionals have planted the same familiar trees over and over in cities since they are a safe bet...

Tree defects such as co-dominant leaders, girding roots and buried trunk flares, present at time of planting, cause failures and decline long after the warrantee period has expired.  Landscape architects may go to nurseries to tag trees; but often...

Climate Action Planning is designed to help planners, municipal staff and officials, citizens and others working at local levels to develop and implement plans to mitigate a community’s greenhouse gas emissions and increase the resilience of...

This project offers a blueprint for the ideal level of maintenance needed to keep this area of the garden aesthetically pleasing and well -kept into the future. Landscape management plans from other public gardens demonstrated a range of approaches and...

You can thank insect pollinators for one third of every mouthful of food that you eat. Without small flies in streams for young fish to eat – your last grilled salmon would have been impossible. If you like songbirds, you can thank an insect – 96...

An Urban Tree Canopy (UTC) assessment, which provides a measure of a community’s tree canopy cover, is important for understanding the extent of a community’s forest or tree resource. UTC assessments are often used for establishing and implementing...

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...

The effects of urban development write a profound signature on the landscape. Soils are inevitably compacted and regraded or paved over. We have developed techniques that can remediate these degraded soils and provide a long-term solution towards...

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...

Green spaces (zoos, city parks, and urban farms) and cultural institutions are capturing our gap audiences—racial minorities, youth and young adults, and people of lower socioeconomic status. Come find out why it is important to engage and collaborate...

As interest in native plants and their habitats grows, what roles do we play as public garden professionals, in nurturing and expanding this interest, and providing sufficient learning opportunities? Members of this panel will present several methods...

A collaborative relationship between Asa Gray Garden at Mount Auburn (an active cemetery), architects, and nearby Arnold Arboretum resulted in a beautiful and inspiring garden featuring trees, shrubs, and perennials that provide color, texture, and...

Award-winning landscape designer, author, and thought leader Julie Moir Messervy shares her design studio’s visioning process that allows stakeholders to collaborate in creating special gardens of beauty and meaning for their public gardens. With an...

Studies show that only a small percentage of visitors who come to public gardens do so because of the specific plant collections. Most visitors come for educational programing, spiritual rejuvenation and quiet spaces, or even exercise. Art can be a...

There is a soil-plant continuum—an ecological symbiosis—that is essential for the growth and sustainability of all vegetation. Unfortunately, largely because many factors of the balance in soils are not well understood, soil becomes more of an abstract...

The nation’s forest land area remains stable, but the composition and distribution of those forests is changing. The data supporting this assertion, along with other information on the status, condition, and trends in the nation’s forest resources, are...