GreenScapes Symposium

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Montgomery Parks
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9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. ET
*Live Zoom event
 
Whether a gardener living in the suburbs or a landscape architect developing commercial projects, we all design with specific purposes in mind. This symposium will offer design strategies to achieve a range of goals, from public gardens that engage diverse audiences to landscapes that reduce carbon footprints and are resilient to climate change. Speakers will also explore innovative design and maintenance practices that bring visual order to naturalistic gardens and make them more palatable to neighbors and HOAs. Though these landscape goals may seem unrelated, they can all be achieved by selecting the right building materials, understanding plant communities, and leveraging creative plant combinations.  Join us to learn how!
 
***This will be offered as a series of live online lectures using Zoom with audience Q&A incorporated into the program. Each session will be recorded and a link to watch the symposium will be emailed to all participants. 
 
About GreenScapes
The GreenScapes Symposium is an annual program sponsored by Brookside Gardens since 2004.  The symposium explores the latest topics related to landscape sustainability and the environment. This event appeals to a broad audience ranging from landscape architects and designers to master gardeners, horticulturalists, and urban planners. Environmental stewardship is a core value of the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission (M-NCPPC), Brookside Gardens’ parent organization. As such, we strive to provide timely information and viable solutions to environmental challenges that help create a healthy planet for all people, plants and living things.
 
Register using this link ActiveMontgomery.org (Activity # PBG0057) or call 301-962-1470.
*Registration includes access to watch recordings of each session after the event.
***If you create a new Active Montgomery account, please check your Inbox for an email with a link to authenticate your account. This must be done prior to adding the GreenScapes event to your cart and checking out.
 
Professional development credit hours will be available for each session (see below).
9:15 am
Quest for Climate Resiliency: Adaptive Strategies for Sustainable Plant Design
Laura Hansplant, landscape architect and co-owner at Studio Sustena
How should changing weather patterns affect the way we design our landscapes?  This lecture will examine resilience strategies that help landscapes successfully respond to climate change. What critical ecological functions need to be protected over time?  Why is density and species diversity important to adaptation?  Through case studies ranging from home gardens to commercial projects, you’ll learn how to interpret plant community dynamics and structure to foster robust and adaptable sites. The importance of cultural expectations and their impact on ecologically based planting design will also be reviewed.
10:45 am
11:00 am
Soak it up: Carbon Sequestering Sites
Pamela Conrad, landscape architect, founder of Climate Positive Design, and current Loeb Fellow, Harvard Graduate School of Design
The reduction and storage of carbon levels from the atmosphere is critical to fighting climate change. Learn about the opportunities for carbon sequestration through site development and design in a range of landscapes.  How can soil health, functional plant diversity and sustainable maintenance practices reduce and capture carbon? What are the best techniques and available tools for calculating the carbon balance of these landscape materials and design strategies now and over time? Discover how site and infrastructure design can support other co-benefits such as biodiversity, resilience, and equity.
12:15 pm
On This Land: Connecting Minority Communities to the Natural World
Veronica Tyson-Strait, landscape designer, educator, artist, and Horticulture Manager at Randall’s Island Park Alliance
Rapid population growth threatens the livability of our cities, which disproportionately affects minority communities. This inequity can be effectively addressed by connecting diverse ethnic and socio-economic groups to the natural world through our limited urban green spaces. Veronica will highlight key strategies on how to design and manage landscapes that engage immigrants and communities of color and provide them with a sense of belonging. How can we balance the priority of native plant gardens with the need for new residents to connect with culturally familiar yet foreign florae? Which mainstream expectations around garden maintenance and design aesthetics are at odds with minority cultures and communities? What can we learn from those who are more closely connected to their horticultural heritage? As an immigrant from the Caribbean designing and managing landscapes in New York City, Veronica is uniquely positioned to answer these questions and share lessons from her hands-on experience.
2:30 pm
Unlawning Suburbia: Lessons in the Design and Management of Nature-Inspired Landscapes
Benjamin Vogt, Author & Owner, Monarch Gardens
Two of the greatest challenges in creating a naturalistic garden are demonstrating that the space is intentional and appeasing HOAs, city ordinances, and finicky neighbors. These issues are closely related and come down to choosing the right native plants based on plant behavior and arranging them with purpose, all with an understanding of how plants can be instrumental in their own effective management. This lecture will cover core design principles that bring visual order to naturalized gardens and that can be adapted to your local native plants. Successful strategies to appease the human community will be explored while looking at landscape examples and success stories from around the country.
4:00 pm
CLOSING REMARKS
Continuing Education
The following are the CEUs offered for the 2022 symposium. Updated information will be posted soon:
American Society of Landscape Architects (LA CES 5.0)
Association of Professional Landscape Designers (APLD 5.0)
Chesapeake Bay Landscape Professionals (CBLP 5.0)
Maryland Certified Professional Horticulturist Program (CPH 1.0)
Delaware Master Gardener (5.0)
Virginia Master Gardener (contact your local extension agent)
 
Featured Speakers
Laura Hansplant 
Laura integrates social spaces, rainwater systems and plant communities to create meaningful places where each element mutually supports the whole site. Born in Canada, Laura studied at the University of Toronto and the Pennsylvania State University, where she received a Master’s in Landscape Architecture with a minor in Ecology. She volunteers on the US Green Building Council’s Sustainable Sites Technical Advisory Board, where she participates in discussions advancing sustainable design. Through speaking engagements Laura has found a passion for inspiring professionals and students on innovative design. Outside the office, she spends her afternoons exploring the natural patterns of meadows and woodlands, searching for inspiration for her designs. In her test garden, Laura grows native plants, taking note of their character and durability to inform resilient landscape designs. When she can get away, Laura enjoys wilderness canoeing, camping, and hiking with her family.
 
Laura Hansplant
Pamela Conrad
Pamela Conrad (she/her/hers) PLA, ASLA, LEED AP, is an internationally recognized landscape architect and climate advocate and is currently a Loeb Fellow at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. As our world continues to face challenges of urbanization, social injustices and climate change, Pamela focuses on finding solutions to the climate crisis and planning for a resilient future. Her passion for the environment is deeply rooted – from growing up on a farm in the mid-western United States to degrees in Plant Science and Regenerative Landscape Architecture, and large-scale habitat restoration experience. Her influential research on improving climate impacts of the exterior built and natural environments is elevating landscape architecture’s positive contribution to climate change and informs her work as the Founder of Climate Positive Design (CPD). Conrad is the Vicechair of the International Federation of Landscape Architects (IFLA) Climate Change Working Group who spearheaded the IFLA Climate Action Commitment presented at COP26 (2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference) in conjunction with Architecture 2030 1.5oC Communique. Her nearly two decades of work has been widely featured as Conrad speaks nationally and internationally on the subjects of landscape architecture, climate action, and designing for future resilience.
Pamela Conrad 
Veronica Tyson-Strait
Veronica Tyson-Strait is a landscape and garden designer, horticulturist, educator and fine artist with a passion for ecologically diverse landscapes and spaces that provide opportunities for reflection, wellness and sustenance. She currently manages the horticulture staff at Randall’s Island Park Alliance and oversees the restoration and upkeep of native plant meadows, a woodland landscape, and ornamental gardens.
 
Veronica lives, designs and gardens in New York City, blogs about landscapes, ecology and gardening and teaches classes at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden and the New York Botanical Garden. She holds a Master’s in Landscape Architecture and studied Horticulture, Landscape Design and Garden Design at the New York Botanical Garden. Veronica is also a graduate of the Cooper Union School of Art.
Veronica Tyson-Strait
Benjamin Vogt
Benjamin Vogt is the author of Prairie Up: An Introduction to Natural Garden Design and A New Garden Ethic: Cultivating Defiant Compassion for an Uncertain Future. His work has been featured in The American Gardener, Dwell, Fine Gardening, Gardenista, Horticulture, Midwest Living, and The Wall Street Journal. Benjamin owns Monarch Gardens, a prairie-inspired design firm, and lives in Lincoln, Nebraska.