Online via Zoom

When designing a planting, we are creating an ecological community that will co-evolve over time. We want to give the community the ingredients – the various roles needed – to survive and hopefully thrive. We will dive into designing for the functional roles of plants in addition to their aesthetic beauty, specifically for ecological designs of rain gardens, lakeshore restoration projects, and mostly native gardens. Just like in the landscape design process where it is often helpful to start with a conceptual design – outlining the form and function of an element – we start the plant selection process with the goals we are trying to fulfill. We will discuss favorite plant species and common functional roles that have a positive impact for many different places and plant designs.