The following was published as part of my regular “Growing Greener” column in Public Garden magazine, Vol. 24 No. 1 (2009). Public Garden is the flagship publication of the American Public Gardens Association. In “Growing Greener” I answer sustainability-related questions from public garden staff.

Q: What is a green exhibit? How green does it have to be?

A: A green exhibit isn’t necessarily one that tells visitors how your garden is becoming more sustainable and how they can, too (though that’s a good idea!). Exhibits of all types and sizes can be beautiful expressions of sustainability. As for how green to go, you should make your exhibits as green as you can, and keep growing greener.

By now, most people in the public garden world are familiar with the LEED guidelines, performance benchmarks, and rating system for green buildings. The same basic guidelines can also be used for creating a green exhibit. (more…)

The annual meeting of the American Public Gardens Association always charges my batteries. This year’s meeting in St. Louis was no exception. Among other things, it gave me the kick in the pants I’ve needed to actually post the “Growing Greener” columns I write for Public Garden magazine, APGA’s flagship publication. In each issue, I answer sustainability-related questions submitted by public garden staff. You can find my column on the carbon footprint of homegrown food here. I’ll be adding additional columns over the next few days.

So I’m back in New York, having seen enough redbuds in bloom on our cross-country trek to keep me happy for an entire lifetime. While I was gone, I heard from David Schaller, whose essay “Beyond Sustainability: From Scarcity to Abundance” has been a driving force for regenerative design. He’s now sustainable development administrator for the city of Tucson, and publishes a weekly newsletter called Sustainable Practices.

You know regenerative design is on the fast track when the annual meeting of the ASLA, to be held in Chicago in September, is titled “Beyond Sustainability: Regenerating Places and People.” “We’ve been anticipating public sentiment to turn to the need for sustaining the planet for many years,” wrote ASLA President Angela Dye in an email that arrived in my inbox this morning. “As landscape architects, we must go beyond, and aspire to adopt practices that not only sustain, but regenerate our ecosystems and restore diminishing biohabitats.”

Ian Darwin Edwards asked this question during a presentation at the BGCI congress in Cape Town, South Africa 10 years ago. It was a catchy way of saying that when it comes to capturing the public’s attention, advertisers are veritable Pavarottis while we in the garden world can be pretty tone deaf.

A decade later, it’s still a good question. Public gardens are still trying to find their voice. In the face of massive climate change and mass extinction, we’d better hurry up.

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