Rebecca McMackin - Biodiversity-first horticulture

Garden Materclass session with Rebecca McMackin, one of the leading US voices for biodiversity in the garden. She established her reputation by managing Brooklyn Bridge Park for ten years from its foundation, working to develop as a biodiversity hub and pursuing ethical employment practices.

She addresses ecological horticulture as a garden practice that puts biodiversity centre stage: animal lifecycles are the starting point for design, planting, and management, while still seeking to create landscapes of extraordinary beauty. In fact, Rebecca challenges the binary between an aesthetic practice, and one that supports regional biodiversity, illustrating how stunning wildlife gardens are possible even under the harshest urban conditions.

Rebecca will discuss specific management techniques and give examples from the various projects, including Brooklyn Bridge Park. She'll consider conflicts between practices that support wildlife, and those that the public read as neglect, and how these can be resolved.

Rebecca's examples will be from the NE US, but in discussion we aim to draw parallels with European equivalents and other regions. Rebecca is a highly-renowned and innovatory practitioner in the field and this is a great opportunity to learn from someone at the cutting edge.

Time: 18:00 GMT

https://www.tickettailor.com/events/gardenmasterclass/1146029#