Radical Gardening
Prairie Up presents a risk-taking presentation from two leaders in ecological gardening that challenge us to grow better for the planet and rethink local horticulture in powerful ways.
Is Your Yard Undergrown? Ask the Animals — Nancy Lawson
We often discuss creating a sense of place to make people feel at home, but who has a better sense of place than the box turtle acres or yucca moth? Humans might see fallen leaves, tree snags, fleabane flowers, moles and slugs and call them “messy,” “overgrown,” “damaged,” “weedy” or “pests,” but our wild neighbors simply see home sweet home. This talk will explore how a tendency toward binary thinking, combined with marketing frameworks of fear and control, influences the way we treat the animals and plants in our own communities—and what we can do to break free of habitat-destroying paradigms.
Nancy is the author of two books, The Humane Gardener and Wildscape. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, The Washinton Post, and O: The Oprah Magazine.
Against Gardening — Rebecca McMackin
We’re gardeners. We love to plant. And ecological gardeners love to plant native plants. But what if regional ecology could be better served by actions outside of our gardens? What if we looked at why ecological damage happens in the first place? In this lecture we’ll consider how that ecological damage happens (from the nursery trade to pesticides) and consider if perhaps we could spend some time out of the garden as well.
Rebecca is an ecologically obsessed horticulturist, writer, and designer. She is Lead Horticulturist for the American Horticultural Society and a Program Associate for the Harvard Divinity School’s Thinking with Plants and Fungi Initiative. Rebecca is a dedicated public servant with a focus on urban ecology: she managed Brooklyn Bridge Park for a decade, designed a garden for the entrance of the Brooklyn Museum, and was a Harvard Loeb Fellow in 2023.
*All registrants will have access to the event recording for one month.
Time: 13:00 CDT/19:00 BST
