Gardening with Nature in Mind: 2024 UVM Extension Master Gardener Conference
“What if we could learn to see the world from the perspective of other species, both plant and animal, and understand that they, too, deserve the chance to make a life here?" ― Author and Keynote Speaker Nancy Lawson, From The Humane Gardener: Nurturing A Backyard Habitat For Wildlife
2024 UVM Extension Master Gardener Conference: Gardening with Nature in Mind
The 2024 UVM EMG conference was offered on Saturday, December 7, 2024. The theme was Gardening with Nature in Mind. Below are resources shared at the conference.
Conference Program and User Guide
Many thanks to this year's speakers for their time and expertise!!
Conference Resources
Rooted in Wellness with Rachel Boyers
Rachel Boyers is the Garden Educator in the Culinary Medicine Program of Nutrition Services at the UVM Medical Center. She is a trained landscape architect and holds a certification in horticultural therapy from the New York Botanical Garden. Rachel is also a former UVM Extension Master Gardener volunteer. Her goal as a Garden Educator is to build community and ensure that the therapeutic benefits of gardening and a strong connection to nature are accessible to everyone.
Rooted in Wellness. We kicked off the conference by learning from Rachel Boyers, who shared how connecting with nature through our gardens, mindful practices, and nourishing foods can boost wellness and foster resilience. This session grounded us for the day by providing ideas on how to better appreciate nature to nurture both body and mind.
Resources
Keynote Address: A World of Discovery by Nancy Lawson
Nancy Lawson is a national columnist and author "The Humane Gardener: Nurturing a Backyard Habitat for Wildlife" and "Wildscape: Trilling Chipmunks, Beckoning Blooms, Salty Butterflies, and other Sensory Wonders of Nature". In addition to an early career as a journalist, she worked for more than 15 years as an editor and publisher at The Humane Society. Lawson founded The Humane Gardener, an outreach initiative dedicated to cultivating compassion for all creatures great and small through animal-friendly, environmentally sensitive landscaping methods. Her books and garden have been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, O: The Oprah Magazine and other media outlets. Lawson also volunteers as a Master Gardener and Master Naturalist in central Maryland.
A World of Discovery. Much has been written about gardening for human senses, but how do plants and animals perceive the world around them? What do we miss when we landscape for human visual appeal but neglect the sensory experiences of our wild neighbors? Conventional gardening practices often interfere with other organisms’ abilities to interact with their environments in ways we can scarcely imagine. Through science, heart, and our powers of observation, Nancy helped us learn how to mitigate these disruptions and create sensory refuges in an increasingly noisy world.
Resources
Nurturing Nature in Our Lawns by Sarah Kingsley-Richards
Sarah Kingsley-Richards is the Pesticide Safety Education program coordinator at UVM Extension. She works closely with the Integrated Pest Management Program, Plant Diagnostic Clinic, and our Community Horticulture team. Sarah holds a Master’s degree from UVM in Plant & Soil Science studying cold hardiness in perennial flowering plants.
Nurturing Nature in Our Lawns. Love them or hate them, lawns are part of the American landscape. In this presentation, Sarah shared ways that we can manage our lawns with nature in mind, including strategies to reduce fertilizer and pesticide applications, encourage pollinators, and consider lawn alternatives. Whether you are managing a lawn yourself or receiving lawn care questions from the public, this information can inform ways to improve the resilience of lawns in the landscape.
Resources
- Sarah's presentation slides (PDF)--see slides for references
- UVM Extension Pesticide Safety Education Program
Landscaping with Nature in Mind by Fortino Acosta
Dr. Fortino Acosta is a landscape architect and lecturer at UVM's Department of Agriculture, Landscape, and Environment (formerly called Plant & Soil Science). As a new UVM faculty, Fortino brings his training in civil and environmental engineering and work with cities and businesses to adopt and implement resilient and regenerative strategies on urban and regional scales. His current work concentrates on naturalistic design and nature-based solutions.
Landscaping with Nature in Mind. We learned about Fortino's design philosophy, how he is putting it into practice on UVM’s campus, and advice he has for Vermont gardeners interested in landscaping with nature in mind.