Spring Issue of the Dirt 2010

THE DIRT

The VNLA Quarterly Newsletter Volume 36, Issue 1

S p r i n g I s s u e

TheGorgeousGardens andGreen LivingShow

Riley Rink Manchester, VT

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Inside thisIssue

president’s letter

Board of Directors4President’s Letter3New Members5Gorgeous Gardens andGreen Living Show6New Member Profile7Green Works AnnualWinter Meeting & Awards8Meet New Green WorksBoard Members9Industry Awards Program201010News from the U11

2011 Vermont Flower Show

12 Award Winners13Legislative Update14Green Works: YourWebsite Profile16Electric Hazards in Trees19Garden Design School,USA 20Industry Calendar22Gorgeous Gardens Photos23

It’s spring, and the earth is waking up. I imaginesomewhere in the North Woods a bear is going to pokeit’s nose outside its cave and find hepatica, springbeauties, and trout lily blooming. Down here in ourlandscaping yard tools are being sharpened, mulch isbeing delivered, and the compost windrow is beingturned. It’s a bright sunny morning, and it feels like we just woke up from our long-winters rest, a bit stiff, buthungry for a new year.But something has changed since we went to sleep, andit is both subtle and earth-shaking. Over the last yearwe have dramatically changed how we relate to eachother and the landscape that surrounds us. Through thesocial media explosion we are now connected/networked/exposed to each others actionsand ideas both locally and globally more than ever, and we actively expand the tendrils of our communal thoughts every day through Facebook and Twitter, blogs, and e-newsletters.One idea that really jumps out at me in this sea of information is that a major change inlandscape aesthetic is happening, here and now, and it will spread as fast as the electronictendrils of thought can spread it. Sustainable Landscaping is going mainstream, fromancient European city rooftops, to the Provinces of China, to the Grand Estates of USindustrialist tycoons, to the hallowed halls of Harvard, and it’s important for us tounderstand why. A brilliant article was recently written by Kongjian Yu, (Landscape Architect and President of Turenscape in China, designer of the famous Red RibbonProject among others) and published in the Fall/Winter 2009 issue of the Harvard DesignMagazine. Yu writes that “in our resource-depleted and ecologically damaged andthreatened era, the built environment must and will adapt a new aesthetic grounded inappreciation of the beauty of productive, ecology-supporting things. Our desire for beautydetached from utility is weakening, and it should be. In our new world, survival is atstake. Wastefulness becomes viscerally unattractive, if not immoral.”I think that today our clients already see this shift happening. They’re busy yes, so theystill want convenient solutions, but they want landscapes that do more than just sit thereand look pretty. They want it to be functional, edible, low-input, healing, and ethicallyresponsible. In essence they want it to be more than the sum of its parts – for it to supportlife – both theirs and the natural world that it is inherently part of. Grandiose gardensare no longer cool – now to be civilized and modern is to be “green”. I believe our job ashorticultural researchers, educators, landscape designers, plant growers, retail nurseryowners, landscape installers and maintenance professionals is to show them how they canhave beautiful, functional,

and

sustainable landscapes.This is my first letter as President of Green Works, and I feel very lucky to be part of sucha healthy, active and growing Association. I look forward to meeting those of you I don’talready know, touring your businesses and discussing your thoughts about who we are asprofessionals, what we do and where we’re going. As you might suspect, the connectionoptions are getting absurdly abundant - you can email me (lindenlandscaping@gmavt.net), you can Facebook me, send me a tweet (lindenlandscape), join my newsletter via ourwebsite (www.lindenlandscaping.com

), call my cell (802-363-3044), or just plain stop by.I’ll leave the solar-powered LED light on for you…

Rebecca Lindenmeyr, Green Works/VNLA President