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Gardening Under Mediterranean Skies VII

Lessons in Sustainable Gardening

September 26-27, 2009

Santa Barbara Botanic Garden

Hotel Mar Monte
Santa Barbara, CA

Sorry this symposium sold out almost immediately. However, due to the tremendous response we are repeating it (with a few changes) one week later. For more information and a registration form, email medskiessdhortsoc.org.

Pacific Horticulture invites you to join us for an inspiring and thought-provoking weekend symposium titled Gardening Under Mediterranean Skies: Lessons in Sustainable Gardening. The event is sponsored in association with the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden and the Mediterranean Garden Society. It is the seventh in our series of symposia, which explore the challenges and delights of California’s Mediterranean climate and showcase the wide range of garden possibilities in a low-water environment.

Friday Highlights:
Owen Dell, Sustainable Landscaping: A Visionary Look at the Future of Gardens.
Exclusive Wine Country Tour - three wineries, two private gardens, and more! Sorry, Wine Country tour is SOLD OUT.

Design by Arcadia Studio

Saturday Highlights:
•Bernard Trainor, Ecological Design: Connecting with the Place
•Pamela Berstler, Digging Deeper with Eco-Restorative Practices
•Tour and al fresco lunch at Lotusland
•Tour of garden by Susan Van Atta
•Tour and twilight reception at Santa Barbara Botanic Garden

Sunday Highlights:
•In-garden presentations by designers Sydney Baumgartner, Lynn Woodbury, Arcadia Studio, and Isabelle Greene.

Santa Barbara Botanic Garden

Charming seaside Santa Barbara is the perfect setting for Saturday morning's keynote talks on sustainable gardening by two award-winning landscape designers. Bernard Trainor, from the Monterey Bay region www.BernardTrainor.com, will speak about Ecological Design -- Connecting with the Place. Trainor says, "For me ecological design creates beauty when we are thoughtful about how we connect with 'our' place. People feel grounded within this type of ecological design because it is at one with the region both visually and philosophically." He will show "a variety of landscape elements on a range of projects where I have attempted to explore this strong connection to the place through thoughtful design and materials use." Trainor is known for his beautiful and sustainable landscapes in Australia, Britain and California, which have been featured in numerous books, magazines and newspapers.

Bill Dewey

Lotusland Fountain

Bill Dewey

Lotusland main house

Award winning Los Angeles landscape designer Pamela Berstler (www.FlowertothePeople.com) is a Founding Member of G3 LA, LLC, a Los Angeles-based organization devoted to educating homeowners, design professionals, and the surrounding community in the latest eco-restorative landscape techniques and promoting the principles of low-impact development. Pamela says, “My work is focused on the ‘inner beauty’ of landscape design. I believe that truly sublime outdoor living environments, in which inhabitants are able to seek repose and beauty, only can be realized while embracing water and energy efficiencies, natural and native habitat, organic maintenance protocols, recycled and local materials, and fair labor practices.” Pamela’s current projects focus on true sustainability, pushing the technology of rainwater catchment and reuse through cisterns and green roofs. She will speak on Digging Deeper with Eco-Restorative Practices.

Design by Susan Van Atta

Following these two talks, we take motor coaches to the enchanting Ganna Walska Lotusland for a tour and private lunch. Saturday continues with a visit to another noteworthy garden (designed by Susan Van Atta), featuring mostly California natives in a welcoming bowl-shaped setting adjacent to the first municipal "green building" in Santa Barbara. The day concludes with a tour and twilight reception at the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden.

Sunday features visits to four excitingly different gardens for a combination tour and on-site talk by the experts who designed them. You’ll see a variety of garden styles and hear first-hand about why particular plants and hardscape materials were selected, what the site challenges were, and much more. One stop will be prominent landscape architect Sydney Baumgartner's private garden with exquisite foliage combinations and garden rooms. Another plant lovers' paradise (by landscape designer Lynn Woodbury), is an eclectic Montecito garden with an abundance and diversity most people only dream of: a wide variety of mostly low water succulents, palms and perennials that lend exuberant color and sculptural interest year round. The third garden, woven into the fabric of native oaks and boulders on a sloping 2 acre site above Santa Barbara, is a stunning contemporary expression of color, form and texture through the collaborative efforts of Arcadia Studio and the owners. A fourth garden, by legendary landscape architect Isabelle Greene, showcases California natives, a dry creek for rainwater capture, a drought-tolerant lawn of native grass, recirculating lotus pond, and other sustainable features.

Each day begins with a Continental breakfast at Hotel Mar Monte, adjacent to the beach in Santa Barbara, which is also the symposium meeting place. Lunch on Saturday will be al fresco at Ganna Walska's Lotusland, and lunch on Sunday will be al fresco in the tour gardens.

APLD CEUs:
Friday, September 25, 2009, Owen Dell lecture: 1 CEU
Saturday, September 26, 2009, Lectures and tours: 4.5 CEUs
Sunday, September 27, 2009, Lectures and tour: 3.0 CEUs

Symposium Sponsors

Kellogg Garden Products
www.kellogggarden.com

The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California
www.bewaterwise.com

Sterling Tours
www.sterlingtours.info

Garden Design
www.gardendesign.com

San Marcos Growers
www.sanmarcosgrowers.com

For more information, email medskiessdhortsoc.org

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