SAM BENVIE SCHOOLS THE YOUTH The underlying theme of ecological references was introduced to me 20 years ago when I was a student at Ryerson studying Landscape Design. Sam was growing 300 species from seed at the base of the architecture building. I remember him casually mentioning the cliff reference to me in passing. I…

Introducing a symposium for gardeners, landscapers, landscape architects, and city builders. Learn to use ecosystem references in cities bearing the brunt of climate change. How can we develop, implement and maintain sustainable, robust planting designs at all scales? Session 1: Guest Speakers Sarah Mainguy, ecologist at North-South Environmental Stefan Weber, biology PhD candidate at McMaster…

Expectations were high and the room was full as Ryerson University was graced with a panel of experts for an evening session appropriately titled “Promoting the Health and Resilience of Urban Vegetation”. The city is a novel ecosystem Host Sam Benvie opened the panel discussion by talking about resilience of urban vegetation in the context of climate…

IS THERE ANYBODY OUT THERE? Over the winter I took a trip down to Philadelphia for the 28th Annual Landscape Design Symposium with the provocative theme: Analyzing the Wild Designing the Garden. I wasn’t sure who would be there and what it would be like but spoiler alert I met wonderful people and it blew…

Join me in exploring the everyday spaces of our city to see, appreciate and value the complex beauty of our urban ecology. Previous posts explored the beautiful interaction between people and place, remarkable feets of walking, and what happens when a master gardener meets a tree no one else in this city could love. The truth…

Join me in exploring the everyday spaces of our city to see, appreciate and value the complex beauty of our urban ecology. Previous blog posts about the interaction between people and place  and extraordinary feats of walking had a theme of stories from regular everyday parts of the city. In keeping with that theme, today we…

Homegrown National Park You may have heard of the Homegrown National Park initiative started by the David Suzuki Foundation. As a park ranger I get to help out with some really cool projects that were started last year. PS 397 The PS 397: Proposed Depaving Project is a thin strip of land bounded on either…

I am really excited about our latest design/build project. The most striking thing about the garden is the sheer number of trees in various stages of life/death that have swallowed large chunks of chain link fence (see photos). Also the garden is used by Knuckle Down Farms as a distribution point for a CSA. To…

I am a city kid born and raised. There is a sort of pride in it. Even though I had a wonderful connection with nature growing up, I always felt like I was overstepping my bounds and that nature wasn’t meant for me.   As I grew older I realized that nature is everywhere, the…

  Above is the concept for PARKed. An installation you can see at Canada Blooms from March 15th-24th. This project is a collaboration with Victoria Taylor OALA and Ecoman. I just love working with Victoria, totally fearless when trying something completely different. Take last years Concrete Bloom Bursts installation for example. It was one of…