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Spring Into Spring
BRAVE NEW GARDENS
» Thursday 11 February 2010 | 5 pm
» The Bohemian Café, 524 Bernard Avenue
An informal afternoon hour showcasing ideas
and people in the Okanagan creative economy. Join us as experts and enthusiasts Don Burnett, Gwen Steele and Lisa Masini explore the principles and pleasures of sustainable gardening in the Okanagan, and share their insider insights.
» $2 at the door. Refreshments are available at a modest cost.
» Seating is limited, please reserve yours HERE
Experts Discuss the Benefits of Retrofitting the Landscape of Desire
It's spring fever. That is what the name of it is. And when you've got it, you want - oh, you don't quite know what it is you do want, but it just fairly makes your heart ache, you want it so! - Mark Twain
As the first signs of a new spring season awaken, the gardeners among us begin to feel the urge to renew ourselves and the earth that has been entrusted to us. While it might be said that this is the time when our thoughts turn to romance, this is also the time when thoughts turn to garden plans, and the seed catalogues start to arrive in the mail to remind us of our urge to create, or at least beautify, our surroundings with things floral and leafy. Once again for another year our love affair with our gardens and our lawn needs attention.
When enthusiasts get together to discuss gardening, the word drought is on their lips with an alarming frequency. A relatively new concept for the mainstream is also cropping up more and more, as a solution to drought and the economic costs it brings: the use of xeriscaping plants, in lieu of lawns. Xeriscaping can take many forms. For some it simply means grouping plants with similar watering requirements together on the landscape for more efficient watering.
The assumption that a landscape will have lots of grass and that it will stay green all growing season is as firmly rooted in the psyche as the assumption of many that a house will have windows. A major premise of xeriscaping, by contrast, is that turf grass is problematic, because it is a water-guzzler. Not that all practitioners of xeriscaping totally eliminate lawns, mind you. Some simply switch to types of lawn grass that demand less water. Others cut back on the expanse and expense of lawn, relegating the lawn area to an accent on the landscape rather than maintaining the lawn in its position as the dominant element.
On Thursday, February 11th at 5 pm the ongoing weekly Okanagan Institute Express series at the Bohemian Café presents Spring Into Spring: Brave New Gardens. Join us as experts and enthusiasts Don Burnett, Gwen Steele and Lisa Masini explore the principles and pleasures of sustainable gardening in the Okanagan, and share their insider insights.
 Don Burnett, recently returned from the Northwest Flower and Garden Show where he was featured as a renowned gardening guru here in the Okanagan, known for his wit as well as his expertise. He is much sought after to share his knowledge. He is an experienced landscape consultant, a certified arbourist, a certified tree risk assessor, a landscape designer, a grower and is widely known as a broadcaster, lecturer, author and researcher. He has been in the gardening business for almost 40 years. Don is knowledgeable and keeps up with the latest in trends and technology, and he is willing to share his vast horticultural knowledge with anyone who wishes to listen. Don specializes in helping home owners, land developers and contractors take the mystery out of creating a beautiful sustainable landscape, from simple counselling on plant selection and layout to a complete professional blueprint. Don can be heard every Saturday morning 8-10 am on AM1150 radio. He is also a musician, a car buff, a fisherman and, last, but certainly not least, a family man who enjoys whatever life has to offer.
 Gwen Steele is a local expert in xeriscaping - the style of dry land gardening suitable for our region. But she's also an advocate of a new concept in the Pacific Northwest that encourages developers to work with buyers before the house goes in so that the original land can be preserved. Steele has been studying, teaching and practicing the principles of xeriscape gardening for nearly 20 years. This has lead to the discovery of a multitude of native and non-native plants that thrive in our climate with very little water. In addition, she has become aware of how variable the soils can be in this area and what a large role soils play in the selection of appropriate plants and the success of a garden. She was the 2009 winner of the Most Environmentally Friendly Yard in Kelowna.
 Lisa Masini is vice-president of the Okanagan Xeriscape Association, a non-profit formed in 2009 with the mandate of popularizing xeriscape landscaping through education and building awareness. She believes that xeriscaping is the only environmentally sustainable future for the region because it uses less water and minimizes the use of pesticides and herbicides. Lisa's passion for the environment began while doing a Master's degree in Cognitive Psychology from the University of British Columbia, where she learned that being in natural landscapes is beneficial to body and mind. Now a landscape designer, her business is the first in the Okanagan that specializes exclusively in xeriscape designs, which reflects her leadership for the promotion of xeriscape.
FOR MORE INFORMATION AND TO REGISTER ONLINE CLICK HERE
Spring Into Spring: Brave New Gardens takes place at the Bohemian Café. This marks the 125th event the Okanagan Institute has held since the Express series got underway in July 2007.
Express has played host to many Okanagan luminaries, including former deputy secretary general of Amnesty International Derek Evans, artists Lee Claremont and Gary Pearson, BC Book Award nominee Don Gayton, CBC Literary prize winner poet Harold Rhenisch, distinguished editor and author Jim Taylor, poet laureate and professor John Lent, animator and filmmaker Jim Cliffe, community activist Don Elzer, dancer David LaHay, architect Jim Meiklejohn, culinary artist and writer Heidi Noble, broadcaster Marion Barschel and many others from a wide range of creative fields.
The Okanagan Institute is a group of creative professionals that has gathered around the goal of providing events, publications and services of interest to enquiring minds in the Okanagan. We partner with individuals, organizations, institutions and businesses to achieve optimal creative and social impact.
Our mission is to ignite cultural transformation, catalyze collaborative action, build networks and foster sustainable creative enterprises. We invite the participation by all members of the creative community.
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