Midwestern Gardener's Manifesto
Author of the book, Design Your Natural Midwest Garden, Patricia Hill will talk about various tips and techniques for developing and landscaping a garden using native plants. Her presentation, "Midwestern Gardener's Manifesto," highlights ways to integrate natives into various spaces -- personal gardens and cityscapes -- for creating vibrant native landscapes so plants, wildlife, insects, and people can flourish. Learn how using natives in our landscaping enhances food systems for pollinators, insects, and birds, improves water filtration by preventing runoff and erosion, and decreases yard maintenance and expenses.
A professional landscape designer for more than 25 years, Patricia Hill has devoted the past 15 years to designs featuring only native species. An exhibit garden she designed won Best of Show in the 2000 Chicago Flower and Garden Show, and her work has been featured in a variety of national and regional publications. Her own garden was featured in Nature's Garden, a Better Homes and Gardens Special Publication, in Spring of 2010. Her book Design Your Natural Midwest Garden will be on sale after the talk. The book, published in 2007 by Big Earth Publishing of Madison, WI, features 32 designs and over 200 color photographs of built and conceptual gardens, plus text that describes attributes and growing conditions for 127 native plants.