How Does a Chef Do Science? - 92nd Street Y - New York, NY

How Does a Chef Do Science? - 92nd Street Y - New York, NY

This is the link to my first lecture for my book, "The Hamptons & Long Island Homegrown Cookbook" at the very prestigious 92nd Street Y!

Can you believe it?

Last week to see the Orchids at The New York Botanical Garden

Talk about eye candy!

Celebrating its 10-year milestone this year, the ever-popular horticultural show at The New York Botanical Garden (NYBG) is a sight for winter-weary eyes.

It’s akin to stepping from the world of black and white to color ¾ think Dorothy whirling and whipped to a froth from her two-tone farm in Kansas to the dazzling colored world beyond the rainbow and you kind get the thrilling sensual sensation of entering a portal into another world. 

Words are hard to come by to describe the star-studded beauty of the horticultural display.  It does leave you breathless.

While the world of orchids is stunning and the display gardens reminds us how much we adore the exotic and curious other-world of plants, the French artist and botanist, Patrick Blanc, along with the NYBG curators also deserve more than a few awards for determining how to set up and showcase this superb celebration of the plant world’s answer to Tiffany’s that so capture our imaginations. And our hearts.

Blanc is French. So there is more to love there and his winking insight to the botanic garden show is charming  

I saw the show being set up – and even that was an amazing site: it was a behind the scenes peek into the vertical magic being created.

And while orchids are found on every continent, you won’t see anything anywhere like Patrick Blanc’s Vertical Gardens NYBG Orchid Show at the Garden’s Enid A. Haupt Conservatory  

The show is a wonder and a must-see – even though it’s the last week of the show, the experts at NYBG know how to keep the plants as pristine as opening day, rotating any recalcitrant orchid divas out with fresh, new ingénues. 

Any not at all like the Philadelphia Flower Show this year.  I have it on the best authority that the tropical theme this year seemed to create plant fatigue.  So the displays were less than spectacular which is a whispered disappointment to those who expect the very best from this fairy godmother of all plant shows…

And as Donna Summer once sang, this is your last chance for love, your last chance for romance...

The romance of Orchid Evenings, that is. 

Friday April 20, 6:30 to 9pm is the last of the Orchid evenings.

This is where the fantasy really takes flight…

You can enjoy a signature cocktail, elegant beauty, and music.

That is some swanky razzamatazz.

The Vanilla Ginger Moon cocktail is a dreamy confection created for Orchid Evenings by the new Bar in Dylan’s Candy Bar

The cocktail is a sweet brew of plants that know how to party, including corn whisky, Liquor 43  -- that is a vanilla extracted from orchids – plus 42 other botanic flavors such as citrus, fruits, herbs and spices. (you do the math!)

One of the best write-ups for the NYBG Orchid show was blogged by my garden friends at Garden Bytes from the Big Apple  

The two Ellen’s are hort experts and writers – and if that is not Linked-In enough worthy, they are oh, so much more. 

If you love plants, the art of the garden and solid hort advice, you will find their blog a stimulating and informative destination.

Visit the Garden or visit the website if you are not lucky enough to be able to visit this gem of a cultural institution.

Visit NYBG this week.  Instagram the show (see NYBG notations) and Pin me at Gardens I love: http://pinterest.com/gardenglamour/gardens-i-love/

Urban Agriculture Conference at The New York Horticultural Society

Love and urban agriculture have so much in common.

Think about it.

Just like the early stages of love – meaning there is the flirtatious gamble on exciting, new confrontations, the early passion, and the-where-have-you-been-all-my-life affirming commitment – so it is not off the mark to read the opening sentence on the flyer for The Horticultural Society of New York’s (HSNY) www.thehort.org

recent conference on Urban Agriculture where it posits the question, “Is Urban Farming here for the long haul, or just the latest iteration of a ‘back to the land’ reflex that occurs whenever the nation or economy is threatened?” to see the parallelisms of love and urban farming and long-term relationships.

This manifesto of sorts could be the opening salvo of an online dating strategy.   (Substitute You for Urban Farming and back to the land for the steady lover and you catch the drift!)

But when it comes to Urban Ag, HSNY is all business.  They are no one-night stand!  The organization rightfully claims they have been cultivating urban gardeners since 1902 – so they are the Oprah-like poster child of long-term commitment and can claim a home field advantage on this subject.

 

Urban Agriculture Conference

It was an energized, cosmopolitan-peppy, sold-out audience that filled the Hort’s midtown headquarters for the all-day educational and entertaining event. 

Anticipation fairly crackled as attendees greeted one another -- eagerly embracing the too-early (i.e. hot) spring – and each other -- while serving up the healthy breakfast provided by The Hort. 

Overheard clutches of conversation were riffs on the themes: “Can you believe the herbs are up already?” to “There’ll be hell to pay with the ‘bugs’ this summer” to “My clients think we should start planting annuals now!” and “Does anyone need more proof of climate change??”       

All rather natty horticulture exchanges, don’t you think?

The Urban Ag Conference Line Up

The day’s agenda was a “Who’s Who” of urban farming and gardening. 

As an aside, does one read a difference in those terms or is the urban environment where the two acts: gardening and farming are rendered two sides of the same coin?

George Pisegna, Director of Hort, Introduces Conference at The Hort

George Pisegna, Director of Horticulture and the genius who toils to put these fascinating programs together opened up the Conference.  

Thomas Fox, Keynoter and author of “Urban Farming: Sustainable City Living in Your Backyard, in Your Community, and in the World,” (available at Amazon http://tiny.cc/fvmkcw and on the Kindle. I got that version) was the ideal candidate to address the audience with his talk:

“Urban Farming in 2012:  Anything New Under the Sun?”

Following a delicious and equally healthy lunch was the Panel Discussion, moderated by Camilla Hammer, Farm Manager, Battery Urban Farm The Battery Conservancy

Panelists: Erika Brenner, Farm Educator Dekalb Farm

Annie Novak, Founder and Director, Growing Chefs

Phyllis Odessey, Director of Horticulture, Randall’s Island Park

Eun Young Sebazco, Horticulture Manager, Randall’s Island Park

Britta Riley, CEO and Founder, Windowfarms

Zach Pickens, Farm Manager, Riverpark Farm at Alexandria Center 

Keynote

Tom started the book in 2001; finished it in 2010. 

His talk was as much about the making of the book as it parallels the evolution of the world of urban farms as it was about the state of urban farming.

The moniker “urban farming” didn’t even exist when he started his research and writing, he said.

There was a Brooklyn rooftop farm, and the first urban CSA and pretty much nothing else.  His research took him from no material to everyone’s doing it, with urban farming-as-phenomena.

His book opens with the Google search results that go from three to thousands…

So what is creating this new status of urban framing?

Tom outlined what’s driving Urban Ag, with the starting gate of 2011:

1. The attacks on the World Trade Center caused many New Yorkers to move away. He cited a friend who relocated to Atlanta and subsequently felt drawn “back to the land.”  But then she also realized “food as crop” and was dissatisfied, nay disgusted with the choice of perishable food being offered for sale.   

She asked, “Is this the legacy we want to leave to our children?”  She came to farm her food.

2. Wars and economic problems  - there is precedence of this crisis that leads to gardening. Think Victory Gardens. The recent recession jumpstarted the practice of urban gardening.  In any economic crisis there is a want (need?) to grow our own food to save money.

3. China and the World Trade Organization –First we lost a lot of jobs when we stopped being the people who made things with our hands, leaving that to China and things like food here became cheap.

4.  Climate Change – It rains less frequently but more intensely and this is bad for agriculture.  Climate change will continue and will only get worse.  Tom said we can see the affects climate change has created and called out proof of its consequences in an article he found in an insurance industry press story on this – noting it was not covered in the popular press.

This discovery caused quite a stir in that business is already baking the climate change element into their spreadsheets and yet the mass population is not even accepting the fact that climate change exists! 

Moreover, there is a land grab presently going on in Africa, according to Tom.

Rain-fed cropland is already being farmed. Now, so many resource-poor countries are buying up millions of acres to lock in their land insurance for growing food. 

The land grab effort underscores a country’s insecurity.

Tom continued: The Slow Food movement started in Europe and like past immigrants, soon made its way to the US.

The organization is a grass roots effort to promote local food traditions and to combat industrial and unsafe food practices. www.slowfood.com

In 2003 Europe reacted to its Mad Cow disease but scientists still can’t figure out where the cow came from due to the complicated fabric of cross-networked food sources.

Now the Slow Food movement is making its way to China in reaction to its health scares and as a partial solution to that country’s food scandals, including salmonella outbreaks in eggs there – that are shipped elsewhere…

“It’s all very disturbing,” lamented Tom.  “All these examples point up the precariousness of our food supply.”

Part of the allure of urban farming is to reclaim the food supply.

Food Mantra

Food is radical. Food is power.

“This is a mantra that can be applied to most every urban farming experience,” claims Tom. “If you don’t control the food, you don’t control life.”

Most of this country’s “life” or food – comes from California’s Central Valley, and Latin and South America.

But, Tom suggests, fruits and vegetable can be grown locally. 

At this point, he noted the rice that was grown at Randall’s Island.

We’d learn more about this successful, revolutionary urban farming experience later from Eun Young and Phyllis – the Randall’s Island food farming heroines and geniuses behind this brave and creative experiment.

From a perspective of cultural anthropology, Tom pointed out the history of how farming changed mid-century -- after World War II.

At that time, it was considered a favor to get people off the farm. Working with one’s hands is wonderful yes, but tough.

Here, Tom showed a Gifford Pinchot sign he came across that celebrated this notion: getting farmers out of the mud and onto paved roads!

As in ‘preaching to the choir, Tom said the pendulum has swung the other way – and we now have nearly every city practicing urban farming.

There are generations of kids who have been exposed to growing their own food through the efforts of passionate citizens and organizations including public parks: i.e. Randall’s Island, botanic gardens, and GreenMarkets.  “Often, these kids go off to become professional farmers,” said Tom.  

Cities have built-in advantages, he said.  There is the ‘heat-island’ affect that can extend the growing seasons. 

In addition, cities can offer protection from winds and provide ready access to technology to better implement farming approaches such as hydroponics, and drip irrigation and greenhouses and window farms.

“In many ways, urban farms are more efficient than rural areas.”

He cited Lake Mead where the water levels have been steadily dropping due to less than average snowfall feeding the Colorado River.  Can’t miss that bathtub ring badge of water loss.

The Ogallala aquifer supplies 30% of the country’s total irrigation water and yet its waters have been so tapped that the trees there are drying up, Tom noted.

This aquifer, by the way, nourishes the “breadbasket of America” and has been dragged back unwillingly into the news recently because there are those who argue to allow the construction of the Keystone pipeline to carry oil to the Houston refineries from Canada, thereby increasing the risk, to say the least, for environmental disaster and loss of food security.  Does anyone remember the Gulf oil spill? 

And India has frequent blackouts due to the strain put on the grid by the overwhelming use of water pumps needed to extract water…  

 

Metrics

OK, so the audience was already sold on the idea of urban farming, and were spellbound by the history and stories of farming romance engendered by working with the land…

Now the pragmatics were wondering about that place where the road hits the rubber, er, tractor tire.

How much money can one expect to make or how much yield will urban farming produce??

Tom says 20-30 pounds of tomatoes and cited Gotham Greens and others who claim they can earn $50K on a half-acre to 100 tons of produce yield from one-third acre. 

It all depends on the way the land is farmed. 

Shanghai, for example has a population of 23 million and produces 90% of its eggs and 50% of its chickens and pork, and more than two metric tons of wheat and rice.   “Something to aspire to,” he noted.

New York has 52,000 acres of back yards. 

An exciting development is “Distributed Farms” – where farmers do a lot of work on homeowners’ space who set aside land for farmers to work their land, with the homeowners having shares – similar to a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program.  This could be a Home Supported Agriculture or a HAS!

Further, New York City has 14,000 un-shaded rooftop that can be farmed. This can also be considered an added advantage for building owners and landlords because the rooftop farms offer insulation that can benefit heating and cooling costs.

There is 11,000 acres of brownfields and vacant lots in NYC. 

Riverpark – celebrity chef Tom Colicchio’s Kips Bay restaurant overlooks a garden that was a “stalled” commercial development and is a good example of this enterprise.

In general, it was noted edibles can be grown in containers and raised beds to safeguard against ground pollutants, as is done at Riverpark’s farm.

Just look around – food can be grown most everywhere: in community gardens, patio containers and windowsills and on fire escapes – (the last being illegal, of course, and shouldn’t be promoted as a place to grow anything.)

Talk about Job Creators

Unlike some big shots, who claim they know business only to lay off workers or shut down plants, farming on the other hand does indeed generate jobs. 

Tom said it is a difficult metric to determine, but delighted the audience not only with his research and results, but also in his sheer pluckiness in finding the data in a Kellogg Foundation Report from which he extrapolated his work.

So here it goes:  The USDA says for every $1 million in sales, 13 jobs per million are created so therefore, urban farming can expect to provide 13,000 jobs! 

Major cities that can contribute to urban farming jobs are Detroit, San Francisco, Boston and New York that combined are one-third of the US population. 

“It’s an Agricultural Disneyland” Tom declared. 

How to Foster an Agricultural Disneyland – and get a Tool Library!

No “Land of the Future” amusement here, rather buying locally grown food and encouraging local restaurants that support local farms. 

“It is a great cachet for the restaurants,” said Tom.  “And many of the chefs get to help determine what’s grown – so they get an exclusive” to offer to the customer.

Another way to get urban farming going is to recognize zoning laws need to change.  City planners need to consider the height of buildings; consider having limits not apply to greenhouses.  “We could be looking at 12,000 acres of commercial rooftop use for farms,” noted Tom.

Our goal should be 15% of our food supply be grown in our own breadbasket. We can even grow apples -- just like they do on Randall’s Island, he observed.  

“Start with vegetables as opposed to livestock, “ grinned Tom while offering another tip to get urban farming in place.

Push for more community gardens and farmers markets with Tool Libraries as GrowNYC has.  www.grownyc.org

Tool Libraries? 

What a great idea.  Tool libraries lend the garden instruments needed to till the land and can reduce overhead costs for start up efforts.

Another kick-starter is to allow for cottage industries.  For example, the Bronx Community Farm wanted to sell their produce but didn’t have a way to do business with a GreenMarket.  But after the city lent a hand, the Farm can now sell food commercially and make money to fund their operations.

Sure to enable urban agriculture is to support Farm to School programs to promote nutrition, careers, etc. 

Note: many master chefs recognize cooking is transformative – they work diligently for children’s gardening programs including chefs that are featured in this Examiner’s book, Hamptons & Long Island Homegrown Cookbook  http://tiny.cc/4zjhbw

For example, chefs Bryan Futerman and Joe Realmuto build greenhouses and teach cooking and sponsor fundraising for their Spring Seedlings Project they spearheaded in 2008 to teach kids about growing their own food and quality of what they cook and eat.  http://www.thespringsseedlings.org/index.php

Here’s a nice story about their efforts in the East Hampton Patch:

http://tiny.cc/x2ulcw

Chef Bill Telepan’s Wellness in Schools (WITS) helps city schools produce healthy menus. Other Celebrity chefs, including Marcus Samuelson, lend a hand to teach and train school kitchen staffs. WITS aims to foster “healthy eating, environmental awareness and fitness as a way of life for kids in NYC public schools.  http://wellnessintheschools.org/

What’s on the Horizon?

When asked what’s new under the sun, Tom delivered on the keynote’s headline provocation and didn’t hesitate to say he thinks there is great momentum, there are more ways to engage and to complement traditional agriculture along with plenty of ways to be sustainable. 

He also offered examples of successful Distributed Networks and shared the fact that Bryerson in Canada has a Distance Learning program.

He believes the future of urban construction and urban farms will be part and parcel of each other.  Urban farms will have become part of the construction building criteria and lexicon.

Agri-Tourism will become a popular form of travel entertainment, too.

For more information from Tom and his world of Urban Farming, visit his website:

http://farmeresq.com/

Tom Fox, author & Urban Ag Conference Keynote Speaker

Next up is the Panel Discussion review filled with insight and tips from “some of the most productive and innovative projects in the city’s urban farming community,” as profiled in The Hort’s flyer.

They should know.

Don Rakow Explains the World of Public Gardens at the 92 St Y

The 92^nd Street Y has earned an unparelleled reputation for presenting impeccable and compelling news lectures.

Their ability to identify an issue and the expert that embodies the nascent topic seems almost uncanny. 

Yet, decades of having their finger firmly on the pulse of what everyone will be talking about at dinner parties or NPR or effecting cultural news trend reporters and well, bloggers, is a well-defined skill set.

And so it was recently when the 92St Y – brought about my friend, Helen Conover, hosted Donald Rakow, PhD, the Elizabeth Newman Wilds Director of Cornell Plantations, as well as Director of the Cornell Graduate Program in Public Garden Leadership and co-author of Public Garden Management A Complete Guide to the Planning and Administration of Botanical Gardens and Arboreta.

(I am so honored to have been asked to contribute to this seminal resource book. 

I provided chapter 19, Public Relations and Marketing Communications.)

The lecture at the 92^nd St Y was a well-attended event with the audience seeming to consist of equal parts eager, tell-me-more-public garden enthusiasts and loyal Big Red, Cornell alumni and supporters  -- of which I am a card-carrying member because my beloved father is/was a Cornell graduate: class of ’47, engineer – who worked diligently for the alumni and volunteered for years as the Garden State’s first line of recruitment for would-be students.  I possess many fond family memories of his Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity house and Triphammer Road and the beautiful gorges and …

It’s a spectacular campus, to say the least – of which the audience and Rakow are duly proud. 

Hint: Take a visit.

Dr. Rakow is an authoritative, engaging speaker.  Dr. Rakow makes his points clearly and with distinction. 

He takes you down the garden path with a soft-spoken Mr. Chips kind of class and style – illuminating a world of which most are only aware of peripherally – or to extend the metaphor – most people’s knowledge of public gardens is what they see at the garden’s border. 

The magical, special, pragmatic world Dr. Rakow showcases is that of the overwhelming, unabashed dedication and embrace of the world of public gardens.

To most green garden lovers it’s a “you say tomato/I say tomato kind of issue.”

 

But that notion or thesis is, in fact, the starting line of the topic and the book, Public Garden Management.

He knows how to cultivate a topic many are not aware of and at the same time, demystify that same subject they just learned about.  He is an artful explorer – tacking and jibing where needed.

He is a sensitive teacher.

His talk, supported by salient PowerPoint images and appropriate text  - a presentation that he is clearly comfortable with – nay – eager to deliver – consists of a broad overview of what a Public Garden is and what it is not.  

The more intriguing element is why this distinction is important…

But first up is “setting the stage.”

“Virtually all Public Gardens work from a mission statement” said Dr. Rakow.  Their intent is just the same as fine art museum.” 

From my years working at the cultural institutions that are New York’s botanic gardens, the distinction is that a public garden is a living museum.

I’d often say to the press eager to learn about a public garden – “while the beauty and mystery of say, a Picasso or a Monet, is undeniable -- here at the botanical garden, the art is not only beautiful and compelling and rigorous, but it changes. Every day.”

Put that in your cultural swag bag!

Dr. Rakow went on to describe and explain the unique categories of public gardens, including:

·      Botanic garden

·      Aboreta

·      Pleasure garden

·      Historic garden

·      Zoo

See, and you thought you knew all about “gardens.”

Here is another world of exciting garden adventures to be explored.

Public Garden Criteria

There exist some clearly defined criteria for public gardens, according to Dr. Rakow.

A public garden and an arboretum need to be curated – this is a clear difference from a park. 

“Some people think of gardens as parks where they go to play Frisbee,” noted Dr. Rakow. “At Cornell, we changed that situation and turned the lawn into a meadow” he said smiling to the chuckling audience.

Further, “We worked with the athletic department to carve out a space for the Frisbee enthusiasts; so it was a win – win” he added.  

No brainer – or not – but a public garden must be open to the public – not just open on garden days or for benefits.

Public Gardens must have professionally trained staff.

It is most important for the Public Garden garden to show what role plants play in our lives. 

Dr. Rakow pointed out the role of botanical gardens and their key services of science and education, in addition to horticulture and public programs.  Public gardens serve their communities very many like plant-based universities.

Moving on to other key criteria defining public gardens is the issue of Social Justice! 

Be still my heart.

Finally.

I attend more lectures than most people have shoes in their closets and rare is the speaker who talks about social justice, much less one that provides a ready solution.

Dr. Rakow talked about public gardens’ ability to respond to the needs of the people and the community.

“Too often a garden doesn’t serve local demographics.”

There is a white middle class or top 1% that supports a botanic garden but a local community might get overlooked- for a variety of not so good reasons.

Dr. Rakow cited Chicago Botanic Garden as public garden that serves its local community: http://www.chicagobotanic.org/

The Green Youth Farm and Windy City Harvest and Cook County Boot Camp programs teach youth about urban farming and harvesting that can lead to their College First Program: a paid internship, college level initiative that follows students after college.

“They stay with them,” said Dr. Rakow, citing a success rate of 90%.

Public Gardens also need to welcome the public to the public gardens in their own language, noted Dr. Rakow.

Queens Botanic Garden in New York City is an example he cited as having the most ethnically diverse garden audience of any in US -- so they interpret the garden in many languages; not just English.

The First Nations Garden in Montreal is a good example of a garden that caters to their Native Quebec Americans to build understanding for them and their culture.  http://www2.ville.montreal.qc.ca/jardin/en/premieres_nations/premieres_nations.htm

Public gardens also offer celebrations events for their particular populations.  These programs can also create opportunities for tourist attractions and can further raise the garden’s profile.

To counteract what is now referred to as Nature Deficit Disorder – a “Last Child in the Woods” affliction affecting far too many children simply because they are separated from the natural world, public gardens offer a bridge to the natural world – even in urban environments where most of increasingly live.

“Let’s Move” type of programs are now in place at museums and gardens he noted.  These programs emphasize both physical activity and the beauty of living museums, aka public gardens.  

Further, most kids have no idea where food comes from, noted Dr. Rakow.  Public gardens are the best vehicles to address this issue and many have developed programs that get kids to understand the life cycle and lessons of plant-based foods.

Public gardens are also leading the way in yet another emerging category: Horticultural Therapy.  Dr. Rakow cited Denver Botanical Gardens and their just-created new Horticultural Therapy program and garden as an excellent example. http://www.botanicgardens.org/

 

Arboreta, on the other hand, focus on woody plants trees, & shrubs.  “The Morton Arboretum is an excellent example,” he said. http://www.morrisarboretum.org/

In terms of Pleasure Gardens, Rakow cited Chanticleer as a premier example.  “Their primary focus is to show how we can be involved with plants in a display garden–by the creative impulse of beauty.”

This is indeed one wowsy beautiful garden.  I’ve been there twice – and could do the tour endlessly. 

Chanticleer was the site of the 2009 Garden Writers of America Awards that I attended.  My second visit was after a family wedding at nearby Villanova and I’d arranged with the incomparable Director Bill Noble to provide a family tour.  Little did I know we’d get to experience the tour with Bill as our guide! It was a most memorable and magical garden experience,  http://www.chanticleergarden.org/

Because Chanticleer was once a family home, the grounds are scaled to our sense of the romance of a garden.  There is a lifetime of gardening to learn and appreciate and inculcate here.  Enjoy.

Next up to be explored was the category of Historic Sites – those gardens than have been restored to another period or era.

Dr. Rakow cited FiLoLi Gardens near San Francisco as a good example of this category of public gardens.

I took a garden design class at FiLoLi and can testify to the beauty and character and the loving maintenance and care of the gardens there.

It’s very name; FiLoLi is an anagram of sorts – from the words Fidelity, Love and Life.

http://www.filoli.org/

Historic garden sites must be curated, Dr. Rakow reminded the listeners. 

And if the mission statement or focus is more on the home or mansion, then it cannot be considered a Public Garden.

According to Dr. Rakow, a revolution is taking place in zoos as they embrace the world of a public garden. 

Here, Dr. Rakow cited Tulsa and their effort to create a naturalistic habitat that best relates to the animals.  http://www.tulsazoo.org/

Significant Trends in Public Gardens

Following up on the success of the groundbreaking book (pun kinda’ intended...) for Public Garden Management, Dr. Rakow said he and co-author Sharon Lee are currently working on their next book about how public gardens are the center of art, research, plant conservation and outreach and healing.

Now we’re getting someplace! 

This is going to be one honey of a book and a topic that is loooonggg overdue, in my opinion.  Applause, Applause.

Another significant trend or issue cited by Dr. Rakow is Plant Conservation. 

There is no more pressing issue of our time, he said, citing Dr. Peter Raven, Missouri Botanical Garden http://www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/  Dr. Raven forecasts that one third of plants could be extinct by 2030.

Yikes.

Here’s to hoping people care enough to be stewards of our plant world –– the lungs of our world – to make certain we take up our shovels and rakes and well – you get the idea – but take up our arms-as-garden-tools enough to make certain we safeguard our plants and our relationship to them as we do with other cuddly, endangered species.

Another trend is Environmental Sustainability. 

According to Dr. Rakow, a key question or issue should be: does it meet the needs of the present without compromising future generations and their needs?

A good example of best building practices are the structures at the Pittsburgh Phipps Conservatory and botanical garden that uses the most progressive, sustainable buildings now  -- way beyond anything seen heretofore.  The building is scheduled to open this spring as a net zero building  - a living building – that creates all of its own energy – with a net positive energy flow. http://phipps.conservatory.org/visit-phipps/index.aspx

A Q&A followed the talk, further providing some very interesting subjects. 

We learned the Cornell Plantations’ outdoor collections contribute to the student body and academics and are integrated into more than 60 courses, including landscape architecture, environmental ecology, and art.

It was curious to learn that our perception of public gardens goes back to 16^th century Europe when gardens were created as adjuncts to medical universities and not meat for the public.  In Europe today, many of the gardens still don’t have dedicated public outreach and no social outreach or social justice programs, he noted.

And finally, Dr. Rakow shared how the name “plantations” came to be the official moniker of the University’s outdoor collection.  “The name plantation came from Liberty Hyde Bailey,” he said.  “The name has seemed controversial, yes, but the antebellum south environment was not the reference point for the affirmed abolitionist.”  Rather, Bailey thought that the diversity and complexity of an enterprise engaged in horticulture and botany wasn’t served by the term botanical garden.  Bailey wanted the name plantation, in order to suggest the variety of enterprise taken up by the land from an agricultural pursuit.  http://www.cornellplantations.org/

After the lecture, I traveled back home downtown with a woman who is keen to develop public programs that engage children in food and garden projects and came to the event to discover how to best go about this.  “How did she learn about the talk? I asked.  From Twitter, she replied. I hoped it was my Tweet, perhaps, that was the sweet call of nature, brining her to the garden world of public gardens.

http://www.92y.org/

The landmark book, Public Garden Management is available at Amazon:

http://tiny.cc/6ilccw

About the Authors:

Donald A. Rakow, PhD, serves as the Elizabeth Newman Wilds Director of Cornell Plantations, as well as Director of the Cornell Graduate Program in Public Garden Leadership. Actively involved in horticultural associations and education initiatives at many levels, Rakow is a frequent speaker at conferences and has been honored with the APGA Service Award, for his service on American Public Gardens Association's board of directors and many of its committees.

Sharon A. Lee is the principal of Sharon Lee & Associates, a communications consulting firm, and is the former deputy director of the American Public Gardens Association and the founding editor of the Public Garden, the journal of the American Public Gardens Association.