I Want TO...Science + Art Process to Create Landscapes for Plants and People

Kim Todd, Professor and Extension Horticulture Specialist, Department of Agronomy and Horticulture, University of Nebraska Author

02/14/2024 Added

22 Plays

Description

The positive effects of exposure to nature are well-documented, yet decisions are often made based on lack of understanding about all landscapes as systems. This seminar will demonstrate a simple universal process that can result in creation of beautiful, practical, manageable, and resilient landscapes of any size that enhance human well-being.

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[00:00:00.250]The following presentation
[00:00:02.220]is part of the Agronomy and Horticulture seminar series
[00:00:05.790]at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
[00:00:09.420]Hey, good morning.
[00:00:11.670]Hope everybody's doing well.
[00:00:12.570]Welcome to the second in our spring 2024 seminar series.
[00:00:18.390]I'm Christian Stephenson.
[00:00:19.590]And I am here to introduce Ms. Kim Todd.
[00:00:23.190]I'm on short notice, so I went to Kim
[00:00:25.740]and I asked her how she would like to be introduced
[00:00:27.660]and she said that she would like to introduce herself,
[00:00:29.790]which makes my job easy and I certainly appreciate that.
[00:00:33.664]Just have a couple of things to say really quick.
[00:00:36.570]At the end of the presentation,
[00:00:37.860]if you have any questions, please just raise your hand.
[00:00:40.380]I'll be happy to come to you with the microphone,
[00:00:42.600]so that everyone online can hear as well.
[00:00:45.697]And if you are joining us online,
[00:00:48.941]please type in your questions
[00:00:50.730]and we'll be sure to read those out as well
[00:00:53.400]as part of the question and answer session.
[00:00:54.810]So, thank you very much and thank you, Kim.
[00:00:57.330]Thank you, Christian. Can you guys hear me?
[00:01:00.330]Indeed. All right.
[00:01:01.500]Well, good morning all y'all beautiful people.
[00:01:05.760]Lots of students in here on purpose.
[00:01:08.190]I am a landscape architect by education.
[00:01:10.650]I'm a plant nerd by choice.
[00:01:12.750]I am an Iowan by birth. I am a Nebraskan by choice.
[00:01:16.770]So, I have been here longer
[00:01:18.450]than pretty much everybody in the room has been alive,
[00:01:22.170]with maybe a couple exceptions over here in the corner.
[00:01:25.350]I love to teach. I hate podiums.
[00:01:29.580]So, this is not my style, is it,
[00:01:32.670]beautiful young people over there.
[00:01:34.080]I'd rather wander about, go outside,
[00:01:37.170]engage you with your landscape.
[00:01:39.420]So, what I decided to do on this is really something
[00:01:43.350]that is both my philosophy on what I do and teach
[00:01:47.790]and what I think people need to know.
[00:01:50.370]And it is not a typical presentation
[00:01:55.590]of you must do this first, you must do this last,
[00:01:58.830]because that's not how design works.
[00:02:01.200]And what I will be doing is concentrating really
[00:02:04.020]on the two pieces that I think
[00:02:05.490]are most important for you to understand.
[00:02:08.910]So, I'm gonna start with a question,
[00:02:10.380]how many of you are aware
[00:02:12.180]of what is flowering in our courtyard right now?
[00:02:17.070]Mm-hmm.
[00:02:18.120]That would be exactly why
[00:02:20.160]we need a science plus art process,
[00:02:23.850]because they've been blooming since January 28th.
[00:02:27.390]And that is science and that is art.
[00:02:30.180]And that is how we come to the world first,
[00:02:32.760]at least in my opinion.
[00:02:34.560]So, I want you to keep that in mind.
[00:02:36.510]If I could, I would give you all sorts of things.
[00:02:38.700]But usually, design is like a lot of work.
[00:02:42.630]And the title of this is I want to on purpose.
[00:02:46.170]That is our courtyard,
[00:02:47.160]just in case you haven't looked at it for a while,
[00:02:50.550]other than looking for the turtles,
[00:02:52.590]which is again, something that attracts people to space.
[00:02:55.920]All right, here's what science is.
[00:02:58.800]This is science. It is the facts, just the facts.
[00:03:02.370]And this is based on a dictionary, so that has to be true.
[00:03:05.520]And the facts on this are obviously,
[00:03:07.470]we have something with the disease
[00:03:08.910]and we have something with an insect of some sort.
[00:03:12.000]And that's just what it is.
[00:03:14.384]And this is art. This is what art is.
[00:03:17.520]So, it is that skill and that composition.
[00:03:20.820]So, the design side of the house
[00:03:24.510]oftentimes is considered something that is a little fluffy.
[00:03:30.300]It's a little fluffy.
[00:03:31.950]And I can't disagree with that,
[00:03:33.510]because it's very subjective.
[00:03:36.000]If I asked every single person in here
[00:03:38.123]to give me one idea about what they love
[00:03:42.420]and what they hate in the landscape world,
[00:03:44.190]I suspect I would get about 40 different opinions on that.
[00:03:48.510]But notice the words that are used,
[00:03:50.506]because this is also really important.
[00:03:53.146]So, here's what we have.
[00:03:55.440]It's the art plus the science or the science plus the art.
[00:03:59.610]This is in our arboretum right here on campus,
[00:04:02.700]in case you don't get out and about very often.
[00:04:05.970]What attracts people to this is not the science, is it?
[00:04:09.960]It's when it's in flower,
[00:04:11.730]it's like what in the world is that?
[00:04:14.310]The science behind it
[00:04:15.450]is how in the world do you make it do that.
[00:04:18.120]And will it do that?
[00:04:19.260]Because the rhododendrons
[00:04:20.670]in the background have to have that acid soil.
[00:04:23.430]And the serviceberries in the foreground,
[00:04:26.970]you have to get there before the birds do,
[00:04:28.680]or you are not gonna eat those serviceberries.
[00:04:31.200]So, there are all sorts
[00:04:32.310]of science underpinnings to the beauty of the art.
[00:04:36.090]So, if I did ask you this question, what is a landscape?
[00:04:38.850]And you had to describe landscape in your own words
[00:04:43.080]and how it is defined for you,
[00:04:46.590]that is the piece of it
[00:04:47.640]that is also harder to research and harder to define,
[00:04:51.570]because thank heavens, we are all unique individuals.
[00:04:56.190]Can you just imagine if the landscape
[00:04:58.950]was the way a lot of residential construction is these days,
[00:05:02.130]which is, and they all look like ticky-tack
[00:05:04.710]and they all look just the same.
[00:05:06.270]For those of you who remember that song.
[00:05:08.760]And we all experience the landscape in different ways.
[00:05:12.497]So, they are all communities and they are all systems.
[00:05:16.770]That is actually why our major
[00:05:18.480]is plant and landscape systems.
[00:05:21.720]So, what are those two things on the corners?
[00:05:24.060]What are those two things?
[00:05:27.060]That's the courtyard from two different vantage points.
[00:05:30.300]And that is actually
[00:05:31.230]what the design work was that got that courtyard built.
[00:05:35.010]So, there is a lot of science
[00:05:36.840]and there's a lot of by guess and by golly
[00:05:38.520]and a lot of art associated with that.
[00:05:41.460]So, (clears throat) here's the real deal though.
[00:05:43.410]We base what we like on what we experience
[00:05:47.100]and what we see, whether it is the native,
[00:05:49.650]the natural environment that is actually Coeur d'Alene.
[00:05:53.100]So, not here, but it could be.
[00:05:54.960]And the other side is the other coast with those of them,
[00:05:57.600]there are pink and blue hydrangeas,
[00:05:59.850]which a lot of people absolutely love.
[00:06:01.920]That's personal preference.
[00:06:03.930]But getting plants and landscapes
[00:06:06.180]to do those kinds of things does rely very heavily
[00:06:08.850]on both that art and that science.
[00:06:11.820]So, seeing is believing.
[00:06:13.633]Are we attracted first to the science?
[00:06:17.130]Yes, no. Yes?
[00:06:19.590]No, no, no.
[00:06:21.870]Oh, come on. Voting is a really good thing.
[00:06:24.887]Okay. Are we attracted to the aesthetic?
[00:06:28.950]Absolutely, absolutely.
[00:06:31.260]And this is a study from MIT,
[00:06:32.992]13 milliseconds, that's lots of like millis in there,
[00:06:39.360]for the brain to process what the eyes see.
[00:06:43.200]And the eyes take up to 10 million pieces
[00:06:45.810]of information per second.
[00:06:47.610]Well, holy cow, that is a lot.
[00:06:50.490]And then, what we do as human beings,
[00:06:53.100]and this is Salk Institute, we outline edges
[00:06:57.497]and it's really intriguing research to see how this works.
[00:07:01.860]We outline edges.
[00:07:03.480]A 90-degree is across the way.
[00:07:06.720]We stitch them together just like that
[00:07:10.200]to actually make sense out of what we're seeing.
[00:07:13.020]But I want you to think about that for a minute,
[00:07:15.150]because that is the awesomeness, isn't it?
[00:07:18.750]That's the science behind,
[00:07:20.070]we can actually experience the landscape.
[00:07:23.370]Flowers, fruits, and seeds.
[00:07:25.140]If I did one of those real quick things
[00:07:27.210]and just went flip, flip, flip
[00:07:28.650]and said, what did you just see?
[00:07:30.752]Some of you would focus on the strawberry,
[00:07:33.690]some of you would focus
[00:07:34.788]on whatever the thing is in the middle
[00:07:36.600]that you don't know what it is.
[00:07:38.492]Others of you would know all of it
[00:07:40.410]and others of you would focus on the white space.
[00:07:43.320]That again, is the part of the art
[00:07:45.300]that is so incredibly important.
[00:07:47.610]So, I looked up some survey information.
[00:07:49.920]This is way cool too,
[00:07:51.000]because again, there is data associated with what we do.
[00:07:55.320]This is Horticulture Research Institute.
[00:07:58.560]And this is a, they did a word cloud for gardeners.
[00:08:01.560]And obviously, this is one single slide snapshot.
[00:08:05.730]And the gardening words
[00:08:07.838]that trip the triggers, if you will, on this.
[00:08:12.300]Aesthetics, 30%, and entertainment, 27.2%.
[00:08:17.940]That is what brought these gardeners,
[00:08:20.940]these new gardeners to the landscape world.
[00:08:24.450]And I'll use the word garden,
[00:08:25.830]because these are garden surveys,
[00:08:27.384]but the landscape is a garden.
[00:08:29.460]Remember that Garden of Eden thing?
[00:08:30.930]That's a big deal. That was the world.
[00:08:33.900]And if you look at this, we have awesomeness
[00:08:37.950]of a water feature that looks like a snail.
[00:08:40.890]And we have my next door neighbor's house
[00:08:44.010]in fall looking like that.
[00:08:46.170]And then, we have the survey information.
[00:08:48.270]So, this report is very, very current.
[00:08:52.830]So, there's one, aesthetics. And here's another one.
[00:08:56.130]This is the National Gardening Association.
[00:08:58.136]They have updated their information from previously.
[00:09:02.010]And of course, we had COVID going on,
[00:09:03.780]which brought 16 million new gardeners to the world.
[00:09:07.500]The majority of whom have stayed, have stayed.
[00:09:11.040]And that's where we come in as an educational institution,
[00:09:13.800]because part of the reasons people don't engage
[00:09:17.190]in the landscape is because of lack of knowledge.
[00:09:20.210]So, here's what the NGA discovered,
[00:09:23.490]and that is the psychological
[00:09:25.110]and the emotional benefits of the landscape.
[00:09:28.350]Mental health right up there.
[00:09:30.600]Makes us feel better, makes us feel joy, helps people relax.
[00:09:35.010]It's a relaxation thing. Connecting with nature.
[00:09:39.090]And it's great exercise, or it can be,
[00:09:41.610]or you get somebody else to do it for you.
[00:09:44.580]Okay, so I also, we look at trends and themes.
[00:09:47.280]That's very popular.
[00:09:49.050]And so, this is 2014 on your left and 2024 on my right.
[00:09:55.860]I didn't highlight them all,
[00:09:57.536]but look at the consistency across the way.
[00:10:00.870]So, trends then become themes. That's a decade.
[00:10:05.100]And we're seeing so much of the same thing
[00:10:07.590]with generations that are that much younger.
[00:10:11.760]That should tell us something
[00:10:13.380]about what is important in landscape and systems,
[00:10:17.700]in connecting people to their spaces and their places.
[00:10:22.470]So, insects being one of them.
[00:10:25.470]Pollinators, pollinators, pollinators.
[00:10:28.320]The good, the bad, and the ugly.
[00:10:29.670]And what you get is what you got.
[00:10:31.290]That is one of those classic,
[00:10:34.530]continues to show up as pollinator gardens.
[00:10:37.830]Something new. Okay.
[00:10:40.020]Now, again, a lot of the trending is trends in particular,
[00:10:43.890]trends right now, for heaven's sakes,
[00:10:45.390]we're going back to bell bottoms.
[00:10:47.400]Been there, done that.
[00:10:49.830]Probably not doing that again in the bare midriff thing.
[00:10:53.010]Over it. You go right ahead.
[00:10:55.544](Kim and attendee laughing)
[00:10:56.970]And you stop laughing. (laughs)
[00:11:00.450]But so, we...
[00:11:02.640]I mean, part of what keeps us energized is something new.
[00:11:06.360]And that is the fabulous part about thinking
[00:11:08.790]about processes with science and art in the landscape.
[00:11:12.570]It is new from 8:00 in the morning until 8:05.
[00:11:15.840]And that is what keeps us going.
[00:11:18.210]But you gotta look at what will be the place
[00:11:20.430]of what you want that's new in the whole landscape.
[00:11:23.130]Is it gonna be an object or is it going to be something
[00:11:26.460]that you have deliberately chosen by a process?
[00:11:30.120]Okay, so did this too,
[00:11:31.950]because this is becoming, this is important stuff.
[00:11:34.800]This is Pew Research Plus or Pew Institute, Pew.
[00:11:38.760]Pew, P-E-W, that one. Generations and process.
[00:11:42.870]So, the boomers, here we go. (clears throat)
[00:11:45.060]We're on the downhill slide. We just are, life is terminal.
[00:11:49.590]The millennials, 1981 to 1996, they're all grown up.
[00:11:55.919]They've kinda, kinda,
[00:11:57.720]some of them gotten over being millennials, sorta.
[00:12:02.640]Then, we've got the Zers,
[00:12:03.660]we've got a whole bunch of Zs over here,
[00:12:05.280]because this is a class and this is a class over here,
[00:12:09.600]so have never been without technology.
[00:12:12.900]The millennials learned to use it.
[00:12:15.510]When was the iPhone invented? Who knows?
[00:12:21.644]2007. 2007.
[00:12:24.540]Doesn't it seem like it's been around forever?
[00:12:27.060]It's like 2007 was not that long ago.
[00:12:31.650]So, it is a generation
[00:12:33.300]that we are considering a little bit adrift,
[00:12:35.850]because we had COVID,
[00:12:37.170]we've got all this technology, all this stuff going on.
[00:12:40.080]But look, isn't this way cool? They're planting trees.
[00:12:42.180]This was from N150 where we planted 150 trees on campus.
[00:12:46.920]And this is who they are.
[00:12:49.380]They are community in their own way under a tree
[00:12:53.910]on the wedding island from a class last fall.
[00:12:57.600]So, fresh and trendy and new. Trending is another thing.
[00:13:01.260]Right now, and again,
[00:13:02.520]looking this up and who talks about this?
[00:13:05.250]Goth landscapes, goth and hortifuturism,
[00:13:10.350]which is not a word that rolls off the tongue greatly,
[00:13:13.350]but it's plants that are like "Star Wars"-looking things.
[00:13:17.640]Chartreuse or monochromatic and quiet.
[00:13:21.000]Foliage plants still. Tropical, tropical, tropical.
[00:13:24.930]And then, every year,
[00:13:25.763]we have that pantone color of the year.
[00:13:27.810]And this year, it is peach fuzz.
[00:13:30.960]So, that one goes everywhere in terms of paint and flowers.
[00:13:34.620]And this is what it looks like for the current generations.
[00:13:39.810]This is also trending and this is the big stuff.
[00:13:43.470]To me, it's fun to do trendy things, buy new stuff,
[00:13:47.820]but this is what's really sustained and sustainable.
[00:13:50.640]And this is the direction we need to go.
[00:13:52.800]If we think about good processes
[00:13:54.420]for art and science, it's the rewilding.
[00:13:57.720]I get a kick out of this,
[00:13:58.800]because when I was landscape architect,
[00:14:00.690]we use Nebraska style,
[00:14:02.881]it's not boxwoods and hydrangeas.
[00:14:07.230]It is who we are.
[00:14:08.460]Meadows, eco-lawns, lawn alternatives,
[00:14:11.340]without saying there is no such thing as a lawn.
[00:14:14.130]Lower input, higher impact.
[00:14:18.270]Native, native has an asterisk on it
[00:14:20.190]and so does well-managed, because we have a lot of people
[00:14:22.530]who still like a well-managed landscape.
[00:14:24.780]That doesn't necessarily mean totally clipped and tidy.
[00:14:29.040]Native does not mean native everywhere,
[00:14:31.200]because this is not a native soil.
[00:14:33.510]This is not a native environment.
[00:14:35.400]It absolutely is not.
[00:14:36.720]And if you think natives are gonna be the answer,
[00:14:38.730]they're not necessarily.
[00:14:40.770]Soil, soil, soil.
[00:14:42.600]We of course take it for granted
[00:14:44.940]except for that soil science stuff
[00:14:46.530]that we have going on over here.
[00:14:48.318]But if you don't have it and how do we manage it?
[00:14:51.270]What are the ways that people
[00:14:52.290]are wanting to manage their soil now?
[00:14:54.960]And that is where the good research comes in
[00:14:56.880]that underpins what will become beautiful in the landscape.
[00:15:00.510]Biophyllic design, which is the design that says,
[00:15:04.440]let's bring that inside and let's make it greener.
[00:15:07.770]And gardening, in quotes, for the joy of it,
[00:15:11.520]for the simple let's putter in the garden.
[00:15:14.730]So, this is some of the things that happen
[00:15:17.040]when we think about those processes a little differently.
[00:15:20.520]This is a multimillion dollar property
[00:15:23.520]with what we would call Nebraska style.
[00:15:26.280]Native plus adapted
[00:15:27.660]plus just that journey to the house is just fabulous.
[00:15:31.890]Same thing.
[00:15:32.730]One of the things that, again,
[00:15:34.260]in touching the earth lightly,
[00:15:36.090]a lot of locations,
[00:15:37.110]let's eliminate anything that requires water
[00:15:40.710]and let's use gravel or something else around it.
[00:15:44.490]Now, again, that's a difference in stylistic approach.
[00:15:48.330]So what? What difference does all this stuff make?
[00:15:51.089]What does it have to do with anything?
[00:15:52.890]We are increasingly urban.
[00:15:55.050]Urbanization is taking its toll
[00:15:57.240]on landscape and on human attitude.
[00:16:00.450]Small spaces can be very hostile places
[00:16:03.750]and I'm certain if we would just wander around, all of you
[00:16:06.750]could bring to mind immediately one that is like that.
[00:16:10.080]Information is too widely available.
[00:16:13.170]It's not necessarily good,
[00:16:14.430]but there it is, through technology.
[00:16:17.700]We have lots and lots
[00:16:19.560]of decisions being made through marketing,
[00:16:21.990]through those influencers, through instant, instant.
[00:16:26.160]Here's Instagram, here's whatever,
[00:16:27.810]here's X, Y, Z, all that stuff.
[00:16:30.402]We also have people who want to see landscape activities
[00:16:34.140]as a release instead of a chore.
[00:16:36.762]That means, again, that matching what we want
[00:16:39.810]and what we do with the science that makes that happen
[00:16:42.330]is gonna make that process better.
[00:16:45.270]We have people who wanna set it and forget it.
[00:16:47.190]The complacency of, oh, yeah,
[00:16:49.020]I don't care if that's a living thing,
[00:16:50.607]but I'm done with that,
[00:16:52.148]which is a huge disaster with the living world.
[00:16:54.990]Can you imagine when you were a kid, like a bitty one,
[00:16:57.900]if your parents had said, oh yeah, we said it,
[00:16:59.880]we're just gonna forget it, what would happen?
[00:17:03.300]You're dead. So, this is what we have to deal with.
[00:17:07.830]Increasing urbanization.
[00:17:09.030]Isn't that just the most inviting place you've ever seen?
[00:17:12.300]On 27th Street, who in the world would ever rent that space?
[00:17:16.020]And is it ripe for landscape? Of course it is, absolutely.
[00:17:20.370]If you think about a process
[00:17:21.690]that would allow that to happen.
[00:17:23.670]So, those urban environments,
[00:17:25.362]one of the reasons this is so important
[00:17:27.540]is because again, we have people
[00:17:29.280]who either want lot of space or they want less,
[00:17:34.020]and the less is more urbanized
[00:17:35.580]and they want walkable communities again
[00:17:37.560]and they wanna be able to work, play, stay,
[00:17:40.766]but the spaces are very tight.
[00:17:42.990]This is what we have to deal with though.
[00:17:44.820]So, to figure out how to make that work
[00:17:47.726]from a living landscape standpoint is again that process.
[00:17:52.110]Human impact down in urban spaces is dreadful or can be.
[00:17:56.640]Too many of us and not enough of that.
[00:17:58.740]We walk on it, we dump our stuff in it.
[00:18:01.860]And of course, the management difficulties
[00:18:03.720]then become how do you manage for these little spaces
[00:18:07.140]and places in 92,000
[00:18:09.180]of your best friends at the spring game.
[00:18:12.270]Okay, it can be done.
[00:18:14.802]It absolutely can be done with the right processes.
[00:18:17.760]Little tiny urban spaces can look and feel like this.
[00:18:23.520]And those again are, those are deliberate decisions
[00:18:26.250]made on a different approach to the process.
[00:18:29.460]This is in Boston,
[00:18:31.450]but very, very little with so much green
[00:18:35.430]and so many plants and so many places
[00:18:37.467]and spaces to make people feel a level of comfort
[00:18:41.430]done deliberately so they would actually thrive.
[00:18:44.760]There's always possibilities.
[00:18:46.523]And again, if you dwell in possibility
[00:18:49.779]or what if as a part of this process,
[00:18:53.040]it takes you in a different direction.
[00:18:55.410]It's a path for heaven's sakes.
[00:18:57.420]But it's not one of the kind of standard classic paths
[00:19:00.300]with cars on one side and buildings on the other side.
[00:19:03.318]Or it's that pergola canopy over
[00:19:05.730]where you just want to experience that.
[00:19:09.060]Now, there's huge science required
[00:19:11.029]to be able to figure out how to make those things grow
[00:19:14.100]in that environment,
[00:19:15.090]in that location with that kind of impact.
[00:19:18.270]Or this, this is up close and personal at home.
[00:19:20.910]Isn't that just the best? From this vantage point.
[00:19:23.970]And another thing we tend to think about
[00:19:25.740]or forget about in landscape
[00:19:27.060]is the three-dimensional quality of it.
[00:19:29.250]Y'all go upstairs and you look out down at the courtyard,
[00:19:32.190]because that's where you can see the turtles.
[00:19:34.980]And you can't see them when you're standing right here.
[00:19:36.930]That's a three-dimensional aspect
[00:19:38.640]of what we're talking about.
[00:19:40.680]So, this is common design process.
[00:19:43.232]And this is, again, this is almost universal.
[00:19:46.174]The program, you define what you want,
[00:19:48.420]you define what you need, you inventory and assess.
[00:19:51.426]There comes that fact stuff.
[00:19:53.700]Then you conceptualize, then you develop solutions,
[00:19:57.750]then you revisit, you go like this, it's not linear.
[00:20:00.998]Then, you finalize and you decide with a lot of caveats,
[00:20:05.700]and then you go into the details.
[00:20:07.440]This is classic in the design world,
[00:20:09.150]this is classic process for actually business decisions.
[00:20:13.560]But this is what we do.
[00:20:15.325]This is where we go wrong.
[00:20:18.480]We start with, I want a
[00:20:22.560]and this is what people want.
[00:20:24.210]Tree that blooms in the spring, doesn't have fruit,
[00:20:26.370]has red fall color, loses its leaves next door,
[00:20:28.650]never needs pruning, is a perfect size, and lives forever.
[00:20:32.228]This is autumn blaze maple.
[00:20:34.470]No, you won't use it in my classes.
[00:20:38.340]If we change that one word to I want to.
[00:20:42.510]So, we have turned object into action or experience.
[00:20:47.220]Then, we are beginning
[00:20:48.630]to be in the landscape instead of on it.
[00:20:51.510]Then, we think differently.
[00:20:53.250]So, what do you want to experience? What do you want to do?
[00:20:56.340]You have to ask yourselves that question.
[00:20:59.220]Or your clients, whoever they may be in,
[00:21:02.160]whatever fashion they might be in.
[00:21:04.310]Do you wanna make that house look better?
[00:21:06.000]Well, I would think a little curb appeal would help.
[00:21:08.280]Do you want that tree stump
[00:21:09.810]to turn into just the most fabulous playhouse ever?
[00:21:13.050]Do you want to attract those insects?
[00:21:17.400]What? Whoops, sorry.
[00:21:19.440]What does make your heart sing?
[00:21:21.600]That is a question I ask,
[00:21:23.280]because all of our hearts sing
[00:21:24.990]for something if we just pay attention and listen to it.
[00:21:28.590]And that's huge piece of this process.
[00:21:33.090]Like that. Kittles, yes.
[00:21:36.780]Okay, so then, we tie that
[00:21:38.640]to I want to do with design intent itself.
[00:21:43.050]So, these are the things, I'm not gonna read them.
[00:21:45.060]You all know how to read.
[00:21:46.632]That we do, we enframe or we enclose. I am gonna read them.
[00:21:50.760]Or we create scale, we direct focus,
[00:21:53.610]we guide movement, we provide screens and backdrops.
[00:21:57.330]We modify that climate,
[00:21:58.770]although right now, we don't need to.
[00:22:00.090]We wanna go the other direction.
[00:22:02.040]We create multi-season interest.
[00:22:04.530]We solve a management problem.
[00:22:06.480]These are just pretty simple and classic.
[00:22:08.940]So, I want to feed the birds here,
[00:22:12.630]not I want a bird feeder.
[00:22:14.580]That's a whole different approach.
[00:22:18.381]So, universal landscape functions, this is what they do.
[00:22:22.290]And I use this particular image,
[00:22:24.360]because this is a very contemporary house.
[00:22:26.550]This is a very unique, interesting part of town.
[00:22:30.870]There is one very specimen tree in a very prime location.
[00:22:36.900]And of course, that tree, as all of us hope we do,
[00:22:39.780]it was a babe, it grew, it lived, it died.
[00:22:42.840]It's not there anymore.
[00:22:43.800]And the space has changed dramatically.
[00:22:45.717]And that is a part of the process
[00:22:47.640]that we have to think about a little differently.
[00:22:50.460]So, shade.
[00:22:52.200]For heaven's sakes,
[00:22:53.190]the research on shade and urban heat islands
[00:22:55.980]and the use of living landscape
[00:22:58.310]is a part of the process, is very, very solid.
[00:23:01.830]That is our gumdrop tree, which is a linden
[00:23:04.560]and that is the catalpa that no longer exists
[00:23:07.650]south of the east campus union.
[00:23:09.690]So, we have an opportunity there to do something different.
[00:23:14.520]Movement, we move through spaces
[00:23:17.520]visually and physically in all directions.
[00:23:20.880]Our nose pulls us through, our eyes pull us through,
[00:23:24.120]our ears pull us through, obviously our feet in some cases.
[00:23:28.950]We move through and to and around.
[00:23:31.110]And the getting there and the being there, again,
[00:23:34.200]our impressions of a space and a place
[00:23:36.060]and what's going to happen when we get there
[00:23:38.100]are made in the first 30 seconds.
[00:23:40.230]So, if you're walking up a sidewalk
[00:23:42.510]and it's really dreadful
[00:23:43.800]and it's trashy and there's no plants
[00:23:46.890]and it's like, okay, this is, yeah,
[00:23:49.452]this is not good, I'm not doing this.
[00:23:52.737]And then, I want to, again, as individuals,
[00:23:56.730]you want to screen something,
[00:23:58.410]you want to invite people in, you want to hide something.
[00:24:02.610]This is obviously a very, very unique small intimate space.
[00:24:06.480]But we've got screening, hiding, and inviting all going on
[00:24:09.444]with, oh yeah, that's a Wolf stove.
[00:24:12.240]there's a little bit of coin involved with that.
[00:24:14.970]But it's a dinko little space where they've been able to,
[00:24:18.090]because they wanted to think in terms of I want to do what?
[00:24:21.930]Create something different.
[00:24:24.510]Okay, there you go.
[00:24:25.830]You want a plant, you want a focal point,
[00:24:31.200]you want that, you can have that.
[00:24:33.714]Which is again, a want to attract attention, bring people in
[00:24:39.417]rather than I want a probably a juniper
[00:24:42.810]that it looks like some sort of an arrow.
[00:24:46.470]Or this. Isn't that way cool?
[00:24:48.900]Now, nature did that. No human being did that.
[00:24:51.600]And that is a part of our process as well.
[00:24:54.090]It's like that is so interesting and unique.
[00:24:56.564]I'm going to go experience that a little differently.
[00:25:01.080]Sacred spaces.
[00:25:02.700]We all have, there really are true sacred spaces.
[00:25:05.700]We all have them.
[00:25:06.570]And we know cultures and populations
[00:25:08.970]where they are incredibly important.
[00:25:11.130]I wish they were more important to a lot of all of us.
[00:25:13.410]I wish they were more important,
[00:25:15.380]because that is the calming,
[00:25:17.377]that is the simplicity of space.
[00:25:19.800]That is the acceptance of what it is.
[00:25:23.700]It just is.
[00:25:26.880]Then, we need to be able to again, do you look,
[00:25:29.070]do you see, do you take joy in those very simple things?
[00:25:33.510]That is a part of the process
[00:25:36.030]of creating a good landscape that is art plus science.
[00:25:39.960]Timelessness. Design is timeless.
[00:25:42.450]And again, Mark and I teach this
[00:25:44.910]and this is several semesters' worth.
[00:25:49.050]But this is what we will move to
[00:25:52.350]as a part of this process if we do it correctly.
[00:25:55.740]This is the big one.
[00:25:57.048]So, we got all that stuff out of the way,
[00:25:59.550]because now you know that you want to do something.
[00:26:03.300]You don't want a, you want to.
[00:26:06.870]Inventory and analysis or assessment.
[00:26:09.810]This is where the science is extremely important.
[00:26:13.230]And this is a different kind of science.
[00:26:15.174]You have to pay attention to it.
[00:26:16.860]It can be mind-boggling
[00:26:18.600]and it can make all the difference in whether
[00:26:20.970]what you really want for that experience to succeed or not.
[00:26:24.660]All the natural elements, all the constructed elements,
[00:26:27.672]all of those human influences, no matter what they are.
[00:26:32.190]And then, socioeconomic political elements.
[00:26:35.430]Every last one of those broad categories for inventory
[00:26:39.960]and assessment is going to have a bearing
[00:26:42.450]on what your outcome is going to be.
[00:26:44.880]The growing environment, the macro and the micro.
[00:26:49.140]And look at that slope, slope, slope, slope, slope,
[00:26:51.840]which means soil, soil, soil, soil, soil.
[00:26:54.857]To be able to make that work, we have to know
[00:26:57.880]what those are as a part of the process.
[00:27:00.960]We need to spend far more time on that than I want a.
[00:27:08.400]It's like if you went out to buy a new car,
[00:27:10.413]why do you buy a new car?
[00:27:12.687]'Cause you need a new car.
[00:27:14.970]You might want a new car,
[00:27:16.110]but you're gonna spend a lot of time
[00:27:17.370]trying to figure out that new car.
[00:27:19.410]As opposed to I want a
[00:27:20.307]and you go off and buy one at Home Despot.
[00:27:23.520]Okay, growing environment.
[00:27:25.410]Well, geez, Louise, this one is a whole different ball game
[00:27:28.822]out there in Scotts Bluff than we are right out there.
[00:27:34.200]And this is a huge part of inventory and assessment,
[00:27:37.554]because we're talking about a living landscape,
[00:27:40.920]that whole system.
[00:27:42.150]How do you know it's time to go away?
[00:27:45.480]And again, if you're thinking about this
[00:27:47.850]in the right process,
[00:27:50.520]you're gonna anticipate that to everything
[00:27:53.040]there is a season and a lifespan
[00:27:55.440]and you're going to plan for that.
[00:27:58.890]I want to make sure that this particular space
[00:28:02.100]and place continues to meet my desires.
[00:28:08.250]We do this kind of stuff. Isn't this just great?
[00:28:12.330]This is not good planning.
[00:28:13.800]This is what we do for heaven's sakes.
[00:28:15.900]We hold a Pro-Am golf tournament
[00:28:17.760]with a tree over the main deal.
[00:28:19.440]This is at the greenbriar. That looks like that.
[00:28:21.960]Or we have trees that look like this in a parking lot
[00:28:24.390]that are gonna fall on people's heads.
[00:28:26.340]So, that is not planning for the future.
[00:28:30.330]You also have to think in this entire process
[00:28:32.850]of inventory and assessment,
[00:28:34.200]how are you gonna take care of it?
[00:28:36.030]How are you going to manage?
[00:28:38.116]Is it good intentions? Is it poor execution?
[00:28:42.507]Are the plants or this landscape not your style?
[00:28:46.290]Which means that again, you go back to what is your style?
[00:28:50.250]I want to do something different, can I accomplish that?
[00:28:54.630]And then, of course you have got to know
[00:28:56.250]what everything needs, not just the plants.
[00:28:59.310]So, (clears throat) we also have to think
[00:29:00.930]in terms of longevity and change over time.
[00:29:04.740]Time can just, when you're young, it drags,
[00:29:07.350]and when you're old, it doesn't.
[00:29:09.000]And we wish it was the other way around.
[00:29:11.400]So, what is the projected lifespan
[00:29:14.220]in your process of inventory and assessment
[00:29:16.669]if what you have is managed properly.
[00:29:20.580]And managed properly can mean, leave it alone.
[00:29:25.380]What is its potential for bad behavior? (clears throat)
[00:29:28.320]We heard this morning at ag breakfast that Senator Ibach
[00:29:31.473]has $6 million requested for invasive species management.
[00:29:37.200]She might not get it, but it's sure worth a try.
[00:29:40.410]And what is the possibility of replacement like to like?
[00:29:44.100]Plant breeding and all that great genetic stuff
[00:29:46.410]comes up with plants
[00:29:47.370]that are different for either good or bad reasons.
[00:29:51.030]Change over time. Seasonality.
[00:29:53.460]We've had backyard farmer questions already about,
[00:29:56.160]oh gosh, my trees are breaking bud.
[00:30:00.532]We can't do anything about that, can we?
[00:30:03.930]Or fall, going into the fall.
[00:30:05.700]So, again, your landscape, if you think about it properly,
[00:30:08.569]can deliberately be created,
[00:30:12.510]so that your experience
[00:30:14.970]is fabulous all year long without having to move
[00:30:19.170]or buy a plane ticket or do anything like that.
[00:30:22.350]So, you also have to have patience and you have to accept
[00:30:27.150]and understand and embrace the change.
[00:30:30.390]2014, this was our backyard farm or garden rain chain.
[00:30:35.130]There it was. 2014 was a decade ago by now.
[00:30:41.340]And then, it did this. Now, it does this.
[00:30:45.240]And every year, it's a little different.
[00:30:47.285]And every year, it does what it is supposed to do,
[00:30:50.730]because we thought about what we wanted it to do
[00:30:54.270]rather than I want a rain garden.
[00:30:56.610]No, no, I want to do what with this.
[00:31:00.210]And it changes every year.
[00:31:01.710]And if you don't accept that, this process will not work.
[00:31:06.570]Change over decades of time.
[00:31:09.000]Now, this is still there.
[00:31:11.130]And if you look at the ancient old university sign
[00:31:15.000]under the big American elm
[00:31:17.190]and you look at the big American elm
[00:31:18.900]or the half that still remains,
[00:31:21.351]that tree is decades old, but it's still there.
[00:31:25.290]And it's changed somewhat,
[00:31:27.330]but not so dramatically that the space has not changed.
[00:31:32.027]So, I had to put this one then,
[00:31:34.380]because now, we are really talking change in science.
[00:31:37.800]The plant hardiness zones have changed after 30 years.
[00:31:40.980]We are now zone 6A. We were zone 5B.
[00:31:44.850]When I moved here, we were zone 4A.
[00:31:47.340]That's not all that long ago. And this is what happens.
[00:31:51.180]So, why does the average matter?
[00:31:52.650]We are approaching a day
[00:31:55.560]when it was 33 below in February for heaven's sakes.
[00:31:59.070]Is that terrible?
[00:32:00.360]There was one in 31 degrees
[00:32:01.950]in February like three years ago.
[00:32:03.989]Averages, averages, averages.
[00:32:06.120]The plants don't know, the landscape doesn't know,
[00:32:08.520]the insects that are already out don't know
[00:32:10.890]that they're supposed to do what,
[00:32:12.240]because it's 60 degrees in January.
[00:32:14.790]So, the new plant hardiness zone looks like this.
[00:32:17.625]The beauty of research in USDA is you can zone right in.
[00:32:22.590]You can zoom right in to see where you are.
[00:32:25.140]You can zoom even further than this.
[00:32:27.720]That becomes a data point or a base
[00:32:29.820]where you can start thinking a little differently.
[00:32:32.670]So, we also have to then choose
[00:32:34.800]and manage for that good over time.
[00:32:39.150]So, managed for the good is really what I'm saying here.
[00:32:42.090]What are the tolerances of the landscape?
[00:32:45.120]What about those abrupt, short-lived events?
[00:32:47.820]Can we plan for whatever they call the snow bomb thing.
[00:32:53.217]Can we plan for a tornado?
[00:32:55.290]Not really, except we can anticipate something like that.
[00:32:59.670]Resource efficiency is huge and getting more huge.
[00:33:03.360]Who really wants to spend their weekend
[00:33:05.580]with their thumb on the end of a hose,
[00:33:07.560]watering things that really shouldn't need to be watered,
[00:33:10.470]but they do because we chose poorly.
[00:33:13.230]What is the pruning? What is the cleanup?
[00:33:15.390]So, beautiful young people do this and they learn from it
[00:33:18.120]and then they know how to do it right.
[00:33:20.626]And this is what you do if you don't know what you're doing.
[00:33:23.130]And this is a pear, this is callery pear.
[00:33:25.800]This is on the invasive species list.
[00:33:27.840]And that is what it does when you are not paying attention.
[00:33:31.260]So, that is why understanding from the beginning,
[00:33:34.230]inventory and assessment is so important.
[00:33:37.410]You gotta remember this,
[00:33:38.970]every single landscape is a community.
[00:33:42.120]It is a complex community.
[00:33:44.640]So, whether it's Spring Creek Prairie
[00:33:46.810]or whether it is a backyard
[00:33:49.350]right smack in the middle of Lincoln,
[00:33:51.510]it is a community that is not just the plants
[00:33:54.330]and the insects and the wildlife.
[00:33:55.860]It is also the people
[00:33:57.224]who are enjoying and using it one way or the other.
[00:34:00.900]We borrow landscapes with our senses.
[00:34:04.410]And again, that's a beauty of thinking
[00:34:06.570]about inventory and assessment a little differently.
[00:34:09.332]When students and designers for that matter,
[00:34:11.820]do this on paper, here's a property line.
[00:34:14.836]Well, okay, I'm gonna stop thinking
[00:34:17.040]right here at the property line.
[00:34:19.020]What knows there's a property line
[00:34:20.760]except the county assessor
[00:34:22.650]or the person who put in the fence for heaven's...
[00:34:25.140]They don't know.
[00:34:26.040]So, you might as well borrow,
[00:34:28.230]especially since you don't have to take care of it usually.
[00:34:33.293]So, here's the people-plant thing that's so important.
[00:34:36.210]What do people come together for?
[00:34:38.400]How many of you came for the cookies and the coffee?
[00:34:40.890]Lauren, Lauren? You came for the coffee.
[00:34:46.380]Yeah. He came for the coffee.
[00:34:48.540]We come together
[00:34:50.121]so frequently over food and drink, don't we?
[00:34:53.790]Even if you don't like people,
[00:34:54.840]every now and then, you got one you like.
[00:34:57.480]And what we want is spaces
[00:34:59.340]and places that are comfortable, scalable.
[00:35:03.369]Again, as human beings,
[00:35:05.310]we relate to our environment based on whether it is scary.
[00:35:09.300]If it's too much like this, it's scary.
[00:35:11.670]If it's too much like this, it's scary.
[00:35:13.710]That depends on where you came from.
[00:35:16.470]Is it inviting, is it inspiring, is it changeable?
[00:35:20.970]Or does it change in a positive way
[00:35:23.160]that still makes you feel good there?
[00:35:25.260]And plants thrive in communities as well.
[00:35:29.250]Plants, again, if you think of them as a part
[00:35:31.470]of a system instead of an object, you think about,
[00:35:35.070]okay, what does wanna live in solitary confinement?
[00:35:37.892]So, again, look at this space, this little tiny space.
[00:35:42.060]He had a harpist for heaven's sakes on his back patio
[00:35:45.300]in a little dinky place
[00:35:46.560]and brought people together for food.
[00:35:49.276]So, this is one of the ways
[00:35:51.720]we connect best, people and plants together.
[00:35:55.680]And that is edible landscapes.
[00:35:58.380]And we think of those as being new.
[00:36:01.950]Well, they kinda are. The term was coined in 1975.
[00:36:07.590]I know that's a long time ago.
[00:36:09.030]That's not a long time ago, is it?
[00:36:11.790]And yet, how long have people been eating the landscape?
[00:36:16.037]How long have there been peeps?
[00:36:18.108]Yeah, you gotta eat something.
[00:36:20.550]And you couldn't necessarily go out
[00:36:22.227]and slaughter a Piedmontese beef.
[00:36:27.510]But edible landscapes as a thing
[00:36:30.990]has sort of become now something
[00:36:34.020]of that a lot of people want for all the right reasons.
[00:36:37.650]So, what that does, and again,
[00:36:39.330]this is research that is pretty sound,
[00:36:42.270]the function of the urban landscape
[00:36:44.010]has now been expanded if we include edible plants.
[00:36:48.180]The community engagement and the social cohesion is huge.
[00:36:51.812]Whether it's community gardens,
[00:36:54.240]whether it is just across the fence,
[00:36:56.370]our next door neighbor could grow the best tomatoes
[00:36:59.217]and anything that came over the fence that was ours.
[00:37:02.940]And he allowed that, which was perfect.
[00:37:05.610]Food security, that's a big one.
[00:37:07.350]Now, can you, in small urban spaces, grow enough to be able
[00:37:11.940]to feed a family of four for the entire year?
[00:37:14.700]It's tricky. But you can start to contribute to that.
[00:37:18.750]The socialization aspect is huge.
[00:37:21.270]That's why master gardeners love what they do.
[00:37:23.760]They socialize as much as they pull weeds.
[00:37:26.430]Ecosystem services.
[00:37:28.440]We are doing the right thing in these environments.
[00:37:30.930]And of course, the economics of it.
[00:37:32.850]Anybody who has paid like $7 for a box of raspberries
[00:37:36.540]that has five raspberries in it right now,
[00:37:39.150]you can grow a lot of raspberries in your backyard.
[00:37:42.360]It's the same process if you want your landscape
[00:37:45.780]to include things that are edible.
[00:37:47.730]And that's exactly that same process.
[00:37:49.800]What do you want, have, need, want?
[00:37:52.945]And then, what is the space that you have available for it?
[00:37:57.480]What is the management commitment
[00:37:59.100]you are going to give to it?
[00:38:00.930]And are you going to do this within the landscape?
[00:38:04.410]That's what an edible landscape is.
[00:38:06.450]It is not row crops. It can be.
[00:38:09.000]A vegetable garden in people's mind is a garden.
[00:38:12.660]An edible landscape is within the entire landscape
[00:38:17.056]and they are beautiful.
[00:38:18.724]It is a combination of perennial and woody
[00:38:22.292]and annual and containers
[00:38:25.140]and seasonality and all those pollinators.
[00:38:28.530]Now, you do have to decide how much management
[00:38:32.280]you want to do to give it what you want.
[00:38:35.010]And again, this goes back to a part of the process.
[00:38:37.740]If you can't figure out how to manage it
[00:38:39.840]as a part of your process, you shouldn't do it.
[00:38:43.050]And yeah, those are old apple trees
[00:38:45.510]and they needed a little tender loving care.
[00:38:47.520]And if you're gonna get the things to fruit,
[00:38:49.320]there comes the science.
[00:38:51.690]So, science advances, which is fabulous.
[00:38:55.620]I mean, that is the whole point, isn't it?
[00:38:57.180]What's the point?
[00:38:58.230]If you're not trying to advance learning
[00:39:01.020]and knowledge that is based on fact
[00:39:03.706]and trying to do things better, usually better.
[00:39:08.490]Science usually doesn't wanna say let's do it worse.
[00:39:11.460]And different and advance things. Policies also change.
[00:39:15.720]So, land suitability, there's an app for that.
[00:39:18.690]There's probably an app for everything.
[00:39:21.210]Community land trust.
[00:39:22.800]Isn't that just a fabulous thing
[00:39:24.390]to think about in an urban environment?
[00:39:26.670]This is Hawley Hamlet. This is Tim Rinne's property.
[00:39:30.180]Urban ag. Here we come with urban ag.
[00:39:33.390]And we can call it ag
[00:39:34.650]and everybody else can call it gardening.
[00:39:36.180]It's the same thing, isn't it?
[00:39:37.770]It's plants and it's landscape together in these spaces.
[00:39:41.190]And the designation of urban farms on a hundred square feet.
[00:39:45.630]Now, that does something completely different
[00:39:48.000]in terms of funding sources and enthusiasm.
[00:39:51.150]And this is Hawley Hamlet.
[00:39:53.250]And has it changed over time? It absolutely has.
[00:39:56.670]Has Tim tried things like let's use Dutch clover
[00:39:59.910]as an alternative turf
[00:40:01.050]and after three years, it did what it did for us.
[00:40:03.480]Eh, not so much anymore. He tried strawberries.
[00:40:06.780]Did that work? Eh, not so much.
[00:40:09.030]It's living landscape. That's what you do.
[00:40:11.794]And this is also why we do what we do, is it not?
[00:40:15.960]Which is that celebration of what have we now learned?
[00:40:19.770]What can we do with it?
[00:40:21.270]How can we take that process of, I want to do what?
[00:40:27.900]Absolute inventory.
[00:40:29.370]Inventory assess those facts until you just think,
[00:40:32.670]oh, this is mind-boggling, boggling.
[00:40:35.490]I'm never gonna get it done right.
[00:40:37.860]You get that done,
[00:40:38.910]and then you figure out how to go into the design process.
[00:40:42.870]And this is what you really should do.
[00:40:44.490]You should be awestruck every single day
[00:40:47.137]in some certain way by what exists around us
[00:40:51.180]and what you have the capability of doing with it.
[00:40:54.390]That's it. I'm done. (laughs)
[00:40:58.290]And oh, by the way,
[00:40:59.370](attendees laughing)
[00:41:03.510]that is our urban landscape behind my very cold head
[00:41:08.400]from a place in the state capitol that you can't go.
[00:41:14.040]We'll just put it like that.
[00:41:15.960]The wind blows really, really hard
[00:41:18.412]on the top of the capitol in March. (laughs)
[00:41:21.660]All right. Questions, comments?
[00:41:25.710]This is the way I roll, which is like totally random.
[00:41:31.170]Are you gonna do it right?
[00:41:33.900]Are you gonna do it at all?
[00:41:36.540]Do you understand anything I said?
[00:41:39.330]Are you gonna go look at the snow drops?
[00:41:43.853]Yes.
[00:41:47.850]No questions.
[00:41:48.683]That means I either did just a bang up job
[00:41:51.210]or it's like, what in the hell was that?
[00:41:54.376](Christian faintly speaking)
[00:41:57.270]No, I don't think so. (laughs)
[00:42:00.210]Thank you for your presentation, Kim, was, sorry.
[00:42:03.330]I think we're on now.
[00:42:04.710]Thank you for the presentation, was very inspiring.
[00:42:07.812](Bruce faintly speaking)
[00:42:10.005](attendees laughing)
[00:42:11.340]I just don't wanna wear 'em again, Bruce.
[00:42:13.080]I'm a little too old for that.
[00:42:15.000]Actually, I do have a pair, two pair. (laughs)
[00:42:19.620]Yes, sir. I do have a question.
[00:42:21.717]Okay, since we are (faintly speaks)
[00:42:27.433]Let's keep the microphone-
[00:42:28.913]Oh, and I need to repeat the question.
[00:42:31.800]I forgot that part. Sorry. Yep.
[00:42:39.030]Since we are now in hardiness zone 6A,
[00:42:41.760]if people want to plant native plants,
[00:42:45.029]are you recommending that they still use local ecotypes
[00:42:50.220]or bring in 6A type
[00:42:52.860]local native plant material?
[00:42:54.990]Isn't that just the best question ever?
[00:42:57.810]And the answer is, it depends.
[00:43:00.480]So, here's the deal.
[00:43:01.680]I absolutely love native plants,
[00:43:04.140]but I grew up in eastern Iowa in the forest.
[00:43:06.990]Came to Nebraska, the prairie is awesome.
[00:43:09.900]So, native and nativar becomes very controversial
[00:43:14.970]in terms of the varieties
[00:43:16.260]or the selections that are of natives.
[00:43:19.230]Zone 6A is what USDA is saying, we are for average.
[00:43:25.140]Native plant material, whether we are zone 4, 5, 6,
[00:43:31.440]it's genetics no better in quotes,
[00:43:35.400]our oaks are not gonna break bud,
[00:43:37.650]our pasque flowers out on the south side of the building,
[00:43:40.320]because it is a non-native environment.
[00:43:43.350]They may be attempting
[00:43:45.030]to poke their heads out of the ground,
[00:43:46.890]because it's been so darn warm and hot.
[00:43:50.580]But I can guarantee in the Ponca Hills, they're just fine.
[00:43:54.000]So, we tend, we tend to take, again,
[00:43:58.260]that's the big broad generality, the microclimate,
[00:44:01.830]which is that again,
[00:44:03.180]here's this and this and this and the slope.
[00:44:05.700]The microclimate out there,
[00:44:07.439]we've been zoned seven on the west wall
[00:44:10.358]ever since that was enclosed.
[00:44:13.200]We're probably zoned four in that corner on occasion.
[00:44:16.950]We have things out there that look so much better
[00:44:19.620]than they look right out there, because of the microclimate.
[00:44:24.360]So, I think it's one of those areas.
[00:44:26.160]And we're gonna get this question a lot.
[00:44:27.780]What do we recommend that people plant?
[00:44:30.148]Well, we recommend
[00:44:31.860]that you call your local extension agent offices
[00:44:36.690]and hope they know
[00:44:38.137]or they ask backyard farmer or they ask us.
[00:44:41.356]And the other thing that we really need to do
[00:44:44.160]with landscape, and this is hard,
[00:44:46.620]because it is a different, a mechanism for funding.
[00:44:51.364]Horticultural research is not funded like commodity crops.
[00:44:55.710]It's just not.
[00:44:57.120]But can you just imagine if we had the capability of saying,
[00:45:00.900]okay, we are zone 6A,
[00:45:03.150]let's give these plants that are zone 6A native
[00:45:08.395]that don't like being that cool,
[00:45:12.990]let's give them a trial shot in an urban environment
[00:45:17.130]or all the way across the state,
[00:45:19.290]so that we have that information.
[00:45:21.176]The trouble of course with woody plant material,
[00:45:24.630]I mean, I'll pick on callery pear,
[00:45:26.460]because that's what the slide was.
[00:45:29.790]Callery pear, was a release
[00:45:31.152]from years ago that was a national release.
[00:45:34.420]It was fabulous, until it wasn't.
[00:45:37.590]And now, it's not, because now it produces seed.
[00:45:40.710]Now, it does all this interesting coming up from the roots.
[00:45:45.520]It is horrible. We didn't know that 50 years ago.
[00:45:49.950]We're not gonna know these things
[00:45:51.822]about zone six, eight plants.
[00:45:53.730]All we can do is give it a try.
[00:45:55.710]And again, that's what we should do, is it not?
[00:45:57.540]Now, should we plant 2,000 acres of something
[00:46:00.000]that zone 6B just like that?
[00:46:02.460]No.
[00:46:03.293]Universities should be the places
[00:46:05.471]where we say we are your tax dollars at work.
[00:46:10.170]Let us give it a shot.
[00:46:11.880]Maybe it's 3, 6, 9, maybe it's in two or three locations.
[00:46:16.230]So, we can at least start gathering that information.
[00:46:19.770]And when I was landscape architect, my zone range,
[00:46:23.670]zones two to six, why not give it a shot?
[00:46:27.540]We have some zone six stuff that's been here forever
[00:46:30.540]that every year, it died to the ground,
[00:46:32.310]and then it came back up.
[00:46:33.960]We have some zone two stuff that's saying,
[00:46:37.050]ugh, it's a little too hot here for me now.
[00:46:39.624]That's just the way of the world.
[00:46:41.804]So, how's that for a,
[00:46:43.590]we're working with living things answer?
[00:46:45.501](attendee faintly speaking)
[00:46:46.776](Kim laughing)
[00:46:48.060]For government work. (laughs)
[00:46:56.250]Thanks for the information.
[00:46:57.540]But I'm going to pose a question to you. We live in Seward.
[00:47:02.550]We have a property that's, let's see,
[00:47:05.130]we moved in 20, it's 25 years now,
[00:47:10.492]and we plant flowers for butterflies.
[00:47:15.630]I've got native grasses and so forth.
[00:47:19.620]But one of the concerns that when we're in a property
[00:47:23.250]that's 25 years old, things are starting to age enough
[00:47:27.750]that they need to be probably taken out.
[00:47:31.530]And I'm not sure oftentimes
[00:47:33.870]what to put back if anything in that spot.
[00:47:38.070]What kind of criterion do I need to use
[00:47:42.450]to evaluate and make the right decision?
[00:47:47.310]What do you want?
[00:47:50.010]Well, oftentimes, it's planting a new plant of that same.
[00:47:56.100]Exactly. So, if you want to replay-
[00:47:59.100]And I didn't landscape it originally.
[00:48:01.770]It was done for us, but-
[00:48:03.360]I didn't do my own house.
[00:48:04.470]If we've been there 30 years,
[00:48:06.180]I can guarantee
[00:48:07.013]I wouldn't have put four pin oaks in the backyard.
[00:48:10.590]So, that is the classic question
[00:48:12.510]that follows this process.
[00:48:15.060]So, if you back yourself all the way up,
[00:48:17.452]you are now experiencing that change over time.
[00:48:21.870]You've been there 25-ish years.
[00:48:24.420]They were like this and now they're like this.
[00:48:27.210]Some are going like this,
[00:48:28.470]'cause their lifespan has been reached,
[00:48:30.960]especially in the environment.
[00:48:32.880]If the environment has changed,
[00:48:34.320]if your management has changed, think about that.
[00:48:37.500]We didn't have any shade in the courtyard
[00:48:38.880]and all of a sudden, we have shade in the courtyard
[00:48:40.650]and things that like the sun are going, ugh.
[00:48:45.000]But you start with that, what do you want to do?
[00:48:47.640]And you wanna replace
[00:48:49.680]what you lost exactly the way it was.
[00:48:55.410]It ain't gonna happen.
[00:48:57.450]What you can do is you can then think,
[00:48:59.610]all right, I want, I'll just pick on one tree.
[00:49:02.700]I want that tree to provide shade,
[00:49:08.340]provide habitat, turn color in the fall.
[00:49:12.420]Okay, I want it to do these things.
[00:49:14.850]Therefore, what do I want specifically?
[00:49:18.360]Now, it's also design.
[00:49:20.070]So, if I had more of my design students in here,
[00:49:23.610]they all have to choose a private client
[00:49:25.770]for their capstone course. (laughs)
[00:49:30.300]And I'm dead serious about that,
[00:49:31.800]'cause when I asked you a little earlier, Ruva,
[00:49:35.400]who has their private client picked?
[00:49:38.430]A few of them. (chuckles)
[00:49:41.583]That's the way you lead through the process.
[00:49:43.860]But you have to decide.
[00:49:45.600]People ask me this question all the time.
[00:49:47.490]Well, what should I do here?
[00:49:51.510]It's not my landscape.
[00:49:52.860]I can give you the really good design advice
[00:49:55.860]based on what I am supposed to have been educated about.
[00:49:58.680]And I can say, okay, here is your situation.
[00:50:03.240]Here is your situation.
[00:50:05.070]This is what you told me you wanted to do.
[00:50:09.420]This is the place you have to do it in.
[00:50:14.010]These are either gonna mesh and match
[00:50:16.440]or I'm gonna say, okay, we gotta change what you want
[00:50:21.103]unless you wanna really change what you've got.
[00:50:24.840]And sometimes...
[00:50:26.070]How easy it is to change pH permanently?
[00:50:30.060]Yeah, no, can't do it.
[00:50:31.920]You want blueberries,
[00:50:33.300]you want blueberries, what are you gonna do?
[00:50:35.610]You're gonna plant 'em in a place
[00:50:36.870]where you can basically sulfur ice all the time.
[00:50:42.750]Yeah. So, that's the way that process works.
[00:50:45.868]Now, could I give you a tree species?
[00:50:49.620]Sure, I could, but I haven't seen the space.
[00:50:51.990]I haven't seen the place.
[00:50:53.344]I can guess on the environment
[00:50:55.200]if you show me a picture,
[00:50:58.410]because I'm kind of good at this after all these years.
[00:51:01.440]But I would be more likely
[00:51:04.200]to give you my recommendation
[00:51:06.750]based on what I would see there, not what you want there.
[00:51:13.560]It's a process. (laughs)
[00:51:17.250]Who else?
[00:51:19.260]Holy cow.
[00:51:24.000]Thank you. Really great presentation.
[00:51:25.590]I really enjoyed that. (Kim laughing)
[00:51:28.230]One question I have is,
[00:51:29.640]you showed some photos like in Boston,
[00:51:31.920]in here in Nebraska and a few other places.
[00:51:36.870]From a city planning standpoint,
[00:51:39.720]where do you look to for excellent case studies
[00:51:42.930]or examples of city planning
[00:51:45.532]going after this to do things
[00:51:48.270]by bringing the art and science together on things?
[00:51:52.110]Is there places that have historically been great examples
[00:51:54.930]and is there new emerging urban centers
[00:51:57.810]that are great places to look for current case studies?
[00:52:01.800]Yes and yes to both.
[00:52:04.470]But it's not necessarily citywide, it is community-based.
[00:52:12.990]At one point, Des Moines was a go-to
[00:52:15.340]and still is for the urban areas
[00:52:17.850]in little old downtown Des Moines, Iowa.
[00:52:21.060]If you look at some of the things that happened in New York
[00:52:23.550]before New York became what New York is right now,
[00:52:27.300]some fabulous, how do we take
[00:52:30.780]what looks like it's such a challenge
[00:52:34.170]and turn it into something that is that opportunity?
[00:52:37.420]Any of the rails to trails kinds of places in cities.
[00:52:42.109]There are still great places in Denver.
[00:52:45.548]There's still great places in Colorado Springs.
[00:52:48.870]There are great places in KC.
[00:52:50.790]Boston, I think, has done an absolute bang up job
[00:52:54.900]from a city planning standpoint.
[00:52:57.000]And a part of that is, (clears throat)
[00:53:00.848]I shall say this just because I can,
[00:53:03.930]a part of that is not allowing people
[00:53:08.880]who think only about let's get that utility
[00:53:12.630]to this spot to dictate what else happens.
[00:53:17.190]So, an eight foot right of way can still have a tree in it
[00:53:21.900]or two or three or four or five in a community
[00:53:24.900]instead of 50 foot spacing.
[00:53:27.750]So, case study approaches
[00:53:29.700]to that also include community gardens.
[00:53:32.264]How do you do those gardens
[00:53:34.530]in spaces in the city of Lincoln as an example.
[00:53:37.590]And this makes sense, because human safety is a big deal.
[00:53:41.969]You can't have anything
[00:53:43.163]in sight lines that is higher than 30 inches.
[00:53:46.968]36 is with the curb. This is right here.
[00:53:51.410]You don't wanna run over a tiny human normally.
[00:53:55.020]But if you think about then what can you do in those spaces,
[00:53:58.770]which may in fact, be the places where you have sunlight.
[00:54:02.126]You can't do a permanent structure in there.
[00:54:04.862]Well, what do you do there?
[00:54:07.170]So, to be able to say, wait a minute,
[00:54:09.390]we are not thinking communitywide.
[00:54:12.834]I can pull some examples for you if you just holler at me.
[00:54:16.920]Yeah. And pictures.
[00:54:18.480]That's part of my issue on way too many pictures. Yeah.
[00:54:26.262]We're passing this down.
[00:54:29.790]You mentioned 2,000 acres a little bit ago,
[00:54:34.050]and hopefully in a couple years,
[00:54:35.790]we are gonna have a 2,000 acres solar farm east of Lincoln.
[00:54:40.128]I know.
[00:54:42.566]Okay.
[00:54:43.399]I want to
[00:54:44.748](Kim laughing)
[00:54:45.750]diversify that visual landscape a bit
[00:54:51.150]while keeping erosion down,
[00:54:54.405]while avoiding shading those solar panels,
[00:54:57.840]so that they don't function.
[00:55:00.360]How do we work with something along that nature
[00:55:02.820]that has a lot of limitations
[00:55:04.470]with utility that you just talked about?
[00:55:07.260]That's a pretty simple answer, Bruce.
[00:55:11.430]You plant beneath and you plant prairie.
[00:55:15.007]And goats. And goats. (laughs)
[00:55:17.400]And avoid the fire hazard that can exist with it.
[00:55:20.790]Well, that would be what?
[00:55:25.950]You have to cut it at some point.
[00:55:28.590]You're gonna have to harvest and you're gonna have to cut,
[00:55:31.440]because you're not gonna burn unless mother nature decides,
[00:55:34.516]those solar panels look like a really good target.
[00:55:37.929]We have actually gotten that question,
[00:55:40.050]especially because of the visual appearance.
[00:55:41.850]And if you see the solar farms right now that are...
[00:55:47.370]They're not particularly aesthetic and you can't shade them.
[00:55:51.510]And you do have to do something beneath them.
[00:55:54.030]Now, again, if you let what wants to grow under there,
[00:55:57.300]you're gonna have a mess on your hands.
[00:55:59.632]You are ultimately what wants to succeed.
[00:56:02.640]The succession planning is going to succeed.
[00:56:05.490]So, there is no such thing
[00:56:08.130]as a landscape that requires no management.
[00:56:11.700]And I think that's another issue
[00:56:13.260]associated with people not following process properly.
[00:56:16.230]What is your capability for managing?
[00:56:19.440]You don't know yet on something that big.
[00:56:22.680]I don't know that I have not seen a place
[00:56:25.290]or I haven't seen anything that is a massive solar farm
[00:56:31.020]on the ground that has been
[00:56:35.220]landscape-managed screens
[00:56:37.680]made more aesthetic that comes to mind.
[00:56:41.310]I haven't seen one.
[00:56:42.990]Yeah. Any erosion beneath it?
[00:56:45.750]Here goes those rolling hills.
[00:56:47.820]Well, one of the absolute first mantras of landscape
[00:56:53.550]is don't uncover any ground that you can't recover.
[00:56:57.810]Recover immediately. Don't ever leave it there.
[00:57:03.150]Parks and recreation in the city of Lincoln,
[00:57:05.736]it's kind of funky,
[00:57:06.870]'cause they don't really have turf pretty much anywhere.
[00:57:09.870]What passes for blades of grass,
[00:57:12.750]it's green and growing beets, brown and blowing.
[00:57:17.250]And you're right, that's exactly what it is.
[00:57:19.680]If we come up with something on that,
[00:57:21.120]that would be good research, wouldn't it?
[00:57:23.580]Our little solar panels up here by the turf plots rock.
[00:57:28.290]Little tiny ones.
[00:57:29.970]Yep. I don't know the answer to that.
[00:57:32.190]I'm really good at not knowing answers.
[00:57:36.990]What else?
[00:57:39.780]I'm not gonna allow a student questions. (laughs)
[00:57:49.110]So, I have an internship
[00:57:50.490]with DLA, Downtown Lincoln Association.
[00:57:52.800]Yes, you do. And my manager informed me
[00:57:55.320]that the new building that's being built,
[00:57:58.170]right as you come into downtown,
[00:58:00.030]they're wanting to take out an entire row of healthy trees,
[00:58:03.990]because it's in the way of building the building.
[00:58:07.500]What are your thoughts on that
[00:58:08.670]and how do you fight frustrating, arrogant builders?
[00:58:13.320]You know my thoughts on that, (chuckles)
[00:58:15.750]and they're not available for public. (laughs)
[00:58:22.260]Here's the deal on that, because we see that,
[00:58:24.630]again, there is no reason
[00:58:27.330]that we cannot construct in an urban environment
[00:58:30.968]with a construction limit line
[00:58:33.360]that is from me to Martha at the most.
[00:58:37.590]They do it all the time in real cities.
[00:58:42.330]Here's your construction line, here's where you can come in,
[00:58:46.200]here's where you can't, here's the damage
[00:58:48.300]that's going to be done to the growing environment.
[00:58:51.270]That again, goes back to where are the good policies.
[00:58:54.510]We are not a city, we are a city that has allowed developers
[00:58:59.096]and utility people
[00:59:01.380]to make those decisions. (attendee coughs)
[00:59:03.180]We see the same thing on campus.
[00:59:04.824]Here are the construction fences.
[00:59:06.476]Now, again, that requires personnel to enforce,
[00:59:11.820]to say, here is what you will do
[00:59:14.880]and here's the carrot, here's the stick.
[00:59:19.650]We don't have the capability on campus,
[00:59:22.830]because we can't do a penalty clause
[00:59:26.100]without doing a bonus clause, and budgets are set.
[00:59:30.180]City of Lincoln could be tough on that.
[00:59:33.060]They don't have people.
[00:59:35.070]I think the only thing you could do,
[00:59:40.050]you can protest, you can write letters.
[00:59:43.080]You can write letters, you can show up at city council.
[00:59:45.390]You can call the planning department.
[00:59:47.430]Will it do you any good?
[00:59:49.800]Over time, what does anything any good? It's voices.
[00:59:55.110]You want more community gardens, it's voices.
[00:59:58.020]You don't want those trees to go down.
[00:59:59.580]Or right now, we have a funky little group,
[01:00:02.044]an ad hoc group based on this
[01:00:04.410]that I'd named the Crab Apples,
[01:00:07.590]because we're old crabby people, mostly.
[01:00:11.040]But basically, to look at policy.
[01:00:13.830]At one point on this campus, a bud and I had a,
[01:00:19.680]we tried to get this through.
[01:00:21.150]It was any tree that got cut down.
[01:00:23.370]It was not a replace one for one,
[01:00:26.100]it was a replace one per caliper.
[01:00:32.070]So, you had a 10-inch caliper tree that came out.
[01:00:35.490]Caliper beam diameter, 10 trees went back.
[01:00:39.780]Not a one for one, not a value. You can value trees.
[01:00:43.140]It was, wait a minute,
[01:00:43.973]you cut those down, you gotta replace 'em.
[01:00:46.700]The city could do the same thing.
[01:00:48.876]They could say, okay, yeah, they do have to go.
[01:00:51.720]But to me, it's still more a matter of, we are so used to,
[01:00:56.310]we can do this out here
[01:00:59.760]instead of you got this much space
[01:01:03.630]and you still have to keep the traffic moving
[01:01:05.880]and the people moving,
[01:01:07.380]and you're gonna build a 50-foot or 50-story tall building.
[01:01:11.010]We can do that. We just don't do it in Lincoln.
[01:01:15.390]We do not do it in Lincoln.
[01:01:16.650]Omaha is better at it and they've learned how to do it
[01:01:18.570]and there's more of them and more money.
[01:01:19.860]But it is possible to do that.
[01:01:23.387]You just have to make your voice heard.
[01:01:25.700]And we have to change policy.
[01:01:27.780]Again, science changes, policies change.
[01:01:29.760]They have to go together.
[01:01:32.724]What else besides we're out of time, aren't we?
[01:01:38.760]Did we hit the mark? Is that what you expected?
[01:01:42.690]Oh, y'all, I don't really care what you expected.
[01:01:44.808](everybody laughing)
[01:01:46.835]I will see you in class next week. (laughs)
[01:01:50.190]They're the Edible Landscapes class,
[01:01:52.110]which meets at 11:00 on Tuesday and Thursday.
[01:01:56.460]All right. I'm happy to answer other questions later.
[01:01:59.602](attendees clapping)

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I Want TO...Science + Art Process to Create Landscapes for Plants and People

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