February Newsletter – The Foodscape Revolution with Brie Arthur
The Foodscape Revolution with Brie Arthur
Join us for this inspiring presentation by Brie Arthur, a horticulturist, landscape design consultant, and garden communicator based in Raleigh, North Carolina. Brie has fine-tuned her signature design technique of Foodscaping, a sustainable landscape practice that embraces beauty and utility, and demonstrates how pairing edibles in a traditional ornamental landscape increases bio-diversity and adds purpose to everyday spaces. Her book The Foodscape Revolution was released in 2017 and will be available for sale before and after the presentation!
Originally from Michigan, Brie studied Landscape Design and Horticulture at Purdue University. She was a professional plant propagator at Plant Delights Nursery and Camellia Forest Nursery in North Carolina before transitioning her focus to green industry communications. As a correspondent on the PBS television show “Growing A Greener World”, Brie shares practical advice from her one-acre suburban foodscape encouraging everyone to embrace the hobby and lifestyle of home gardening. Brie has a passion for growing tomatoes (100+ varieties a season) and incorporating grains into her landscape (#crazygrainlady). See www.briegrows.com for more.
Refreshments at 6:30
Note: You can also hear Brie at the Dixon Gallery and Gardens’ Munch & Learn on February 7 from 12:00 –1:00p.m. Her presentation is “Marketing Horticulture to Millennials.”
Upcoming Events
Tuesday, February 6 Meeting: Goldsmith Room at the Memphis Botanic Garden, 6:30 pm. Please bring a friend and a dish and to share with members and friends!
March 6: 2nd Annual Rare Plant Silent Auction
April 3: How We Grew Alabama Native Plant Awareness – John Manion, Curator Native Plant Garden, Birmingham Botanical Garden
President’s Letter
by Suzy Askew
At our February meeting we are hearing from Brie Arthur, a Professional Garden Communicator! Her bestselling book, The Foodscape Revolution is her topic for us, and the next day at the Dixon at noon, she will talk about Engaging Millennials and Teaching the Next Gen. I hope you will come for both! Brie’s contract lists more than 16 different topics and a bio that is impressive. She grows and knows! She was named in Greenhouse Product News’ class of 2016 “40 under 40”. In 2017, Brie received the American Horticultural Society’s Emerging Horticultural Professional Award. She serves on many boards.
From this you can tell Brie is energetic, smart and young. Brie is a millennial! You and I were once millennials. Do you remember? I remember being around the older members in the Horticultural Society and trying to understand who they were and what they were saying. I spent a month practicing the words Asclepias tuberosa, so they would roll off my tongue — like a professional’s. I remember being frustrated when my planting beds didn’t have the right soil mix, the weeds were rampant in the heat of the summer and the many plants that I thought should grow in our heat that did not. I learned from my older friends in the Horticultural Society and garden club that we have to be mindful of what we plant, how we plant and care for it and how we treat our soil. I had more pride for my agrarian parents and grandparents’ lifestyles and ways. But most of all I had a sense of humor to get me through those amateur days and a group of understanding older friends, who encouraged me to keep trying, shared their wisdom and good plants, warned me about the bad ones and kept me supplied in cuttings, seeds and offshoots to give me hope. They tipped me off to the meetings I didn’t want to miss, bragged on me occasionally, introduced me to the others in the group with a lead in as to who they were and what they grew so I could ask questions and have a decent conversation with an older person.
Somewhere along the way the Memphis Horticultural Society has grown old. Where are the younger generations to fill in our audience and take those offices that are training grounds for future leaders?
I don’t dare ask anyone’s age but look around and tell me how many of us are younger than 40, under 50, under 60? If you see any of these ages in our group, go up and engage them. What are you growing? How big is your garden? Do you need any seeds, cuttings, offshoots? I ‘m digging up my grandmother’s flowering almond, would you like a piece? Would you speak at my garden club/neighborhood meeting? Can I come by and see your roses? Hydrangeas? African violets? Hostas? Would you like to join my study group? Let me treat you to lunch—and really do. Anything to make them feel a part.
And for the few of you in the Memphis Horticultural Society under 60, please take an office, attend the meetings, suggest a speaker, give more money, take an active role in the board and the Native Plant Conference. Drag your sons and daughters to the meetings. It will take you to keep this umbrella organization going and thriving. You have so much to give and it will soon all be yours. And we still have a lot to learn.
As I went over Brie’s list of presentation topics, I was looking for something I didn’t know a lot about and found: “In classic #CrazyGrainLady style Brie shares her journey of cultivating organic grains in her suburban foodscape. From ancient wheat and oats to rice and sorghum, grains are beautiful and bountiful. The color, textures, and ease of growing make grains a logical addition to every landscape. From edible meadows to high impact modern design, Brie shares her enthusiasm for growing local, organic carbohydrates. Brie’s second book, Gardening with Grains, St. Lynn’s Press will debut March 2019.”
And that, folks, I know nothing about and will want to buy the book.
Living and Learning every day,
Suzy