Barn Talk: Reading the Landscape: Design Solutions Inspired by Nature

Mother Nature is the greatest architect. Reading the natural landscape offers a planting palette that is both resilient and already adapted to your specific eco-region. Learn how to use native plant communities in your backyard and the surrounding habitats as a mirror for the types of plants that will survive and thrive in the built landscape. Get intimate with our local native flora while learning simple design techniques to create a functioning space that is both beautiful and supportive to wildlife. Join field botanist and environmental designer Heather Liljengren as she explains the importance of the botanical blueprint and how it can help you make smarter, more climate conscious design choices.

Heather Liljengren has been professionally botanizing in the New England and Mid-Atlantic region since 2008. For 15 years she actively managed the seed collection and banking program for the NYC Parks Greenbelt Native Plant Center. She served 10 years as an advisor to the Mid-Atlantic Regional Seed Bank (MARS-B), a cooperative conservation effort to collect seed from targeted native plant species across every eco-region in the Mid-Atlantic. Her intimate knowledge of native habitats and ecosystems highlights the necessity and potential of locally-sourced native plants in every reach of restoration and landscape design. She recently moved to Northwest Connecticut and founded LocalLands Consulting.