Gardening is hip again. Homeowners, designers, and politicians alike seem to embrace plants for their many attributes. The importance of biodiversity—and bio abundance—has become a rallying call that gardeners are well equipped to answer. Yet, the pressure of being in the spotlight, finite resources, and a changing climate all contribute to making gardening more challenging than ever. In this talk, Dave Demers will share some of his experiences as a designer, gardener, and former City elected official. He will take you from a humble hell strip trial to the expansive lawn-gone-wild roof meadow of a stylish furniture store, from no-mow City parks to generously planted private gardens.

Speaker Bio:

Dave Demers’s love for gardening sprouted early in life—he had his first greenhouse by age 10 and started a local garden club before graduating from high school. After studying horticulture in Montréal and New York, he traveled the world for internships in various botanical collections and for plant-hunting expeditions. A Quebec transplant, Demers moved to the West Coast to work at Heronswood and eventually settled in Vancouver, BC, where he runs a design/build/maintenance landscape firm, as well as a small specialty plant nursery.

Recording will be available for 4 weeks.