Join us for the 2016 Green Matters Symposium: A Garden Gateway! Brookside Gardens will host this annual educational event on Friday, April 8 from 8:30AM-4:00PM. 

New landscapes are designed and constructed everyday in cities and towns throughout the country. Unfortunately, these projects often wreak havoc on the local environment. Demolished materials are sent to the landfill. Soils are compacted and washed away. Tree roots are damaged beyond repair. New materials contain pollutants and travel many miles to the site. Storm water is treated like waste in the design and is diverted straight into our sewer system. New plants are installed without consideration for their mature size, suitability for the site, or nativity to the area. The end product may look beautiful upon completion, but with a great environmental cost and often short-lived results. However, this is not the only way. Using Brookside Gardens’ recent Garden Gateway project as a springboard, the 2016 Green Matters Symposium will focus on elements of a successful, environmentally friendly landscape construction. From thorough planning to hardscape materials, native plants, and local artistry, the Symposium will inspire and offer practical suggestions on how landscape projects can be designed and constructed in an environmentally beneficial way.

Speakers include: 

• Lori Arguelles, Executive Director of the Alice Ferguson Foundation
• Gennadyi Gurman, Head of Interpretation at the Queens Botanical Garden
• Mary Pat Matheson, The Anna and Hays Mershon President & Chief Executive Officer at the Atlanta Botanical Garden 
• Stephanie Oberle, Director of Brookside Gardens
• Thomas Ranier, Landscape Architect & Author of “Planting in a Post-Wild World” 

Register at ActiveMONTGOMERY.org (Course #14881). Fees: $85 before March 1st; $99 from March 1st onward. 

Friday, April 8, 2016 8:30am-4:00pm

Course # 14881
Fee: $85 before March 1st, $99 from March 1st onward
Register online at ActiveMONTGOMERY.org or call 301-962-1451

Green Matters, an annual symposium at Brookside Gardens since 2004, concentrates attention on the intersection of horticulture and environmental issues. Environmental issues. Environmental stewardship is a core value of the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission (M-NCPPC), Brookside Gardens’ parent organization. As such, we strive to provide timely information and viable solutions to environmental challenges, because we feel strongly that green does matter