Grounded Design has moved!

Grounded Design is moving from Blogger to Squarespace. You can find the new blog site at:

www.thomasrainer.com

I hope to soon transfer the domain www.groundeddesign.com as well to this new format, but that may take a few more days.

For the past year, I've been thinking about ways to put new life into this blog.  But a lot has changed since I've started this blog in 2008. In fact, my life has changed quite a bit since then. I started this blog because I had thoughts about design, gardens, and planting that didn't always fit into my professional practice. Besides being a Principal at the firm Rhodeside & Harwell,  I now have many more outlets for putting that content out in the world. I regularly talk and lecture around the country now, I teach at George Washington University, am actively involved on social media (mostly Twitter and Instagram), have a book out now, do the occasional interview. So I wanted a website that focused on blog articles, but also captured  all of the other ways I am engaging with the world.

For those of you who have followed this blog for many years, thank you. From my heart. If you are still interested, I will be offering a free monthly subscription that bundles blog posts into a single email. Keep your inbox uncluttered, but enable you not to miss any posts you may want to read when you have a spare moment.  To sign up, go to the bottom of the new page thomasrainer.com and enter the email address. I will continue to maintain this blog site as an archive. But all the good new stuff will be over on the new site.

I'm delighted to start a series of post in the upcoming weeks focused on planting strategies. This will be some distilled, practical advice that I've learned over the last few years for combining plants.

So come!

www.thomasrainer.com

Gardening in a Post-Wild World

“I think wildness matters more now than it ever has. We’re urbanizing at a pace unprecedented in human history… We have to look at the landscapes we live in as places where nature could be.” – Thomas Rainer

I had the pleasure of attending the Pacific Horticulture's annual conference this past October. It was one of the most progressive, forward-looking groups of horticulturists I've ever been around. Bob Hyland, Michelle Sullivan of Mia Lehrer, and Timber Press' preeminent editor Tom Fischer all contributed to an elevated dialogue. And the audience was filled with some of the most accomplished plantsmen and women I've ever met. The conference has produced a series of videos/interviews from several of the speakers. Here is the first part of one that focused on several of the themes I spoke about. Click on the image below for a link to the short video:

Upcoming Talks 2017

After almost 50 talks last year, I'm thrilled my speaking schedule is back on a more reasonable pace this year. I did want to let folks know about a handful of upcoming events. If you are in the area or interested, I'd love to meet you.

Jan 22        Green Spring Garden Park, Fairfax County, VA

Feb 2         University of Georgia, College of Environment & Design, Athens, GA

Feb 4         Georgia Native Plant Society Annual Symposium, Macon, GA

Mar 4        Muskingum Valley Garden Society, Zanesville, OH

Mar 7        Davidson Horticultural Symposium, Davidson, NC  Sold Out

Mar 11      Gardenwise Conference, York, PA 

Mar 18      Master Gardener's Symposium, Loudoun County, VA

Apr 14      Rising Urbanists Conference, City College, NYC
Apr 20      State Arboretum of Virginia, Blandy, VA


May 23     Chapel Hill Garden Club, NC Botanical Garden 

June 3       Mount Vernon Art and Architecture Symposium, Alexandria, VA 

June 20    Garden Club Federation Annual Meeting, Freeport, Maine

June 21     Maine Audobon Society, Maine

July 13      International Master Gardener Conference, Portland, OR

Aug 11      Gardening Symposium, Asheville, NC

Sept 8-10   Peter Korns Garden, Lund, Sweden

Sept 23      Massachusetts Master Gardeners, Westford, MA

Oct 7         West Virginia Botanic Garden, Morgantown, WV