Meeting:

Thursday, August 9, 2007

Guest Presenter:

Chip Sullivan

Topic:

Green Energy for Your Garden

With the drive for sustainable, energy-efficient gardening growing with enthusiasm, our August guest speaker, landscape architect and Professor of Landscape Architecture at UC Berkeley, Chip Sullivan couldn’t be bringing us a more timely presentation. Professor Sullivan’s illustrated lecture, “Energy, Fantasy and Form,” will describe and detail the little-known techniques of our ancestral garden designers, using Plato’s theory of the four elements (Earth, Air, Fire and Water) to organize his message.

Many new and exciting opportunities lie ahead for the creation of garden forms that not only conserve energy but are also works of art and places of spiritual renewal. Professor Sullivan will present tools and ideas that will enable us to build contemporary gardens that have the power to transform the environment and inspire the garden passion in each of us.

For example, energy-conserving gardens should take advantage of the naturally insulating qualities of the earth for passive heating and cooling. Air currents can be channeled and directed using vegetation, and breezes can be created by understanding the Venturi effect.

Sullivan is the author of the popular book Drawing the Landscape, and the beautifully illustrated Garden and Climate, which received a Merit Award from the American Association of Landscape Architects.

Articles by and about Professor Sullivan have appeared in numerous publications, including Progressive Architecture, The Architecture Review, Artforum, Garden Design and Landscape Architecture magazine.

Sullivan’s goal as an educator is to encourage new ways of seeing and new ways of solving problems that will respond to ever-changing environmental circumstances. We hope you’re there to see “Energy, Fantasy and Form” through his eyes.

Plant Raffle

Plants provided by Gary Hammer.

Location: Friendship Auditorium, 3201 Riverside Drive, Los Angeles, CA 90027. Click here for a map to Friendship Auditorium.

Book of the Month

This month’s selection is Garden and Climate by Chip Sullivan, our August speaker (published by McGraw-Hill Professional, 2002).

This fascinating romp through ancient Roman gardens reveals how their creators used ingenious design to manipulate climate – strategies well-suited to modern gardens and gardeners concerned with energy conservation.

The book is hardcover and includes many photos, as well as delightful illustrations by the author.

List price $45.00. SCHS Member price: $23.00.

A limited number of copies have been ordered. To reserve your copy (limit one per person), please email Lili Singer at lili.singer@sbcglobal.net. Be sure to have Chip sign your copy!