MSU Symposium Offers Landscape Design Ideas

MISSISSIPPI STATE — Mississippi State University is bringing three influential designers to campus in October to give professional and hobby gardeners new ideas about landscape design.

The 59th Edward C. Martin Landscape Design Symposium will be held from 9 a.m. to noon Oct. 15 at the MSU Bost Extension Center Auditorium. Bob Brzuszek, Extension professor of landscape architecture, is the symposium program chair.

Speakers this year are Eric Groft, John Mayronne and Sadik Artunc.

Groft, principal of the Oehme, van Sweden landscape architecture firm in Washington, D.C., will speak on “The Artful Garden: Creative Inspiration for Landscape Design.” Groft will explain how the same landscape design principles apply to a small space and a large garden. This session will illustrate the connection between the path in a garden and the horizon in a painting.

Mayronne, principal of John Mayronne and Associates in Covington, Louisiana, will speak on “Gardening with Nature.” He said understanding the unique environments of a region is essential to developing beautiful and functional garden spaces. This session will address the importance of garden biodiversity and look at how to design landscapes for seasonal change and how to instill regional identity in the garden.

Artunc, head of the MSU Department of Landscape Architecture, will share his observations of historic and contemporary garden traditions in Japan. He will examine several examples of Japanese gardens and compare their design principles and discuss how they evolved.

Brzuszek will sign copies of his book, “The Crosby Arboretum: A Sustainable Regional Landscape.” Copies will be available for purchase.

Register online for the symposium at http://goo.gl/6yu9Ox. The event costs $25 to attend if registered by Oct. 1, and $30 for those who register at the door. For more information, contact Debbie Whitfield at dww12@lalc.msstate.edu.