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Plant Talk

Inside The New York Botanical Garden

A Fresh Eye on Landscape Design

Posted in Learning Experiences, Programs and Events on October 28 2008, by Plant Talk

Lynn Torgerson is an instructor in the Garden’s Continuing Education program and a graduate of the Garden’s School of Professional Horticulture. Her firm, Lynn Torgerson Gardens, Ltd., specializes in green roofs, rooftop gardens, and terraces.

My fingerprints are all over this town, high and low, in all neighborhoods, including those with fancy addresses with sweeping views, luxury buildings, and hotels as well as low income housing project courtyards. A GreenStreets park I plant in my uptown neighborhood is a labor of love. New York is my city; my career is about enhancing its green beauty quotient and sustainable functioning.

NYBG’s Landscape Design Portfolio Lecture Series has served for me as an access ramp to the world of international design culture. The presentations of the past few seasons have offered a rich feast. Through a previous speaker, Fernando Caruncho, who was new to me, I found that some designs, such as his grids of olive trees and wheat field patterns, are best appreciated by helicopter—how exciting! This led me to view my own work in a fresh way, as strong patterns to view from afar.

Thus my perspective shifted on my work in general; I began to see my gardens as microcosms of the Big Picture of Garden Design and to approach the garden layout with new eyes.

It feels great to be making New York beautiful, garden by garden. I have designed so many, installed so many, and worked on, rejuvenated, or created so many from a wreck of a neglected courtyard, the back of a brownstone, a rooftop, or a terrace. I have reclaimed dreadful spaces and made them into havens, many with inspiration gained from the lecture series.

The Landscape Design Portfolio Lecture Series is a vital educational tool; the format is perfect, and Susan Cohen, coordinator of the Landscape Design Program, continues to choose exceptional speakers. The consistent high quality and world-class talent of the lineup makes the series a winner.