Students of our first Design an Abundant Landscape class enjoyed the comfortable and open learning environment of Willowwind school as they helped envision and design its future landscape.

The day began with a walkabout guided by Tim Terry, president of the nonprofit’s School Board. Mr. Terry described the children-first philosophy of the school and his desire for the landscape to reflect their educational mission.

With goals in hand, students then learned to analyze the space. They look for the elements it inherently offered so Willowwind could minimize time and energy on implementation and maintenance.

The second day was a mix of presentations and fun hands-on design activities. We covered the emulation of patterns in nature, using overlays to design various aspects of a landscape, creating human-scaled outdoor rooms, and much more. The result was a concept design for the large landscape that will be shared with Willowwind.

The June 26-27 Create an Edible Landscape class will focus on designing one or two areas at a more granular level. Student will learn to create combinations of plants that form symbiotic relationships. Through succession and self-renewing fertility, these plant guilds maintain themselves, giving us more time to enjoy the harvest.