Larry Weaner, a leading figure in North American landscape design and founder of New Directions in the American Landscape, will present “Breaking the Rules: Ecological Landscape Design and Traditional Landscape Methods” on Thursday, April 24, at 7 p.m. at the Kingsport Center for Higher Education, 300 W. Market Street, Kingsport, TN 37660. Sponsored by Southern Appalachian Plant Society (SAPS) the program is free and the public is invited. For more information, phone 423-348-6572, email sapsnews@gmail.com, or see http://saps.us/.

Using native plants requires more than simply expanding conventional design practices. Based on observation of how native plants develop in nature, we can create new design, implementation and management techniques, many of which are diametrically opposed to traditional practice. In this presentation Weaner will examine how alternative approaches on everything from selecting, arranging and spacing plants to the simple act of weeding can yield a more easily maintained landscape that still expresses the beauty and richness of our native flora.

Larry Weaner, FAPLD, founded Larry Weaner Landscape Associates in 1982 and the educational program series New Directions in the American Landscape (NDAL) in 1990. Since then NDAL has been a pioneering influence in this field and continues to educate landscape architects, landscape designers, horticulturists, and the gardening public. Weaner's nationally recognized work combines horticulture, landscape design, and ecological restoration and spans more than twenty U.S. states and the U.K. He has received the top three design awards from the Association of Professional Landscape Designers. An active guest lecturer for horticultural and environmental organizations throughout the U.S, his book, Garden Revolution: How Our Landscapes Can Be a Source of Environmental Change, received an American Horticultural Society Book Award in 2017.