Caley Winter Lecture – Val Libby

“Across the Pond: Gardening Trends in Maine”

Please note: this will be an online talk as our speaker is based in the USA.

Maine is the most forested state in the USA and has the fastest warming body of ocean water; yet organic gardening and farming are expanding rapidly, especially in coastal areas with a milder climate & higher population. Lecturing from Downeast Maine, near Acadia National Park, Val will discuss this trend as well as efforts to tackle invasive plants and insects, “rewilding” and the demand for native plant nurseries, along with the increased public interest in visiting historic gardens.

In 1979-80 Val was an international intern at RBGE. When she returned to the States, she completed a MSc. in the Longwood Program in Public Horticulture and wrote the first history of Winterthur Gardens in Delaware. In 1986, she joined the faculty at Temple University, Philadelphia, with specialties in landscape history, plants and public horticulture. In 2004 she was the Fulbright Distinguished Chair in Landscape History at the University of the Algarve, Pt. Her recent book The Northwest Gardens of Lord & Schryver (2021) has received two national awards.

N.B. This is an online talk.  Please register for the talk on our Eventbrite page so that we can send you a joining link. Registration will begin on 6th September 2022. Please note: registration will close at 5pm on the day of the talk (or earlier if all the tickets are allocated).  This is to ensure that everyone is sent the joining link in a timely fashion.