Emilie Carter, ASLA

Tuesday, September 20, 1:45 p.m.-2:45 p.m.
Forum Room
Free of charge, limited seating

Creating an Ecologically Rich Garden

Emilie Carter is a licensed landscape architect with Phyto Studio, a niche landscape architecture firm that focuses on harnessing the power of diverse plant systems to create landscapes that are functional, beautiful, and resilient. She is trained in analyzing the many layers of each site – from the underlying geological formations and soil types to the site’s visible natural systems. Her design work focuses on creating ecologically functional designed landscapes.

Throughout her career, Emilie has worked on many different projects across the east coast including small gardens, rural estates, school campuses, and urban parks and plazas. At Phyto, Emilie has participated in the design of the Penn State Arboretum Bird and Pollinator Garden, public parks, and large residential gardens and land management projects.

With increasing pressures from invasive species and degraded natural landscapes, it has become a priority to ensure designed plantings are beautiful, resilient, and ecologically rich. Home gardeners have the opportunity to aide in rebuilding local ecosystems but often the task can feel overwhelming without a guide. Emilie will share horticultural wisdom, design techniques and field-based outcomes that Phyto Studio uses to address these challenges and create diverse and vibrant plantings. In this talk, Emilie is going to break down basic elements of ecological horticulture, discuss why it is important on a local scale and will give you some ideas – and plant species – to incorporate in the next season of your garden.