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Duncan Brine is Keynote Speaker at Master Gardeners’ Public Event

March 27, 2009 by Duncan Brine Leave a Comment

The Master Gardeners of Putnam County are excited about their Spring Gardening School, a One-Day University on all things gardening. All are invited to join this annual event, which includes classes and a presentation with digital images by Duncan Brine, principal landscape designer of Horticultural Design, Inc. The New York Times, Horticulture Magazine, Hudson Valley Magazine, and other publications have featured Brine’s work. His speech, “Structuring Nature: Whole Property Landscape Design,” focuses on his six-acre garden in Pawling, NY.

Brine founded his naturalistic landscape design and installation firm in 1984. He is an instructor at the New York Botanical Garden and the New England Wild Flower Society. Brine wrote the introduction to Penguin/Putnam’s anthology The Literary Garden: Bringing Fiction’s Best Gardens to Life.

The volunteer Master Gardener program originated in the Northwest in 1972 to disseminate horticultural knowledge. It soon proliferated nationally. The Putnam County Master Gardeners and Cornell Cooperative Extension educators Dianne Olsen and Jennifer Stengle lead the classes and workshops of the Spring Gardening School informed by the scientific research of New York’s Cornell University.

Classes include the recent revival of interest in Coleus, new ideas for container gardens, the hands-on workshop Turf Love: environmental lawn care, preventing or delaying tree death, creating a cutting garden, fresh ideas for growing salad greens, organic ways to protect your plants from pests and disease, and a hands-on class in plant propagation. Participants may choose four of the eight classes offered. The day concludes with a question-and-answer panel.

Keynote speaker, Duncan Brine’s 6-acre garden in Pawling, NY © gardenlarge

Start the gardening season by joining the enthusiasm of the Putnam County Master Gardeners’ Spring Garden School on Saturday, April 18, from 9:00 a.m. to 4:15 p.m., at the Emergency Training & Operations Center, 112 Old Route 6, in Carmel, NY.

Pre-registration is going on now. Call 845-278-6738. The fee is $40 per person. (Continental breakfast provided. Please bring your own lunch.) Registrations are taken until the day before the event and walk-ins are welcome. For more about keynote speaker Duncan Brine, go to www.gardenlarge.com.

Road Ecology: Avoiding Wildlife Fragmentation

October 17, 2008 by Duncan Brine Leave a Comment

Scientists Seek to Mitigate Ecological Damage From Roads – NYTimes.com
- There are some four million miles of roads affecting 20 percent of the country, and in the last 10 years the new field of road ecology has emerged to study the many impacts of roads, and how to mitigate the damage.
  
  “Roads are the largest human artifact on the planet,” said Dr. Richard T. T. Forman, a professor of landscape ecology at Harvard, who brought road ecology from Europe to the United States. He is the editor of the definitive text on the field, “Road Ecology: Science and Solutions” (Island Press, 2003).
  
  One of the first projects in this country to ameliorate the effect of roads was on Florida’s Alligator Alley on I-75. A series of 24 underpasses restored water flow to the Everglades and allowed wildlife to safely migrate. The changes reduced the mortality of Florida panthers — of which there were only around 50 — from 4 per year to 1.5.
  
  Now, the number of ecologically sensitive road designs built or under way in the country is in the hundreds. In Amherst, Mass., salamanders emerge from hibernation in the mud on the first rainy night of April. “They come up and go screaming across the street to their breeding pond and have an orgy,” Dr. Forman said.

New England Wild Flower Society in the Brine Garden

September 25, 2008 by Julia Brine Leave a Comment

The Brine Design:
Landscape and Garden Principles in Practice

Join an on-site seminar at landscape designer Duncan Brine’s own six-acre garden. The Brine Garden resembles a public garden, with multiple areas, each with its own character.

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Native plants from an on-site nursery were incorporated to help the garden blend with naturalistic areas and adjacent preserved lands. Anne Raver of The New York Times recently described the garden as a “dream-like landscape.” Author Ruah Donnelly describes The Brine Garden as “a naturalistic display garden of remarkable artistry and diversity.” Prolific garden book author, Tovah Martin, writes that at the Brine Garden, “elements of concealment and surprise are written into the landscape.” This roaming seminar will include a discussion of Duncan Brine’s landscape design process, and respond to your observations and questions.

Leader: Duncan Brine is the Principal of Horticultural Design, Inc., Pawling, NY, as well as an instructor for the New York Botanical Garden.

Saturday, October 11, 1-4 p.m. 2008

Registration