In this unconventional look at how and why people garden, Lorraine challenges attendees to consider the role of gardens in an era of ecological and social change, and how municipal grass and weeds bylaws (and other forms of garden regulation, such as homeowner association rules) need to be reformed in order to support biodiversity. Highlighting examples of gardeners who push against neighbourhood norms—and who are often subject to bylaws and other forms of social sanction—this talk encourages attendees to celebrate landscape diversity and the gardeners who challenge deeply held notions of garden convention.

Lorraine Johnson is the bestselling author of more than ten books on subjects including native plant gardening, urban agriculture, and environmental issues. She is also the Canadian editor of the bestselling Canadian Gardener’s Guide, now in its 3rd edition. Lorraine’s most recent book is A Garden for the Rusty-Patched Bumblebee: Creating Habitat for Native Pollinators, co-authored with Sheila Colla and with a foreword (in the U.S. edition) by Douglas Tallamy. Lorraine’s work focuses on habitat gardening in the context of climate change and biodiversity loss; community food-growing; reforming grass and weeds bylaws so that they support naturalized gardens; and land stewardship as relationship-building in the context of reconciliation.