Ecological Landscape Alliance | Advocating for Responsible Stewardship

Featured Events

Eco-tour: Gardening for Insects: Native Pollinator Garden

Sat, June 18 @ 9:30 am EDT - 11:30 am EDT

Join us for a unique opportunity to explore the private gardens of an inspiring insect specialist, landscape designer, and passionate nature photographer.

Wed, June 15 @ 12:00 pm EDT - 1:00 pm EDT

Learn about the restoration of New England Botanic Garden at Tower Hill's heirloom apple orchard.

Wed, July 27 @ 10:00 am EDT - 12:00 pm EDT

Join this professionally guided tour of The Native Plant Center to learn more about native plants and pollinator support.

Sat, August 20 @ 10:00 am EDT - 12:00 pm EDT

We invite you join us on this guided Eco-tour to experience the beauty, diversity and sustainability of our native flora for yourself.

Eco-Answers: Going Electric in the Landscape – Battery Powered Options

Wed, June 22 @ 6:30 pm EDT - 7:30 pm EDT

There are now practical alternatives on the market to gas-powered landscape maintenance equipment (GLMEs). Let’s talk about why they are worth a try and how to choose your best option.

Fri, September 9 @ 10:00 am EDT - 12:00 pm EDT

ELA Eco-tour to meadows that display the rich color palettes that can be achieved using native plants. The meadows are all designed with four season interest - a feature that invites frequent visits to experience the changing views.

Event calendar

Featured Articles

How and Why Trees Die After Planting

By Norm Helie

Many trees die during the first season at the new site. Watering transplanted trees is not the same as watering crops or a perennial garden. Small annual and perennial plant root systems require less oxygen than the delicate fine root systems of the tree.

By Mike Bald

Like a handful of other invasive plant species, Japanese knotweed is tenacious and persistent on the one hand but economically useful and often medicinally beneficial on the other. Landowners and town leaders know that invasive species are impressive colonizers, and without a comprehensive plan to manage large corridors on the landscape, re-infestation is virtually unavoidable.

By Emily May

As you watch backyard plants and trees green up and leaf out, it’s also time to start observing those plants for symptoms of injury from herbicide drift. Over the past five years, many trees and broadleaf plants in backyards, on farms, and in natural areas across the Midwest have been injured by drift from volatile plant growth regulator herbicides.

The Insects, Birds & Other Animals That Keep Your Garden Beautiful and Thriving

In Garden Allies, author Frederique Lavoipierre encourages a perspective shift towards the critters in our gardens. Instead of thinking of garden inhabitants as good or bad, she encourages us to think of them in their ecological roles, with a food-web perspective. What results is a book jam-packed with identification clues, gardening guidance, and stories that had me penciling exclamation points in the margins.

Eco-Answers from the Pros: Will Deer Repellent Repel Native Insects?

I have deer that visit my property and need to use various deer repellents on my native plants. Does this repel the native insects that would like to chew on the leaves of these native plants?

Eco Answers from the Pros: Replacing Runaway Ferns with Native Habitat

Building a Native Habit on a Retaining Wall

I have a 35-year-old retaining wall running the length of my driveway behind my house. I would like to get rid of the ferns and plant something to attract birds/bees/etc. How can I do this without digging up and disturbing the soil sitting above the retaining wall?

Eco-Answers from the Pros: Creating Tree and Shrub Layer

Which species of native trees and shrubs are best to plant next to one another to take advantage and have them benefit the most from the sharing of their roots and fungi? I do not have woodland or an area where I can observe them naturally occurring. I live in Thomaston, Maine. ∼Dan Jaffe Wilder…

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Conferences

ELA’s one- and two-day regional conferences offer cutting-edge knowledge, useful information, CEU’s, and invaluable opportunities for engagement with fellow professionals. Conference sponsors present their ecologically-focused products and services while supporting ecological education.

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Webinars

A Focus on Sustainability – This Fall/Winter series is geared to landscape professionals and anyone who stewards the land. Webinars are taught by nationwide experts on ecological landscape topics.
Wednesday Walks in the Garden – This free Summer/Spring webinar series was begun in 2020 and offers a wide range of topics to engage and educate garden enthusiasts on ecological principles.

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Classes, Eco-Tours & Workshops

ELA programming offers classes, tours, and hands-on workshops to expand your skills from design and soil management to incorporating edibles and managing rainwater.

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Thank you everyone for the energy you put into ELA. These programs shine from your involvement, expertise, and love of nature. I’m excited for what the next year will bring.

Mark H.

Thanks so much for organizing a great informative Mid-Atlantic conference. The speakers were all excellent and very enlightening, I came away with lots of new knowledge. I also enjoyed meeting and networking with lots of like minded professionals.

Mark E. MSE Landscape Associates, LLC

Laura and I were just talking about how much we get from all of the ELA events and webinars…. The good "vibes" abound at ELA events.

John K, Land Design Inc.

Thank you for a full day’s worth of insightful material! Thank you for organizing this great event every year.

Karen C.

Speakers were very good, but meeting landscapers at the talks & in the lobby was best.

Cathy B.

Thank you Penny for making this delightful series available to members of the GCFM. [A Walk in the Garden webinars] have been one of my favorite hours each week this springtime. The speakers have been top notch subject experts who have excellent teaching skills to boot. Their photo presentations have been beautiful and informative. All around an excellent series!

Linda N

Thank you for a lovely and informative conference at BBG this past December. [It was] very well run and a joy to attend.

I salute you on the excellent conference today at BBG! It's cheering and edifying for my staff and me to be among so many people, old friends and new, who value horticulture and ecology.

Thank you for offering...courses via webinar - it really helps to save the professional development budget & travel time from my job. I find these information sessions very interesting, inspiring and informative.

Thanks for providing the great professional society that I have been long searching for.... I am definitely a better, more informed practitioner for it.

I am really enjoying all the webinars that the Ecological Landscape Alliance is offering. Thank you so much for organizing them and making them available for FREE! I spread the news about them on my Constant Contact page for the NJ Native Plant Society.

Susan H.

Just want to say again how very much I appreciate the “Walk in the Garden” series. The quality of your programs is tops! A “Walk in the Garden” is so much more than a series of slideshows. It is a celebration of how all life is connected. It is great to have this positive reminder amidst the scarier reminders!

K.R. Watkins

Being an ELA member has allowed me ready access to resources that inspire and inform our new coastal landscapes initiative. I'm very thankful they exist!

Gloria P, North Carolina Sea Grant, North Carolina State University

I love the new website. It’s clean and clear and the articles you highlight have great, inspiring content.

Meg H Plant Me a Rainbow

THANKS FOR THIS WEBINAR EVENT -- and to the author for the links to the Rodale Institute. To-the-point, compact (but not compacted!), memorable and motivating!

Joeth B.

I thoroughly enjoy being a member of ELA. In fact, I get the most out of my membership from your organization than from any other professional organization I belong to. Your educational opportunities are fantastic, I have enjoyed every webinar I've ever attended, and your newsletter is always informative and helps me do my work. Thank you!

Nancy H. Little Eden Gardens

[R&R] was such an informative and interesting conference. Thanks to you all at ELA for hosting such an undertaking. I'm looking forward to using more of ELA as a resource going forward.

I want to thank you and ELA for having such a wonderful speaker [Heather Holm] talk about our native bees and plant partners. It was fantastic. Great photos.

Virginia K.

I met and made new friends with great topics to discuss.

Timothy M.

The whole day on soils was particularly educational. I really liked the on-topic, varied discussions.

Erica B.

Fantastic! So many delicious offerings so well organized, so much energy, so many smiles! And just think of the abundance of skills, knowledge, deepened friendships, new connections, and inspired energy now out there, put to service, and passed on to still others! An astounding event! Hooray for everyone on the Conference Committee!

Cindy G, Landscape Designer

You do a wonderful job with your newsletters. Everything might as well be a MUST Do with the way you present the programs. We appreciate your dedication to doing a good job, and are most impressed with ELA.

Ginny S. Talbot Ecological Land Care

I really love ELA. Can't believe I only discovered y'all last year!

Laura B

Can I just say I have enjoyed all the lectures, conferences, classes and tours put on by ELA. You are doing a fabulous job. Thank you so much for all the work you put into this really incredible resource.

Georgia H

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