What is Garden Spark?
Inspired by the idea of house concerts -- performances in private homes, which support musicians and give a small audience an up-close and personal musical experience -- in 2017 I began hosting a series of garden talks by top-notch design speakers out of my home. I called it Garden Spark.
Garden Spark talks are for anyone with an interest in gardening, garden design, and learning from design experts. You won't find anything else like this in Austin! I know because I'm always looking for garden presentations geared to avid and experienced gardeners, by well-known designers and authors, and they just don't come around that often.
To attract excellent speakers and design experts, I'm paying them a fair speaker fee, raised through ticket sales. For the cost of a movie, drink, and popcorn, you can hear entertaining and thoughtful speakers sharing their design ideas. I organize 3 to 5 talks per season, held on Thursday evenings. Nowadays talks are held at two sponsoring Austin nurseries, Barton Springs Nursery (fall talks) and Leaf Landscape Supply North (spring talks), which provides space for more people to attend and gets me out of having to clean my house and rearrange furniture. I'm grateful for their support!
How to Attend
Talks are limited-attendance events and generally sell out within just a few days -- or even a few hours. I open ticket sales to subscribers first, so please join the Garden Spark email list in order to receive these early notifications. Simply click this link and ask to be added. I'll never share or sell your email address.
When I launched the Garden Spark talk series, I was sure there was an unmet need in Austin for engaging and thought-provoking talks about garden design. The response has been greater than I hoped. My thanks to all who have attended a talk and to the speakers who've shared their ideas and knowledge with us. Your participation is helping to broaden the conversation about garden design in our community!
Past Lineups
2024-25 Garden Spark Schedule
2023-24 Garden Spark Schedule
2022-23 Garden Spark Schedule
2021-22 Garden Spark Schedule
2020 Garden Spark Schedule
2019 Garden Spark Schedule
2018 Garden Spark Schedule
2017 Garden Spark Schedule
