January 04, 2017

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 at Barton Springs Nursery's outdoor classroom on Thursday evenings.

Get info about the 2023-24 schedule here!

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

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

Read more about Garden Spark

Read more about Garden Spark

Announcing 2020 Garden Spark speaker lineup

Season 4 of Garden Spark kicks off in January and brings 3 exciting speakers to design enthusiasts and keen gardeners in the Austin area ...

Thomas Rainer comes to Austin for Garden Spark

Thomas Rainer, a Washington, D.C.-based landscape architect and author of Planting in a Post-Wild World, came to Austin last week to give a presentation for Garden Spark, the design-based speaker series I started 3 years ago ...

Thomas Rainer to speak in Austin – tickets available

Garden design aficionados, take note! My second Garden Spark speaker of 2019 will be Thomas Rainer on Thursday, September 19th, 8-9 pm, presenting "Planting in a Post-Wild World: Designing Plant Communities for More Resilient Landscapes." ...

The Texas Wildflower interviews me about Garden Spark design talks

Are you into garden design or keen on learning more about it from the experts? Me too! That's why I started the garden design speaker series Garden Spark. The April issue of e-magazine The Texas Wildflower shines a spotlight on the series and how it got started ...

Join my class and tour my garden on May 4

January 23, 2019 Did you ever wish you could tour a designer’s garden with her or him and learn why they made the design choices they did, or how they solved commonplace problems? Do you long to know more about the plants they grow: how much water they need, how ...