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 2019 Garden Spark speaker lineup

January 01, 2019 Season 3 of Garden Spark kicks off in 2019 with 3 terrific speakers and a change of location, due to high demand, that will allow more people to attend! The new location is an event space in northwest Austin at Hwy 183 and MoPac, just minutes from ...

Garden Spark 2018 season concludes; 2019 season TBA soon!

October 22, 2018 Hey, garden friends! My 2018 season of Garden Spark talks concluded last Thursday with a terrific talk by designer/author Susan Morrison about small-garden design. Thanks to everyone who braved waterlogged Austin’s wet streets to attend! After Susan’s talk and booksigning (her latest book is The Less Is ...

2019 Garden Spark Schedule

October 03, 2018 Season 3 of Garden Spark kicks off in 2019 with 3 terrific speakers and a change of location, due to high demand, that will allow more people to attend! The new location is an event space in northwest Austin at Hwy 183 and MoPac, just minutes from ...

Garden Spark talk with Tom Spencer on Feb. 8 is sold out

January 12, 2018 People in the Austin area are hungry for garden design talks! I’m glad, because I’ve been hungry for such talks too. In fact, that’s why I launched Garden Spark last year. Last week I blogged here about the 2018 series and an upcoming Garden Spark talk with ...

Announcing 2018 Garden Spark speaker lineup

January 07, 2018 I’m delighted to announce an exciting speaker lineup for this year’s Garden Spark, a series of garden talks by top-notch design speakers hosted at my home. February 8: Tom Spencer presents “The Tao of Texas Gardening: Finding Balance in a Changing Climate” Description: Gardening in Texas is ...