“Plants have so much to give us, all we have to do is ask.”

Mary Siisip Genuisz – From the book: Plants have so much to give us, all we have to do is ask – Anishinaabe Botanical Teachings (2015)

Welcome to the Plants in the Landscape Blog, a living toolkit for planting-centered design. This blog was created by a team of landscape architect students from the University of British Columbia’s Master of Landscape Architecture program under the guidance of Professor Daniel Roehr. The team’s work took place on the unceded ancestral lands of the xwməθkwəyəm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), Stó:lō and Səlílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil- Waututh) Nations.

Designing with plants isn’t a new practice and the blog authors would like to acknowledge the long-standing maintenance and planting by Indigenous peoples in British Columbia, long before settlers adopted the terms like ‘planting design’ and ‘landscape architect’ we use today. We work to reframe the ways plants are botanically taught and represented in the landscape architecture curriculum and invite you to read Plant Management Systems of British Columbia’s First Peoples (2014) by Nancy Turner, Douglas Deur, and Dana Lepofsky to learn more about Indigenous plant management in British Columbia.

This blog was created for students, faculty, and practitioners to learn more about being in relationship with plants in the landscape. We believe learning the names, stories, and personalities of plants helps improve connections between people and the land and invite you to walk with us on a journey. Learn, design, and journey to learn more about planting in the landscape.

While this blog outlines regional conditions specific to Metro Vancouver region in British Columbia, Canada, we hope you’ll learn more about plants in your region. After you visit the blog, we encourage you to go outside and spend time with plants; consider whose land you occupy and your relationship with plants through your own cultures.

Happy learning,

Elliot, Hannah, MJ, Mikhayla, and Daniel

Graduate sudents in the Landscape Architecture Student Association (LASA) collaborate to plant native shrubs (vine maple and red elderberry) behind the Landscape Architecture Annex building in Spring 2024.