April Meeting: Clement Kent - Tapestry Lawns

MEETING LOCATION:

TALK & SPEAKER:

From 2010 to 2014, Prof. Lionel Smith studied how to create a flowering lawn free of grasses for his Ph.D. He named them "tapestry lawns" and received the RHS Chelsea Silver Flora Medal in 2013. In 2019 he published "Tapestry Lawns. Freed from Grass and Full of Flowers." His work has been featured from scholarly journals to Martha Stewart. Clement has been corresponding with Prof. Smith and will show how Prof. Smith's tapestries enormously enrich the ecosystems of pollinators in a lawn. His lawns are adapted to England, but Clement will look at options for Ontario gardeners. Work is going on here to create tapestry lawn mixes adapted to the city or the cottage - Clement will feature a few of the people involved in this and their progress so far.

("solstice2015", CC-by-SA 4.0)

CLEMENT KENT is a gardener, re-greener, scientist and plant lover. He will grow almost anything for fun, his core interest is using gardens, parks, and other public spaces to re-green the ecoloyg of where we live. Clement is the author of How to Make a Pollinator Garden (2011), and practice what he preaches. He has helped create many pollinator gardens in front yards, city parks, and roadsides. He has been on the Advisory Board of the City of Toronto's Pollinator Protection Program, and continues to host workshops with groups wanting to create green oases in their neighbourhoods.

Clement studies insects scientifically their behaviour, their genetics, and the "big-data" area called genomics. Among the insects, bees are a special focus. He is a member of the Canadian Association of Professional Apiculturists ("honeybee professionals") and received the Canadian Pollinator Advocate award in 2011 from the North American Pollinator Protection Campaign.

Clement is an adjunct professor at York University and Vice-President of the Horticultural Societies of Parkdale & Toronto. Clement helped found the Parkdale society in 1987 and Project Swallowtail in 2019.