The Long Grass Movement: Long Grass Management in Passive Turf Areas

General Sessions

Speaker(s):

Egan Davis, City of Richmond

Egan Davis is the Manager of Parks Operations for the City of Richmond. His background includes horticulture education, managing botanical collections, nursery and greenhouse production, and landscape construction. Organizations that Egan has worked with include the UBC Botanical Garden, the City of Vancouver at VanDusen Botanical Garden, the City of Saskatoon, City of White Rock, Park & Tilford Gardens, BCRPA and HortEd.ca. Egan has international horticulture experience which includes working at Gothenburg Botanical Garden and Klinta Gardens in Sweden, and botanical expeditions in North America, Eurasia, and New Zealand.

Topic

The Long Grass Movement: Long Grass Management in Passive Turf Areas

It is a current trend in landscape horticulture to allow passive turf areas to grow long. Initiatives like Now Mow May embrace the ecological benefits of long turf grass that include providing food and habitat for beneficial insects, birds, snakes, and other urban wildlife. Images of wildflower meadows come to mind, but the reality is often not palatable to the general public. How can professionals make this idea work so that it is legible to the average person? Join Egan Davis to explore this question. He will provide visual examples of successful long grass meadows and discuss key elements that make them work. Egan will discuss a range of ideas that include wildflower meadows, long grass management and rotational mowing. Learn how ecological principles of plant succession, plant adaptation strategies, nutrient cycling and competition apply to successful programs.