To my fellow landscape architects, lend me your ears. I’ve got a story to tell.

We had always prided ourselves to be “stewards of the land”, or “the profession that was green before going green was cool”. Indeed, despite the constant mislabeling of our profession as “glorified gardeners” or “landscapers”, we are driven to improve the quality of life of people through our works. Truly, the landscape architect is one of those professionals who can totally change entire landscapes at the stroke of a pen. This is such a great power. As the cliché goes, with great power comes great responsibility.

Yes, the big and small decisions that you make – from choosing where to site your resort, to deciding what brand and color of paint you ought to apply to the gazebo posts– these will all have a major impact upon the environment.

Of course, you may have already known this. Or maybe you’ve no idea what I’m saying. In any case, there will always be something new for you to learn, whether you’re an undergraduate student just trying to get by with your plates or a senior landscape architect taking on big projects from big entities.

Believe me, there is always something new to learn. Take it from me.

My undergraduate years were riddled with insecurity and mediocrity. I had only excelled when it came to softscape materials, so I tried to memorize every botanical name I could find, in the attempt to feel like I know my stuff. When I landed a job after graduating, I tried to interject all my softscape know-how into my projects. I was the office plant nerd. Then one day, one of my officemates had to drop it down on me: “Landscape architecture is not just about plants!” Of course, I felt attacked. Plants was the only thing I knew I was good at. Yet, her words just echoed in my brain. I struggled to keep it quiet within my mind. Frustrated, I read a lot of botanical books and listened to a ton of podcasts on plants not only to add to my stock knowledge, but also to somehow reassure myself of my “expertise”.

Come the landscape architecture board exam, I was quite confident with my softscape materials. The other topics I found myself to be knowledgeable enough, despite the constant internal nagging that I’m “not good enough”. What caught me off-guard though was ecology. I underestimated this topic. Wasn’t ecology the same as softscape? That’s what I thought, and I thought wrong. I found out soon that my lowest grade was – surprise, surprise – ecology. Nonetheless, I passed the board exams and was inducted as a fully-pledged landscape architect.

Still, the thought of sucking the most at ecology bugged me, as if my officemate’s words weren’t such a nuisance already. Again, I wanted to push it to the back of my mind. Somehow, I managed to force myself to read up a bit on ecology.

Mind. Blown.

You know that saying about being too focused on the tree that you miss the forest? That saying had never held so true until that point of my life. Soon, I was downloading every PDF, podcast, video, and article on ecology. Every ecological concept that I learned, I somehow thought of how it can be applied in landscape architecture. Ecological succession? Explains why weeds are hard to kill. Food webs and trophic cascade? Ahh, Plant A attracts Insect A that preys on Insect B, which helps protect Plant B from an infestation. Rock cycle? That’s why granite looks and works that way! Watersheds? Oh my, this highland golf course we’re proposing might destroy the coral reefs miles away from the site. Cave ecosystem dynamics? A great model for interior landscape design! It was here I had realized: landscape architecture is ecology applied.

From this realization, I was empowered. Whereas I was once an earthworm digging my way through the substrate, now I was an eagle in the clouds with a grand view of every corner of the landscape. Somehow, something clicked in my brain. I found an interest for all sorts of topics, for many of which I never thought I’d even waste a thought:

Utilities: turned from a bore into something I adore.

Landscape architecture history: I now view as a nasty love story between humanity and nature.

Professional practice and ethics: then conflated with office politics, now I saw as part of the socio-ecological dynamics of land use change.

Hardscape and softscape materials: now more than decorative things to me – they are components of a grand machine that is the urban ecosystem.

I was in a state of intellectual euphoria. So much, that I actually decided to resign from my job and immerse myself in graduate studies on – you guessed it – environmental science (which I thought was synonymous with ecology but turned out to be more than that).

As of writing this post, I had just finished the first draft of my thesis outline on greenhouse gas emissions from landscape maintenance regimes (more on that in another post). Soon, I’ll have to directly measure dissolved organic carbon in green roof runoff and use allometric equations to estimate the plant’s rate of carbon sequestration. Yes, graduate school is hard, but it’s something that I’m willing to suffer through if it means filling in the many gaps of knowledge in landscape architecture.

What I’m trying to say here is that through studying ecology and environmental science, I had gained a deeper appreciation and understanding of landscape architecture. Additionally, I’d say I’ve never felt happier in my life. That moment when my officemate chided me for missing the forest for the trees – it may be one of the greatest blessings that I have received in my life. I tell you, it’s wonderful.

And I am inviting you to share in this experience.

This blog is called ESLAR – an abbreviation of Environmental Science + Landscape ARchitecture. I want to run this blog as a platform for old and new landscape architects (and students!) to learn more about the ecological and environmental aspects of landscape architecture – from design, to construction, to maintenance, to redevelopment. Additionally, this blog will help me become a better writer, educator, and landscape architect. In the process, I hope that we all end up appreciating our noble profession at a deeper level.

May this blog inspire sleep-deprived landscape architecture students to finish their thesis. May this blog help landscape architects design, build, or maintain more sustainable, more regenerative, more inclusive projects. Finally, may this blog help us all become better stewards of the land.

See you all later!