Ellie Selig Distinguished Garden Design Lecture: A Tree, a Wall, and a Chair + a Little Water

Thursday, November 13, 2025 | 6:00 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.

Wine reception at 6:00 pm, lecture from 6:30 – 7:30 pm

Renowned landscape architect Steve Martino brings the desert to life. He pioneered a bold aesthetic that celebrates native plants and sustainable design. In his talk,  A Tree, a Wall, and a Chair + a Little Water Steve shares how architecture, plants, and natural processes work together to create responsible modern gardens that inspire and conserve.

About Steve Martino

Steve Martino is an internationally recognized landscape architect whose career path stemmed directly from a walk he took in the desert. He studied architecture and art but has never had a landscape class in his life. Puzzled why the man-made landscape was so uninteresting and uninspiring compared to the natural desert landscape he decided to try and design gardens that incorporated native desert plants. The challenge of the wide-spread resistance to this concept started him on a 40-year career that has created a desert-derived aesthetic that is widely recognized for celebrating the desert. Steve is a Fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects and in 2006 he received their Design Medal for his sustained level of design.

The Ellie Selig Distinguished Garden Design Lecture Series aims to provide inspirational and informative ideas for garden-making from renowned garden designers, landscape architects, or garden makers.

Fee: Free, reservation requested.

Location: The Betty Kelso Center