Joshua Meyer

Mary P. Cunningham: a pioneering woman in landscape architecture.

November 1, 2020

The landscape of Plimoth Patuxet Museums provides material to write a thousand novels or period pieces portraying the way of life and culture in America from pre-history to present. From Wampanoag storytelling and their encounters with Europeans to the arrival of the Pilgrims in the early 17th century, dramatic events and groundbreaking activities left an … More Mary P. Cunningham: a pioneering woman in landscape architecture.

Rediscovering Olmsted layers at Plimoth: first steps

September 1, 2020

Starting a new job requires a lot of time spent learning and adapting to new work cultures, processes, work flows, and how to tap into the two-way flow of institutional knowledge. Amongst climbing this learning curve, settling in with my staff and department as well as tackling projects, I’ve been dying to begin starting to … More Rediscovering Olmsted layers at Plimoth: first steps

Creating a humoral garden

August 15, 2020

One of my inherited projects slated to begin in spring 2020 is the design and installation of something called a humoral garden. For some context, Plimoth is a living history museum that depicts 17th c. life about the Colonial English community as well as the native Wampanoag people. With the former, Pilgrims coming over from … More Creating a humoral garden

Introducing Plimoth Patuxet

May 1, 2020

After nearly two years in Washington DC stewarding a beautiful Federal-era property in Georgetown, I’ve answered a calling to return to my roots in New England- where i first learned to grow plants, explore designed landscapes, research changes in land over time, and observe how humans interact with their environment. This calling led me to … More Introducing Plimoth Patuxet

Increasing Biodiversity in Historic Gardens

March 14, 2020

I’ve spent most of my career stewarding and preserving cultural institutions in some way or another. Lately its been historic properties. These are some of the most challenging typologies to work with due to their shear limitations. Historic districts, National Historic Landmarks, cultural landscape reports, wills, and other local/state/national regulations for properties designated as historic. … More Increasing Biodiversity in Historic Gardens

Pivoting Boxwood Blight, Part 2

February 23, 2020

This post is a follow up to an earlier story I shared about my experiences managing an urban, historic public garden that was heavily infected boxwood blight in Fall 2018. As a recap, we were able to undertake successful mitigation and adaptation of the disease by acting fast, following best management practices, tapping into the … More Pivoting Boxwood Blight, Part 2

Teamwork & Luffa Gourds: Grow. Learn. Sell

January 26, 2020

An undervalued character trait and organizational value these days is the concept of teamwork. Especially in smaller organizations, team members are expected to wear many hats, assist in interdepartmental functions that are not related to job descriptions, and to simply help out coworkers with various tasks to meet goals and objectives related to the central … More Teamwork & Luffa Gourds: Grow. Learn. Sell

Rose Propagation & The “Low Risk, High Reward” Mentality

December 8, 2019

In managing a historic property, there’s always about 100 projects going on of varying scales and importance. At the big scale and important end of the spectrum would be the successful management of a half-million dollar storm water management project. The middle road might be a roof replacement project for an aging building, and the … More Rose Propagation & The “Low Risk, High Reward” Mentality

Lessons Learned: Display Bed Troubleshooting

September 23, 2019

For this post I’d like to share the process and rationale of upgrading one of our garden beds at Tudor Place. Our East Lawn bed is a large planting border situated along the eastern edge of the East Lawn garden. This area, along with several other spaces and garden rooms, comprises of the formal North … More Lessons Learned: Display Bed Troubleshooting

Bat Friendly Gardens & Public Programming

August 22, 2019

It was the summer of bats here at Tudor Place! We just completed three successful public programs dedicated to bat-friendly landscapes and advocating for their habitats here in the District. The story begins last fall when I began my role here in the gardens. 2018 saw an excess of two things: rain (it was one … More Bat Friendly Gardens & Public Programming

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