Perfect Earth Prject presented their second annual sold-out symposium at Stone Barns Center for Food & Agriculture on May 7, 2025, gathering experts to address the management of invasive plants. Those introduced plants that cause ecological harm are a major driver of the biodiversity crisis the world is now facing . . .

For more than 20 years I’ve been lucky to travel around the country writing and producing stories about gardens—from sleekly geometric gardens in California to crisp, formal landscapes in Florida to grand estates in New York. But when I remember some of the stories I’ve written that perpetuated an unrealistic ideal of “perfection,” I cringe.

Last month we talked with Evelyn Beaury, a scientist and assistant curator at the New York Botanical Garden’s Center for Conservation and Restoration Ecology, about the dangers of invasive plants and what gardeners can do to slow the spread. (Read the story here.) One solution is to stop buying those super-aggressive, non-native plants in the…