Professor Robert Brown's recent blog article "Patio Season Starts Earlier in My Yard [1]" appears online in the April 25, 2014 Island Press Blog of Island Press Field Notes, Washington, D.C.
Professor Brown is a Professor in Landscape Architecture, School of Environmental Design and Rural Development at the University of Guelph and is the author of "Design With Microclimate: The Secret to Comfortable Outdoor Space [2]".
The School of Environmental Design and Rural Development (SEDRD) brings together major academic fields concerned with creating strong communities, in Canada and around the world. The four highly respected programs in SEDRD share many common goals but approach them in different and complementary ways. This model reflects the imperatives in building authentic communities where planners, landscape architects, communicators, and citizens all play important interdependent roles in community strength.