Brandon Parks, an acknowledged “plant geek” and a graduate of Tri-Rivers Landscaping/Garden Center program, recently won a landscaping contest with his landscape restoration design for the AI Root Co. in Medina.
After graduating from Tri-Rivers, Parks continued his education at Ohio State ATI. While there, the AI Root Company approached his professor, Dr. Laura Deeter, about having her students come up with the idea for a landscape restoration of their historic homestead. They also arranged a “friendly” competition.
The ATI Landscaping students traveled from Wooster to AI Root to learn about the history of the company, their plans for the future and their ideas for the landscape. Dr. Deeter said the design parameters were simple enough: inviting to the public, bee friendly, public friendly, relatively low maintenance, seasonal interest, educational and matching the historic house.
At the end of the semester the students presented their ideas to the company. After much deliberation, Parks was selected as the winner of the competition.
“His design made outstanding use of design principles and everyone felt he met the needs of the company, the garden and the community,” said Dr. Deeter. “His design utilized bee friendly plantings and he created an open and inviting space for anyone to wander and view the plants.”
Kerry Beckel, Parks’ TRCC instructor said, “Brandon was an outstanding student in his program, FFA Activities and all leadership roles while at TRCC. He continued to excel at ATI. It doesn’t surprise me that his design won the contest.”
Parks is now continuing his education at OSUM.
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