Climate Change & Your Garden

Presenter

Rebecca Last

Rebecca Last has been gardening on and off since age 8 and has been a member of Master Gardeners of Ottawa-Carleton since 2005. Her small suburban garden is certified by the Canadian Wildlife Federation as wildlife habitat. Rebecca grows a dozen or more varieties of heritage tomatoes every year. Her garden design includes elements of permaculture and she has been honoured to receive several awards from the Ontario horticulture community. Aside from getting her hands dirty, Rebecca is also passionate about the science behind gardening. Not a scientist herself, a big part of her career was translating science into terms that would resonate with the public. Now retired, she uses these same skills to share what she learns about gardening and plant science via her blog Gardening at Last (https://gardeningatlast.ca/). She also shares her own research and writing on ResearchGate (https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Rebecca-Last), where her publications have garnered over 10,000 reads. During her career, Rebecca worked for and served on boards for a variety of charitable and non-profit organizations before concluding her career as a policy analyst with Natural Resources Canada. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, she worked as director of policy and programs for the Canadian Environment Industry Association. In this capacity, she was part of the Industry Steering Committee on Climate Change (ISC3). ISC3 was established by industry groups representing large emitters to help model and frame specific policy responses to Canada’s commitment to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, the first international agreement on climate change. Rebecca’s gardening addiction is enabled by her loving husband Richard and a collection of very spoiled rescue cats.