Dr. Gerald Harp, assistant professor of horticulture at Texas A&M University-Commerce, will present “Landscape Soils – Growing from the Ground Up” at the upcoming Theresa and Les Reeves Lecture Series hosted by SFA Gardens.
The lecture will take place at 7 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 17, in Room 110 of the Agriculture Building located on Wilson Drive on the SFA campus.
Harp was born and raised in Everman, just south of Fort Worth. He earned a Bachelor of Science in horticulture and landscape management and a Master of Science in general agriculture from Tarleton State University, as well as a Ph.D. in horticulture from Texas A&M University, where he worked on plant responses to urban microclimates.
Harp has been in the landscape industry since 1986, working in greenhouses, wholesale and retail nurseries, and landscape installation and maintenance. He spent several years as a landscape manager for various companies in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, where he worked on multi-million dollar commercial and residential landscape projects, primarily in the University Park area of Dallas. Prior to entering academia, Harp managed approximately $3.5 million worth of commercial and residential landscape maintenance contracts across the Metroplex.
In 2000, he accepted a position at Southeast Missouri State University, teaching plant and soil science courses. In 2003, he was asked to come to Texas A&M University-Commerce to help rebuild the horticulture program. In addition to teaching, he currently serves the Department of Agricultural Sciences as graduate coordinator, undergraduate faculty mentor and undergraduate adviser, and he teaches numerous horticulture, soils, and freshman and senior seminar courses. He also serves the university as president of the faculty senate and Southern Association of Colleges and Schools liaison and is a member of numerous other committees.
Harp’s research focuses primarily on sustainable urban landscapes, including the use of ornamental plants on building roofs. These “green roofs” absorb incoming sunlight, reducing the heat being transferred into a building, decreasing cooling costs and making the building more energy efficient. He also is working with AgriLife Extension to identify landscape plants that are capable of thriving in minimum-input landscapes, evaluating landscape plants that thrive with little irrigation and no supplemental application of fertilizers and pesticides.
The Theresa and Les Reeves Lecture Series is normally held the third Thursday of each month at the Arthur Temple College of Forestry and Agriculture’s SFA Mast Arboretum. A rare plant raffle will be held after the program. The lecture is free and open to the public, but donations to the Theresa and Les Reeves Lecture Series endowed fund always are appreciated. For more information, call (936) 468-1832 or email grantdamon@sfasu.edu.
