Tales of the Earth

Tales of the Earth was founded by Dennis Winters in 1984 to provide comprehensive landscape architecture services to individuals and communities. The firm designs and builds public and private gardens with a special interest in landscapes for meditation and healing in residences, health-care facilities, spiritual centres, educational buildings, urban spaces and streetscapes.

This work is based on design principles that help strengthen physical, mental and spiritual health in a balanced and harmonious relationship with the natural and social environment.

The name of the firm, Tales of the Earth, is an expression of the narrative and ritual he uses to create a landscape that reinforces one's spiritual place on the earth through his respect for the natural systems from which it grows. The symbol for Tales of the Earth is derived from the sacred circle of Zen Buddhism. It signifies complete perfection without beginning nor end, the pure state of the mind.

Dennis A. Winters, OALA ASLA

Dennis A. Winters is a landscape architect with a background in architecture, environmental analysis and regional land use planning, with professional degrees in both landscape architecture (M.L.A., Cornell) and architecture (B.Arch., Florida). He has been principal of the landscape architecture firm, Tales of the Earth, since 1984.

His experience in conducting natural resource inventories, freshwater wetland inventories, stream management plans, environmental assessments and comprehensive land-use planning strengthens his understanding of the interaction between natural systems and the built-environment. Having practiced in architecture, he approaches the interaction between landscapes and buildings as a symbiotic relationship, a cohesive environment for his clients.

Dennis has devoted a major part of his independent research activities to an investigation of designed sacred landscapes, particularly the evolution of meditation gardens in the Buddhist traditions, the transmission of its design techniques, and the features of the landscapes in which these artistic expressions developed.

He has made presentations, given talks and organized events in venues such as UNESCO, USAID, University of Toronto, Cornell University, Design Exchange, Harbourfront Centre, Civic Garden Centre, and various conferences and symposiums on the Foundations of Designing Sacred Landscapes, Journeys to Sacred Buddhist Landscapes, Lessons from the Japanese Garden and Designing Gardens for Meditation.

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