Gardens just right for four-legged friends

Coming June 25th to Garden University: "Pet Friendly Gardens" with Anne Taylor and Melinda Frey

Join landscape designers Anne Taylor and Melinda Frey for a discussion on adapting your garden so that it can be a safe and inviting space enjoyed by your family - including your pets! We’ll address frequent challenges that occur with pets and offer solutions.

Saturday June 25th at 1 p.m.

NOTE: the location of this lecture has been changed to the Education Center

Tickets: $15 non-members (includes Garden admission); Free for Garden members

About our speakers:

Anne Taylor is originally from Wisconsin with an in-born interest in nature. This interest is the reason she started her company Living Elements Landscape. She graduated from the University of Wisconsin. After moving to Portland, she received an Associate of Applied Science in Horticulture. Anne is a licensed landscape contractor, a certified arborist, landscape designer, an organic gardener and animal lover. Through her business Anne shares her skills, beliefs, and obsessions with everything green.

Melinda Frey established Raindrop Garden Design in 2006. A gathering of influences have led Melinda to garden design. Growing up in a family where art and the creative process were encouraged as a means of expression, each member took a slightly different route. Countless hours playing and exploring in her childhood home’s garden left a lasting impression on Melinda beginning a lifelong passion for plants and a love of gardening. A healthy respect for nature also developed early on, exploring the wonders of the Sierra Nevada Mountains.

After studying photography at Brookes Institute, Melinda spent many years in the photographic industry developing a strong sense for composition, color, texture and flow, and now borrows from this skill set to visualize and design gardens.

As a lifelong pet owner, Melinda has shared her garden with numerous dogs over the years, implementing pet friendly gardening techniques. Her home garden has adapted to their best friend’s needs as well as being beautiful and inviting surroundings for all who use the garden. In 2009, Melinda launched a collaborated project with friend and associate Anne Taylor to share information and techniques that have worked well in our personal gardens with our own pets. The presentations we offer become as much of a learning experience as a teaching format.

More ideas about designing pet friendly gardens:

http://www.nwf.org/News-and-Magazines/National-Wildlife/Gardening/Archives/2009/Create-a-Dog-Friendly-Wildlife-Garden.aspx

Conifers to fit any location

Up next in the Garden University series:

Small Trees for Small Spaces

June 11, 2011 at 1 p.m.

Education Center

Tour of Conifer Garden to follow

The Lecture:

Exciting new conifer cultivars provide designers and garden enthusiasts with a whole new palette of textures, shapes, and colors for creating year-around garden interest.

As a professional garden designer and current President of the Association of Northwest Landscape Designers (ANLD), Anne Marsh will show through slides some of these new and unusual conifers being used in Portland gardens, discussing issues such as placement and objective. At the same time, Dave Leckey, a grower of mature small conifers, will discuss and have examples of these same conifers on display. Between Anne and Dave, the audience will be able to see the plants, learn of their characteristics and growing needs, and get ideas on how to successfully place them in garden situations.

The Speakers:

Anne Marsh has over 35 years of experience in plant selection and garden design and is the President of the Association of Northwest Landscape Designers (ANLD). Anne’s company, Marsh & Fear Garden Solutions was created by Anne and her partner, Gary Fear, about 9 years ago after transforming their own garden in SW Portland. They welcome the public to visit their garden each month from April to August. Open garden dates are available at www.marshfear.com For more information about the ANLD, visit http://www.anld.com/

David Leckey has put his lifelong passion for energy conservation and earth-friendly practices into use in his business, Oregon Small Trees Nursery. The nursery, located west of Wilsonville, specializes in mature, slow-growing, low-maintenance, container- grown conifers and Japanese maples. David has also either written for or been featured numerous times in publications including Fine Gardening magazine, The Oregonian, and Digger magazine. Dave’s nursery is open to visitors by appointment at www.oregonsmalltrees.com

Ciscoe Morris speaks at The Oregon Garden this week!

Don't miss this opportunity to get some great garden design ideas and to ask your gardening questions! Ciscoe Morris will be speaking at the next Garden University program May 21st at 2 p.m. at The Oregon Garden.

Learn more about Ciscoe at his website, Gardening With Ciscoe

Another garden project from Ciscoe:

Spuds taste best when you grow them in a garbage can.

Kids and adults both love growing potatoes in a garbage can. Begin with a clean 15 gallon can and punch lots of holes for drainage in the bottom. Locate the can in full-sun and fill it with 6 inches of potting soil. Plant the seed potatoes just below the surface and make sure they are completely covered with soil. Either mix in an organic vegetable fertilizer or feed every two weeks with a soluble houseplant fertilizer. Water the spuds and in no time the vines will begin to grow.

When the vines grow about 4 inches, cover all but the top inch with a growth medium such as soil, compost, woodchips or straw. Water as necessary to keep the soil moderately moist, and continue the process of covering the vines until they grow out of the top and the can is completely full. Soon the potatoes will bloom. At this point you can reach and feel around for potatoes. If you find some good sized ones, bring them in and cook them up.

These are new potatoes, not long lasting, but they taste great, especially if you follow Julia Child's advice and add more butter! If you wait until the vines die back in fall, you can store your potatoes for a long period. This is the real fun. Make sure the kids are present before you dump the can to check out the bounty. It's always a surprise. Once I only got 8 potatoes, but the biggest one was the size of a Volkswagen bug! Another time I harvested 55 delicious, good-sized spuds. Buy an extra big plate, just in case you grow a Volkswagen.