What is the key to creating a beautifully productive garden? Thinking beyond your raised beds! This class will briefly outline design principles for siting an edible garden and then dive into concepts for boosting both the production and aesthetics of your garden by integrating it into the surrounding area. Participants will glean ideas ranging from making structural additions to selecting perennial plants for improving their edible garden via its surrounding area.

This is a great class for anyone who is building a new edible garden or is interested in improving their existing edible garden, both aesthetically and productively, by implementing changes to their larger landscape. This class will build on the information presented in the themed session on attracting pollinators, but it is not critical that participants attend both.

Growing a cut flower garden certainly checks all the boxes of “Beauty, Bounty and Benefit!” This class will present easy plants to grow for blooms and foliage throughout the growing seasons, looking at a variety of “woodies,” perennials, annuals, hardy annuals and biennials, and succulents. We will touch on soil, layout, and environmental requirements but focus more on texture, form, and color schemes. We will also address the nitty gritty of attributes of a good cut flower and tips for cutting, conditioning, and arranging for best vase life.

We will wrap up with a demonstration of a vased arrangement and a spiral hand-tied bouquet, along with a discussion of the many ways to think outside the box with unusual cuts, the local flower movement, wearable flowers, and sustainable floristry.

People who enjoy gardening and landscaping intuitively understand how nature experiences benefit one's health. Yet the four decades of research that has explored nature and health connections reveal new insights and reinforce our understanding. Analytic tools and statistics also convey the evidence in ways that can inform community policies and programs. Dr. Wolf will review this useful research, with a focus on mental health. She will also translate research findings into practical guidance on how nature can be a part of personal and community wellness programs.

Once thought to be a major challenge, shade gardening has come into its own and provides an ideal showcase for Hosta. Join Lore as she provides a comprehensive primer on Hosta including how to select the perfect Hosta based on six key selection criteria. Cultural requirements and detailed propagation techniques will be discussed along with a few new vocabulary words that specifically apply to the Hosta genus. Learn about genetic chimeras and how they affect variegation patterns in Hosta leaves.

The session will conclude with a discussion of pests and disease including recommendations for slug management and an introduction and overview of Hosta Virus X (HVX), including how to identify it and what to do if you find it. Bring your questions and prepare to learn more than just the basics about these magnificent luminaries of the shade garden!

The aroma, color, and texture of herbs are beautiful and purposeful for use in pollinator garden designs. Get tips on how to design a garden that is bee-friendly and attracts other pollinators. Learn about techniques to add plantings to existing borders and gardens. Get a list of the best plants to grow and all you need to know for a healthy, sustainable, and colorful garden.

Summers in the maritime Pacific Northwest are changing, and not for the better where our gardens are concerned. Plants that used to handle our more typical summers are now suffering from longer periods of higher temperatures and little to no precipitation. Learn which ornamental and native trees and shrubs require less water to successfully grow and even thrive in these tougher times. We will also focus on plants that need less maintenance or pest and disease management.

This class is beneficial to everyone, whether you are an experienced gardener who is ready to revamp your decades old landscape, or a beginner who is focused on creating a truly sustainable garden for today. There are so many great plants to choose from, so stop dragging hoses around all summer and re-imagine your garden!

Hand a person a flower and they will instinctively lift it to their nose to smell it. Scent is the most potent and bewitching substance in the gardener's repertory and yet it is the most neglected and least understood. It adds such a pleasurable layer to our garden, yet it often remains an optional extra. This class will suggest ways you can add fragrance to your garden through carefully chosen bulbs, annuals, perennials, shrubs, vines, and trees. An extensive plant list will be provided.