Learn how to cultivate
the natives
Sawtooth Community Garden offers seminar
If your idea of landscaping is slapping in a flat of
annuals or even if you have advanced to planting perennials and actually keeping them
alive, the Sawtooth Community Garden Center has a class for you.
Learn how to design your own natural landscape in an all-day workshop with
Kelley Weston, owner of Native Landscaping, and local landscape architect Karen Sherrerd
on Saturday, April 15, from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. at the Sawtooth Community Garden south
of Ketchum on Highway 75. The class is back by popular demand.
Weston, who has designed and installed some of the most wonderful gardens
in the Wood River Valley for the past 15 years, is one of the founders of the SCG.
He will begin the workshop with a discussion of the concept of individual
landscapes and community landscapes. He will also cover the process of design, irrigation,
plant selection, aesthetics, and how to maximize resource use and adaptability. After the
discussion, participants will spend the afternoon designing and creating their own
landscape plans.
"A natural landscape doesn’t mean just sagebrush and
chokecherries," Weston remarked in a statement. "There is a huge array of
diverse and beautiful native and native compatible flowers, trees and shrubs that can meet
the needs of homeowners, and also add to the overall community landscape."
Weston added that in any landscape design it is important to recognize the
human requirements such as screening, quiet spots and children’s areas and to install
and design the landscape in a way that is best suited for the location as well as
maximizing resource use.
"I want to show people how the different spaces in their yards
relate, how all the puzzle pieces fit together, how they can have beauty, function and a
more natural environment at the same time," Weston said.
Weston will be ably assisted by Sherrerd, a co-founder of the SCG and a
licensed landscape architect who has practiced in the Wood River Valley for the past eight
years.
Sherrerd’s focus is natural landscapes, including the use of edible
and medicinal plants in formal garden design. She and her husband own a 23-acre farm and
garden in Camas County.
Slides, handouts and a book display are also part of the day.
A continental breakfast will be offered at 9:15 a.m. and participants are
also encouraged to bring a brown bag lunch.
Natural Landscaping is the second in a series of seven spring workshops
designed to inform and educate the community on gardening and plant related topics. Other
classes include Growing Gourmet Greens (April 20), Landscaping With Perennials (April 27),
Spring Pruning (May 4), Local Birds and their Habitats (May May 11) and Basic Beekeeping
(May 5 20).
The fee for the Natural Landscaping workshop is $45 for SCG members and
$49 for non-members.
The Sawtooth Community Garden Center is developing a high altitude
botanical collection and environmental education center at the corner of Gimlet Road and
Highway 75. All workshops take place in the community meeting room/solarium. For more
information call 726-9358.
