Archive for Seasonal Event

Portland Garden Designer’s Holiday Gift Ideas

Portland Garden Designer with Favorite Tilly Hat

Tilly Hat on Portland Garden Designer Carol Lindsay

Portland Garden Designer’s Gift Ideas

Here are my favorite items to give as gifts.  The Tilley hat, favorite therapeutic hand cream, inexpensive gloves, Garden Design Magazine, plants as gifts and pruning tools.

The Tilley Hat

You can buy a Tilley hat at REI, Bonnet in NW Portland at Bonnet or on line.  I love my summer (Hemp fabric) Tilley hat because whether it’s picking peaches or playing with my dog, my hat stays on, it’s easy to wash.  I am around a lot of dirt and it is still a cream color. It protects my face from the sun (is recommended by some dermatologists for that purpose) and it’s not too hot to wear in the summer.

Hand Care

http://www.crabtree-evelyn.com/collections/gardeners/60-second-fix-for-hands/Gar-Fix-For-Hands.html

Great Hand Care Product

My favorite hand care product is Evelyn and CrabTree  60 second fix for hands.  It has 2 products, the Ultra Moisturizing Hand Therapy and the 2nd product called Hand Recovery.  There are more heavy duty hand products out there but this one has a light fragrance and penetrates the skin.  It’s therapeutic.  I handle art supplies and  garden so I like a good hand product.  Andalou Naturals Hand Cream is also nice but doesn’t penetrate the skin nearly as well.

Gloves

I love having A LOT of gloves.  I’m a person who misplaces gloves and as a child I resented that nursery rhyme about the kittens who lost their mittens because clearly I was going to be one of those kittens.  I have 20 pairs of inexpensive work gloves.  Gloves are great stocking stuffers.

Portland Landscape Designer Loves Garden Design MagazineGarden Design Magazine

Garden Design magazine readers are garden enthusiasts! They love the full-length stories (some run 10 to 20 pages to include lots of glorious photography) on plants, gardens, and design ideas for you to put to use—all presented without ads.

There are no ads in Garden Design. Yes, you read that right—no ads.  Just 148 pages of beautiful gardens and plants delivered to you each quarter. These are more like books. I’ve given this magazine to gardening clients and they are over the moon and tend to subscribe on their own the next year.

Give a gift link: https://www.gardendesign.com/subscribe/gift

Plants As Gifts

North Portland Garden Design Itoh PeonyNorth Portland Itoh Peony in Garden Design

Itoh Peonies are so popular this year (2017) that wholesale and retail sources sold out completely. The variety called ‘Cora Louise’ was the most popular and the first to be gone from retail and wholesale sources.   Why are Itoh Peonies special?

They are tough enough for low maintenance landscapes so they are not just for serious gardeners……..and serious gardeners have simply lost their minds over these beautiful and sturdy stemmed plants.  If you have a gardener in your life who loves big colorful flowers……..this gift will express your love for years. A gift certificate to a local retail nursery with a photo would do it. Expect to spend $125 to $150 for a 5 gallon plant.  Here are links to Portland Nursery gift card, Cornell Farm gift card and a video explaining more about Itoh Peonies.

Another popular plant for gardeners that you can buy in December are Hellebores and the big garden nurseries will have these for sale starting in December through March.  These are somewhat toxic so don’t leave them where small children or pets can get them.

Pruning Tools

Pruners –  I love Felco and Corona tools the best.  Cheaper but very lightweight pruners and clippers from Fiskar are popular too.  Here is a good one called PowerGear.  Felcos are for the gardener in your life.  I still love my #6 Felco hand pruner for smaller hands and think they fit most women better than a #2 Felco hand pruner. Utube video on how to select ergonomic pruning tools for people who want to learn how to prune their trees and shrubs.  The right tools make a big difference in the outcome for your plants.

Landscape Designers Garden Tour 2017

Landscape Designer Carol Lindsay at Designers Garden Tour - M Wynton design

Whimsical Iron gate at Designers Garden Tour 2013

Designers Garden Tour

Save the Date:   June 17, 2017

Saturday from 10 am – 4 pm

This is my favorite event of the year.   It’s not a typical garden tour where the focus is only on attractive plant material.  Each landscape from the paths to patios, plant vignettes with art, unique edible gardens, rain gardens was planned.  Expect to see unique use of space, dramatic layouts, small landscapes with surprisingly useful spaces, privacy screens and plantings, recycled materials used in new ways and much more.  Fusions of modern landscape design, cottage garden and NW natural landscapes will be seen, admired, and shamelessly copied. Each year garden artists compete to have their art installed in the gardens for the tour.  Some art will be available to purchase.

Take some great photos!!  A vignette with the balance of color and proportion has been created for your viewing pleasure.

Love plants?  You will see plants that are new to you or see familiar plants used in new and fun ways.  There is a lot of opportunity for copying great ideas or simply appreciating landscapes that are so well integrated.

Designers Garden Tour 2016

Helena Wagner, 4 Season Gardens – Colorful entry garden.  Designers Garden Tour 2016

 

The tickets are $25.00 and the profits support educational programs for landscape design students at local colleges.

If you like getting a discount for early ticket purchase, here is a link.  Typically discount tickets are available until May 1st.  So hurry and get your discount and have your tickets mailed to your door.

St. John's Wort

New variety of St. John’s Wort is perfect for flower arranging. Hypericum frondosum ‘Sunburst’

 

This years gardens are on Portland’s Westside and are open by the generosity of the homeowners.  Each garden will have the designers standing by to answer any of your questions.

New variety of St. John’s Wort is perfect for flower arranging. Hypericum frondosum ‘Sunburst’

 

Holiday Open House at Portland Audubon Nature Sanctuary! 2016

Holiday Open House at Portland Audubon Nature Sanctuary! 2016

Saturday Dec. 3   from 10am to 6pm

Sunday Dec. 4  from 10am to 5pm

Join us for our free annual Holiday Open House as we kick off the solstice season. A warm, welcoming fire in our cozy Audubon House hearth will beckon winter revelers. Delicious treats and warm beverages will chase away the winter chill. Take a short hike in the Nature Sanctuary and visit with the Education Birds!

 All Weekend Enjoy Free:

Sauvie Island Coffee, Spiced Tea & Hot Cocoa plus holiday food treats.

Special Saturday Events

Swift Cider Tasting noon-6pm:

Swift Cider is inspired by the migration of Vaux’s Swifts that occurs during the peak of the annual apple harvest. They’ll be bringing their delicious ciders to our event for a tasting and give you the opportunity to buy bottles to take home for the holidays.

Meet the artists (hours vary):

From 10am-2pm, Audubon Nature Journaling instructor, Jude Siegel, will join us with her beautiful and affordable avian watercolors which are ready-to-hang and make great gifts. Get acquainted with Corinne Hodel of Autumn Fern Designs. The creator of colorful sun-print shoulder bags for active people and fun pottery for home and garden will be with us all day.

Meet the authors (hours vary): Paul Sullivan, the popular longtime leader of Audubon Birding Weekends has a new book, The Birds of Rummel Street, chronicling 23 years of backyard bird sightings. He’ll be on hand all day to sign copies, talk about the value of record keeping and share stories about this project he shared with his partner, Carol Karlen. Margo Greeve, author/illustrator of Oregon’s Special Animals is children’s art instructor. Her delightful book contains both her drawings and poems. She will be on hand to sign copies from 10am-4pm.

 Special Sunday Events

Meet the artists from 11am-4pm: Margaret Greene of JourneyWay, LLC is the creator of beautiful fused glass feathers to decorate your walls. Each feather has the size, detail and coloration of a specific bird species. Corinne Hodel (see Saturday event) also returns.

Free Afternoon Music: In Heron Hall from 12-4pm, enjoy the toe-tapping tunes of the Oregon Bluegrass Association.