HPSO: Hello, Michael and Kevin, so good to have a chance to chat and learn a little more about both of you leading up to your presentation for us on 03/27/2025. Let’s start with the obvious: What type of garden do you have? MICHAEL: My yard is a xeric shrubscape, dominated by shrubs and forbs from southwestern north America. The garden has been started primarily through customized seed mixes. I’ve tried to reuse and repurpose as much of the material in my yard as possible, including an old, failing concrete parking pad in my backyard, which has become a rubble… 

Our upcoming speaker from Sweden, Henrik Sjöman, will discuss how trees are among our best allies in the fight against climate change and biodiversity loss and how we urgently need to rethink tree selection for our parks and gardens. This presentation will explore how to find and evaluate the “trees of tomorrow” based on travels all over the world to study natural environments matching urban environments — to create first-hand guidance for finding the right tree for the right place and function. You can see this presentation in person in Portland OR on March 10, 2024. Register here. What is… 

Meet Sue Goetz. In this profile, Sue shares excellent advice and tells us a little about where she gets her inspiration. Check it out below! What type of garden do you have? I call it my eclectic muse- an experimental ground for what works in design that I do for others and what inspires me! I ripped out my front lawn to plant a perennial community after visiting the High Line in New York, the Lurie Garden in Chicago, and the works of Piet Ouldolf. This part of my garden has taught me a lot about designing naturalistic meadows for clients…. 

Preston Pew of Cistus Design Nursery speaks about his inspiration and gives us some advice. Check it out below! How did you get interested in gardening? Growing up my family always grew a vegetable garden in Summer. I remember growing my first cherry tomato from seed and all of the wonderful red tomatoes it gave and how that gigantic plant grew from a tiny seed really made an impression on me. Aside from my love of hiking around the Cascades growing up near Mt. Rainier, and being in nature in general, I had no interest in gardening until I was… 

Meet Amy Campion. In this profile, Amy shares her experience creating a space for NW native plants and the insects they support. Where do I garden? I gardened for 17 years in the Cincinnati area, and I’ve gardened for the past 10 years in Portland. My current garden is in Northeast Portland on a sunny, flat, 7,000-square-foot lot. How would I describe my garden? In Cincinnati, I mostly planted things I thought were pretty or interesting. I didn’t care where they originated from. In Portland, I continued that practice. You could say I had a collector’s garden. Then, a couple… 

Meet Horticulturist Christina Pfeiffer, author of  “Pacific Northwest Month-By-Month Gardening”. She gardens in Seattle, Washington, Zone 8. In this profile, Christina shares her expertise in planting and maintaining gardens that are sustainable in our changing climate. You can learn more about Christina and her lectures at her website.  What is the most important thing people can do in their garden to mitigate the impacts of climate change? Take really good care of the soil. Minimize soil disturbance. Use coarse textured organic mulch that will promote both water infiltration and retention, and that will support soil building organisms. For gardens that… 

This essay, “How to Attract Insects into Your Garden,” was originally published in the HPSO 2020 Spring Quarterly, under the title “Insects in the Winter Garden.” The gardening practices outlined by author Susan Masta, however, apply year-round and are especially helpful guidance as our gardens are increasingly affected by climate change. A biology professor at Portland State University, Masta promotes biodiversity throughout the seasons in her intriguing Southwest Portland garden, which was a part of HPSO’s 2022 Open Gardens program. The sunny yellow flowers of our Hamamelis x intermedia ‘Pallida’ witch hazel light up a gray winter day, and I… 

Meet Jeanne DeBenedetti Keyes, HPSO board member and Open Garden Owner. She gardens in USDA Zone 8, SE Portland, Oregon. Jeanne applies climate-wise gardening methods to create a beautiful, sustainable garden, and shares some of her tips in this profile.  Some of the climate-wise elements I include in my garden are: Respecting my garden’s natural conditions – I designed the gardens to meet the site conditions. I would think what kind of soil do I have here, how much sunlight is there? What kind of plants would do well? The garden on the north lot reflects an interest in Chinese…