Class #52

The Conscientious Gardener: Designing Gardens For Low-Maintenance & Sustainability

Beth Coleman

August 11 - August 17

Do you find yourself wishing you could work less in your garden and enjoy it more? Do you question the environmental impacts of your gardening practices? As our lives and world change, many gardeners seek ways to garden more efficiently and in a more earth-friendly manner, yet still create aesthetically satisfying spaces. In this class, you will explore garden design from this mindful point of view, where we ask: Is this design based on renewable, sustainable principles? Is this a garden I will enjoy caring for? Discussions include site analysis and preparation, plant selection, cultivation practices and hardscape options that factor into creating gardens that offer both beauty and ease of care, while being easier on the environment.

The class will tour local gardens that embody some of these principles, talking with other gardeners about choices that shape their designs. The class will also explore other practices that will enrich your gardening life, such as yoga and walking the labyrinth at The Clearing. Please bring ideas for a garden you wish to create or “edit,” a notebook, pen, rain jacket, umbrella, comfortable walking shoes and a yoga mat if you wish to attend yoga sessions. Also, please send digital or print images of your garden to Beth two weeks prior to class. Contact The Clearing for Beth’s contact information. Recommended, but not required reading for the class includes Tomorrow’s Garden by Stephen Orr, The New Low-Maintenance Garden by Valerie Easton and The Conscientious Gardener by Sarah Hayden Reichard.

Beth Coleman has been an evolving gardener all her life, and for the past 14 years has cultivated her gardening design business, The Garden Lady. She has degrees in art and writing from Capital University in Columbus, Ohio, horticultural training through the Door County Master Gardener Program and yoga training through The Nosara Yoga Institute in Costa Rica. She offers gardening classes at The Clearing as well as other local and state venues. She jokes that her first book should be titled Gardening in the Dark, because it aptly describes her literal and metaphorical habits.

A letter from Beth will be sent prior to class.

Car pooling is required for this class.

Rates:
$925 Dorm Room Package
$955 Two-Person Room Package
$1350 Single-Person Room Package (limited availability)
$515 Commuter Package (limited availability)

Level: All levels
Materials Fee: $10 for handouts

**On-line registrations will be available beginning on March 1.**