Did you know the proper selection and placement of trees are a homeowner’s most important landscape decisions? Award-winning landscape designer Carrie Nimmer will present 50 beautiful, desert-adapted trees of all sizes in this expanded class to help you create a shady yard and avoid common mistakes. Tree selection, placement, planting, watering, and maintenance are covered. Informative handouts and a Garden walk to identify trees learned are included in this in-depth workshop. Limit 25.
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Known as the “blankets of a landscape” because of their protective characteristics, groundcover and vines can be the perfect solution for problem areas and reduce heat loading by clothing (insulating) the ground and walls with green and other attractive colors. They can even reduce water loss in plants. Learn how to use these garden blankets effectively through a slide show and interpretation of over 40 colorful species, both evergreen and deciduous in nature. By understanding their growth habits, maintenance needs, and trellising methods, you will be able to choose the best groundcover and vines to beautify your landscape. Taught by award-winning landscape designer, Carrie Nimmer. Limit 25.
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Are you looking for a great way to liven up your landscape or add variety and dimension to your garden? Experience the world of desert-adapted shrubs, inside and out, with the Garden’s Curator of Shrubs, Kirti Mathura. In addition to familiarizing you with an array of medium-sized plants, this three-part workshop will provide information and the tools you will need for selecting, placing and maintaining the ideal shrubs for your landscape. The first two sessions are held in the classroom; and the final session is a walking tour of the Garden to admire mature specimens in a landscape setting. Limit 15.
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Take this opportunity to get a headstart on the fall season, which is the best time to plant the colorful characters so loved in the English landscape tradition. Learn what the word perennial means in desert landscaping, which perennials live the longest, and how to care for them. Forty perennial species and cultivars will be explored. Carrie Nimmer, landscape designer and instructor, says if you have ever killed a perennial, this is the class for you. You will receive a few perennial plants to take home with you! A short Garden walk ends this workshop. Limit 20.
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One way to get an instant landscape is to plant grasses and wildflowers. Quick growth and graceful presence make them natural gardening companions, whether purchased in pots or grown from seed. Learn about the nature of wildflowers; growing plants from seed; great wildflower combos for your yard; warm and cold season clumping grasses; and when and how to plant. You will even create your own personalized seed mix to plant at home. Instructed by landscape designer Carrie Nimmer. Limit 20.
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What could be more enchanting than colorful butterflies fluttering through your garden? Discover the best plants to incorporate into your landscape for attracting exquisite adult butterflies, as well as the plants that allow them to complete their life cycle. Garden curator Kirti Mathura will give you tips on specific plants and overall habitat suitable for decorating your garden with butterflies. Limit 30.
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Kirti Mathura, Garden curator, shares the basics of landscape container gardening for patios or yard accents. Learn to select plant size, shape and color to create intriguing arrangements. With the right container plants, you can even attract hummingbirds. Limit 30.
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New to the Valley or just have not yet met your ‘neighbors’? Get to know the natives. Do not miss this opportunity to learn about the plants that have called the Sonoran Desert home for centuries. Garden curator Kirti Mathura will introduce you to an array of fantastic plants to suit any location in your garden. Through an informative classroom slide presentation, great take-home materials, and a morning Garden tour in the second session, you will discover plants that will grow into a beautiful, low-maintenance landscape in this challenging environment. Limit 20.
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Proper care, maintenance and protective measures for your trees are critical throughout the year, especially during our harsh summer months. Extreme temperatures, lack of moisture and windstorms can cause serious damage to your most valued landscape features if you are not prepared.
This new three-part workshop series presented by ISA Certified Arborist John Eisenhower, will prepare you to help your trees through our challenging summer season and throughout the year. Owner of Integrity Tree Service, Inc., John is an active member of the American Society of Consulting Arborists and past president of the Arizona Community Tree Council, an organization dedicated to the planting and care of trees in communities throughout Arizona. Each program includes demonstrations and informative take-home materials and resources. Limit 30.
This session covers instruction on tree irrigation, staking and guying, cabling and bracing, pruning to alleviate end weight, rain and wind dynamics, plus lightning protection.
Click here to register on-line for Session 1.
Click here to register on-line for all 3 Sessions.
This session discusses how to select and plant a quality tree, proper tree placement in the landscape and basic pruning concepts for trees and shrubs. A list of excellent small to medium-sized trees will be provided.
Click here to register on-line for Session 2.
Click here to register on-line for all 3 Sessions.
This session includes an overview of the five pruning types with special instruction on thinning and reduction cuts, crown restoration, vista pruning and shrub restoration.
Click here to register on-line for Session 3.
Click here to register on-line for all 3 Sessions.
Attention homeowners! Learn the process of planting design, its vocabulary and basic graphics, from award-winning landscape designer Carrie Nimmer. Discover the function of each plant type and create a plant palette of your very own. Through in-class exercises, homework, and personal, one-on-one instruction you will create a beautiful and functional design for our unique desert environment. This dynamic and hands-on four-part workshop ends with a private critique and consultation. The workshop includes an extensive materials packet and step-by-step handouts. Basic knowledge of desert plants is presupposed. This class is a prerequisite to other intermediate design workshops. Limit 15.
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Carrie Nimmer has specialized in creating colorful, water-wise landscapes in the Phoenix area for more than 15 years. She began her training at New York Botanic Garden but now considers the desert her teacher. Carrie specializes in connecting homeowners to their desert environment, and has been featured in many publications including Sunset, Phoenix Home and Garden, Landscape Architect, This Old House, Fine Gardening, and Horticulture magazines and has contributed to several regional xeriscape guides. She has received the “Western Garden Design Award” from Sunset magazine and was named “Master of the Southwest” by Phoenix Home and Garden.
If you are feeling overwhelmed wondering where to begin in designing or renovating your own home landscape, relax. Jo Miller, City of Glendale Water Conservation Program Manager and co-author of Earth Friendly Desert Gardening, will explain the basic principles of how to design in harmony with natural desert systems to create a beautiful landscape that is also water and energy efficient. Find out how to assess your specific property and draw a conceptual map. Your completed map will provide you with valuable information for future design decisions. Some fun and simple design techniques will be introduced. This introductory program also includes many useful ideas and techniques for homeowners with existing landscapes. A portion of your class fee goes directly to support the City of Glendale Xeriscape Botanical Garden. Limit 30.
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Begin working on specific design challenges presented in your front yard design–the courtyard garden or small space garden, creating curb appeal and/or privacy, types and positioning of water features and more in this popular workshop. Learn about specific plants that can help you overcome these challenges. This is a great opportunity to refine your design ideas and expand your skills with award-winning landscape designer Carrie Nimmer. Previous design experience necessary, such as the Garden’s Desert Landscaper Certification School or Southwest Planting Design for Beginners. A private critique of your work, to be scheduled individually with Carrie Nimmer, completes this course. Limit 15.
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Summer in the desert is not the time most people think of gardening, particularly those residents new to the Valley or gardening in the desert. Just about the time you are sure you cannot do any gardening in the desert southwest, it is time to consider sowing seeds for the start of your fall garden. All the fall garden herbs and veggies you wish to grow must be started by seed in the summer to ensure a great fall harvest. Sowing a profusion of seasonal seeds is easy and rewarding–and far more enjoyable than watching a plant wilt in the summer afternoon heat. Start off your day with an early morning tour of the Herb Garden with Catherine, The Herb Lady, as she will show you what grows and when and how to sow seeds in the summer. You will also learn important concepts such as nurse plant and three sisters and get some great take-home materials. Limit 20.
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Would you love to have an herb garden but don’t have space? Maybe you want to add some herbal accents to a patio? Many herbs do well in containers in our desert landscapes. Garden curator Kirti Mathura will share some fun ideas to get you going. Limit 30.
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Ethnobotanist Martha Burgess leads this exciting new summer workshop to harvest mesquite beans and process them for use in the kitchen. Participants will learn traditional harvesting methods, natural history, anthropological and nutritional significance of this vitally important tree of our desert. Then it’s off to the kitchen to try your hand at traditional mortar and pestle grinding of the pods, as well as using our modern conveniences to create mesquite flour. Learn new innovative ways to use mesquite beans and even create a few sample foods for all to share. Limit 12.
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It is not too early to start planning. Take advantage of this timely workshop to get your garden growing in our unique desert. Garden curator Kirti Mathura will teach you the importance and details of soil preparation and how to overcome the challenges of our environment. Proper planting seasons and strategies, as well as resources for purchasing seeds, will be covered in this informative workshop. Great take-home materials and complimentary seed packets are included to give your own vegetable garden an added boost. Limit 30.
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