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Event
Garden Spark Tours: Pam Penick garden - 2 classes
On Saturday, May 4th, Pam Penick will lead two small-group classes in her home garden. (Rain date will be May 5.)
Each class is organized around the topic of one of her books, Lawn Gone! or The Water-Saving Garden, and ticket purchase includes a personally inscribed copy. Each class starts with a brief history of the garden and overall design decisions and includes a guided tour. After the group tour and discussion, you will be invited to go through the garden again at your own pace, with refreshments to enjoy, and Pam will be available to answer questions. You may sit and enjoy the garden, take photos, or explore, as you wish.
MAY 4th MORNING CLASS, 9 to 11:30 am
LAWN GONE: PLANT A NO-MOW GARDEN THAT IS GREENER THAN TURF
Stumped by what to grow instead of grass? Learn how to turn your front yard, back yard, or both into a no-mow garden for play, puttering, patio-sitting, and plentiful greenery. Sedges and other groundcovers*, paving, and ideas for fun features that take up space formerly devoted to lawn (ponds, vegetable gardens, shade pavilions, play forts for kids, etc.) will be discussed.
*Note: While design ideas are applicable to your own sunny or shady space, plants on display will largely be shade tolerant because of tree cover. Questions about sun lovers are welcome though! Deer-resistant plants will be discussed too.
COST: $75 (includes book and gift card, a $30 value)
Includes:
-Personal garden tour with Pam
-Signed copy of Lawn Gone! Low-Maintenance, Sustainable, Attractive Alternatives for Your Yard ($19.99 value)
-Discussion and how-to on designing a no-mow garden
-Plant suggestions
-$10 gift card from Barton Springs Nursery
-Refreshments to enjoy in the garden
-Q&A with Pam to talk about design and plants
MAY 4th AFTERNOON CLASS, 1:30 to 4 pm
WATER-SAVING GARDEN: USING LESS WATER FOR A MORE BEAUTIFUL, TEXAS-STYLE GARDEN
When drought and water shortages return, be ready by planting a water-thrifty garden today. Smart water-saving design strategies include holding onto rainwater, slowing down runoff to give it time to soak in, permeable paving, shrinking areas of thirsty turf, and planting native and drought-adapted plants. Waterwise gardening tips, soil preparation, and drought-tough plants* will be discussed.
*Note: While design ideas are applicable to your own sunny or shady space, plants on display will largely be shade tolerant because of tree cover. Questions about sun lovers are welcome though! Deer-resistant plants will be discussed too.
COST: $75 (includes book and gift card, a $30 value)
Includes:
-Personal garden tour with Pam
-Signed copy of The Water-Saving Garden: How to Grow a Gorgeous Garden with a Lot Less Water ($19.99 value)
-Discussion and how-to on designing a water-saving garden
-Plant suggestions
-$10 gift card from Barton Springs Nursery
-Refreshments to enjoy in the garden
-Q&A with Pam to talk about design and plants
ABOUT PAM:
After nearly a decade of working with local homeowners to transform their yards into beautiful spaces for play, relaxation, and productivity through her design and garden coaching business, Pam turned to writing in order to reach more people. Her years of working with Austinites trying to save water and cut back on thirsty lawn led directly to her writing two books on those subjects, The Water-Saving Garden and the bestseller Lawn Gone!, as well as numerous articles for magazines like Country Gardens, Garden Design, and Wildflower. In 2017 she launched the Garden Spark speaker series to engage the community with highly regarded landscape architects, designers, and authors from Austin and beyond, who give thoughtful presentations about a multitude of design issues.
Her garden in northwest Austin, which you will tour as part of the class, is not a designer showpiece but simply a very personal home garden, built gradually on a DIYer budget, and created for the enjoyment of her family and friends. It has been featured on Central Texas Gardener and in Austin Home magazine, included on public and private garden tours, and will be featured in an upcoming book by Karen Chapman called Deer-Resistant Design. If you read Pams blog, Digging, you have possibly followed her gardens gradual progress, its success stories and learning-moment failures, since 2008.
The garden slopes sharply in back toward a forested canyon, making runoff management a priority. Dozens of live oaks create a lot of dappled shade, although some recent tree losses have added areas of sun that will require replanting this spring. To keep water bills as low as possible while still sustaining a garden, to provide habitat for wildlife, and to give her garden central Texas style, Pam grows native plants supplemented by well-adapted and drought-tolerant non-natives, many from northern Mexico. It is an ornamental garden, not one that produces food unless you count food for wildlife and food for the soul! Pams goals in making her garden over the past 10 years have been: to create a strolling garden of exploration, with garden rooms and lots of places to sit and enjoy the view; to make a garden that is welcoming to wildlife (but non-tasty to deer); and above all, to make a visually pleasing garden with strong focal points and bones that help it look good all year.
GARDEN SPARK TOURS is an offshoot of Garden Spark, a speaker series on garden design, open by invitation (email gardensparktalks@gmail.com to get on the list) and hosted in northwest Austin 78759.
All sales are final.
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LocationGarden of Pam Penick in northwest Austin (View)
4503 MOUNTAIN PATH DR
AUSTIN, TX 78759
United States
Categories
| Minimum Age: 16 |
| Kid Friendly: No |
| Dog Friendly: No |
| Non-Smoking: Yes! |
| Wheelchair Accessible: No |
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