Betty Shelley

November 4, 2024

Reducing waste to help our planet

Betty Shelley and her husband, Jon, have produced just one 32-gallon can of garbage per year since 2006. She finds waste reduction to be a creative and empowering way to reduce her impact on the planet’s climate and resources. She is the founder of Reduce Your Waste Project which offers “Less is More: Getting to One Can of Garbage a Year” classes on reducing resource waste (reduceyourwasteproject.com). Betty and Jon were featured in The Oregonian in 2013 as well as in numerous other publications.

Betty is an Agent of Change, a Master Recycler and a former Recycling Information Specialist for Metro Regional Government in Portland, Oregon. For Metro, she was often featured on AM/Northwest, addressing Reducing, Reusing and Recycling. She has also been interviewed for KINK Radio’s Talking Trash podcast, the Portland Sustainability Podcast and The Portland Cool Podcast. In addition, Betty is a quarterly contributor to The Green Living Journal. A member of Northwest Earth Institute since 1994, Betty was honored with the NW Earth Institute Founders Award in 2013, recognizing her vast contributions to both Northwest Earth Institute and sustainability education and practice more broadly.

December’s Green Party

Wednesday, December 4, 2024
Benton County Fairgrounds, 3-7 pm

Another EGC tradition, the Green Party celebrates the Winter season by bringing together a wide variety of greens that can be crafted into indoor and outdoor decorations while enjoying the company of others.

Linda Beutler

January 6, 2025 – via Zoom

Clematis expert speaks about the Queen of Vines.

Linda Beutler is the curator of the Rogerson Clematis Collection and was elected president of the International Clematis Society. She is also the author of ‘Gardening with Clematis’, ‘A Plant Lover’s Guide to Clematis’ and ‘Garden to Vase: Growing and Using Your Own Cut Flowers’. She has also been an instructor of horticulture since 1996, lectures internationally and writes articles for several publications including Pacific Horticulture. She gardens on a city lot in Portland,OR.

Jo Wakelin

February 3, 2025 – via Zoom

New Zealand gardener speaks about her spectacular
drought tolerant garden.

Jo Wakelin teaches horticulture at a college level and is very interested in the ecology of her local flora. Her garden was started in Central Otago, New Zealand in 2005 and contains many natives grown from seed she collected from her region. She also researched drought resistant plants from other parts of the world with a similar Mediterranean climate. Using the philosophy that a garden needs to adapt to the conditions you have without additional water, she has created a stunning resilient dry garden. Her garden has been featured in the books ‘Wild: The Naturalistic Garden’ by Noel Kingsbury and in ‘Visionary-Gardens and Landscapes for our Future’ by Claire Takas with Giacomo Guzzon. Her garden was also the first New Zealand garden to grace the cover of Gardens Illustrated on its March 2024 cover.

Dave Eckert

March 3, 2025 – in person

Deerly Missed, a Pangram Garden

Dave Eckert and his wife Pat live in Salem. Their seven-acre property, ‘Deerly Missed’, includes a thirty-year ‘collectors’ garden surrounding a home originally built in 1893. You can see images of their garden at deerlymissed.smugmug.com. Dave was a long-time president of the Salem Hardy Plant Society and has published articles in several horticultural journals. His photography has won both Best of Contest and Best of Show in international competitions of the American Rhododendron Society.
Gardening is truly a competitive sport and Dave will address that aspect of gardening in his talk, Deerly Missed, a Pangram Garden. A pangram is a sentence that uses all twenty-six letters of the English language. A pangram garden should have a special plant or two for each alphabetical plant genus. The rarer, the more developed, the more stunning each selected plant the more points awarded. Come see our possible entries for the Pangram International Garden Society (PIGS). Wonderful plants, most with their own special story, and each photographed at Deerly Missed Garden.

James Cassidy

April 7, 2025 – in person

Making the Most of Your Soil.

James Cassidy is a senior instructor at OSU who teaches several courses on soils and organic farming and gardening. He has won many teaching awards and is a very engaging speaker. He is also the Faculty Advisor for the OSU Growers Club, an OSU master gardener instructor and has spoken for hundreds of farming and gardening organizations. Back by popular demand, James will speak to us about making the most of our gardens’ soil. The better the soil, the better our plants will grow.

Lawrence Birch 

May 5, 2025

These Are A Few Of My Favorite Herbs

As a gardener, herbalist and wildcrafter for nearly 40 years, Lawrence has had the pleasure and privilege to get to know many different plants on a variety of levels, from the medicinal to the spiritual, and from the nutritional to the esthetical. Join him on a fun and fascinating journey to get to know a select handful of his favorite herbs.

Lawrence has been an Instructor at several Oregon Community Colleges since 2005, offering classes in a variety of subjects: Herbalism, Fasting and Cleansing, Aromatherapy, Cooking, as well as Anatomy, Physiology and Pathology. Lawrence currently operates Viewmont Gardens, a seasonal Farm Stand in South Corvallis.

The May program concludes with our Spring Plant Exchange. 

2023-24 Speakers

Janet Magedanz – November 6, 2023

“Year-Round Pollinator Plants:  What to Grow for a 4-Season Blooming Garden.”
Janet Magedanz is a Benton County Master Gardener and past-President of the Evening Garden Club.  As a long-time gardener with a mature garden, she has considered the challenge to introduce “natives” to her landscape.  This is her response to that challenge.  She knew that non-natives are also attractive to pollinators so her presentation will provide planting ideas with bulbs, annuals, perennials, and shrubs – both native and non-native – to keep you happy with blooms all year AND keep the pollinators happy.

Richie Steffen – January 8, 2024 – zoom only

“The Beauty of Ferns in the Garden.” Few people have a passion for plants or an excitement about gardening more than Richie Steffen. Richie is the executive director for the Elisabeth C. Miller Botanical Garden, overseeing the development of the garden, its programs, and the rare plant collections. His expertise comes from over thirty-five years of experience in the horticultural field, with the last 24 years spent at the Miller Garden. Ferns have become a specialty for him, and he maintains extensive collections at the Miller Garden and his home garden. He has traveled to Europe, Japan, Chile, New Zealand and Costa Rica as well as numerous trips around the US studying ferns and other plants. He is active in the gardening community and is currently past president of the Hardy Fern Foundation and the Northwest Horticultural Society. A noted lecturer, writer and photographer, Richie is the co-author of the “Plant Lover’s Guide to Ferns” with his friend and fern mentor Sue Olsen

Eileen Stark – February 5, 2024 – zoom only

“Native by Design: Choosing Plants For Biodiversity.” Eileen Stark is a Portland-based ecological landscape designer, consultant, author, and photographer. Her academic background includes studies in biology, wildlife ecology and landscape design. A deeply committed conservationist, she strives to create awareness of the myriad creatures with which we share this fragile planet. 
Her book, Real Gardens Grow Natives: Design, Plant, and Enjoy a Healthy Northwest Garden, isa passionate guide to gardening for both biodiversity and beauty using animal-friendly landscaping methods.  Visit her website at realgardensgrownatives.com.

Sharon Knight and Dana Hughes – March 4, 2024 – in person

“Adaptive Gardening.” Dana is a Physical Therapist, Orthopedic Certified Specialist at Sweetgrass Physical Therapy & Wellness and Sharon is an eclectic expert at Garland Nursery with knowledge about bugs, pathogens, perrenials and everything in between.  Together, they will present a program about adaptive gardening.  This will include discussion of making small changes in gardening habits to accommodate the gardener’s physical needs – be that with adapting tools, techniques commonly used in gardening, or taking time to be mindful of changing abilities.

Signe Danler, Owen Dell, Alan Shay and Jeff Copes – April 1, 2024 – in person

“By Design – Landscaping Panel Discussion.” With expertise from the EGC and Home Grown Gardens Nursery, this panel of professionals are prepared to answer your plant and landscaping questions.  Prior to the meeting, members will be encouraged to submit questions to get the ball rolling.  Questions will also be taken from the floor.  Come down the garden path with us!

Janet Throop  – May 6, 2024 – in person

“Edible Gardens for All Seasons.” Throughout the year Janet spends much time nurturing her large and lush yard full of flowers, fruit trees, berries, and vegetables. For over thirty years she has been an active Benton County Master Gardener.  She is a keen observer of the natural world and encourages all to be mindful of the earth and our impact upon it.  We are in for a treat to learn how to grow edibles year-round.