Garden expert and writer Lisa Albert has been teaching Metro’s natural gardening workshops for a couple of years now, but her plant passion spans decades. She comes from a long line of gardeners, with her mother and grandmothers instilling an early appreciation for shady outdoor hangouts, sweet-smelling blooms, and the instant satisfaction of harvesting berries and snap peas.
But, she says, as a kid, she didn’t have the patience for yard work. “I wasn’t fond of the mundane task of weeding,” she says.
Boy, has that changed. Over the last 20 years Albert has immersed herself into garden culture, and has cultivated a garden in the Portland “burbs” that has since been featured in newspapers, magazines and books as an example of organic, low-maintenance gardening.
“I have more than mere tolerance for weeding these days,” Albert says. “I find it quite meditative. I can think of no better way to spend the day than weeding, creating, nurturing and building new memories in my garden.”
Albert goes for plants that are easy to maintain, among them, native plants and climate-specific nonnatives planted in places that provide the sun or shade, soil, water and space they each need.
Climate-suited plants are less susceptible to pests and disease. They also attract wildlife to Albert's yard, including more than 30 species of birds. Albert has even seen a western tanager stop for a visit with the purple finches, goldfinches, chickadees and spotted towhees.
Part of Albert's gardening journey has included becoming a Master Gardener through the Oregon State University Extension Service. The education she received there about the health and environmental dangers of common chemical pesticides and herbicides hit home — she was raising young children at the time.
It was then that she decided to go all-organic, and, she says, her garden is healthier than those that rely on chemicals, and lower-maintenance too.
Albert has put her ever-expanding expertise to use as a writer in a variety of publications. She also shares her knowledge around the community, facilitating and teaching classes, including Metro’s free natural gardening workshops. She’s teaching two workshops coming up (Aug. 20 and Sept. 10) on how to attract birds, bees and butterflies to your yard with native plants — a perfect topic for late summer and early fall, an optimal time for transplanting and establishing new natives in your yard.
“I’m not done growing and neither is my garden,” Albert says. “I can’t wait to see what new adventures and discoveries are next.”