Planting With Purpose

WSNLA’s Garden Space at the NW Flower & Garden Festival Highlights Planting for Pollinators. Find out more on the next page.

Q&A

WSNLA garden leads, Maria Bertucci, CPH, Watson’s Greenhouse & Juliana Bertucci, The None Such, LLC, share their experience planning and installing this year’s garden space.

What have you enjoyed most about the process of leading the design and installation of the WSNLA Garden Space?

MB: There was a lot to love about doing this garden. I really enjoyed designing within the pollinator theme and working with all the wonderful vendors to pull the materials together—you never really know how things will look together until you have them all in the same space and businesses that we normally work with were very supportive and generous.

And of course, working on a big project with my sister! We’ve been trying to find a way to do a big collaboration together for awhile and this was the perfect opportunity.

JB: The opportunity to work with my sister Maria and the WSNLA on a design with such high visibility was so exciting! And I always enjoy doing the installations themselves; we had such a great team of volunteers and I loved watching the design come together

What was your inspiration for the garden space? Do you have a favorite element of the garden, and why?

MB: We really wanted to make a garden that was lovely and carefully designed but also looked comfortable and lived in. We had certain elements we wanted to incorporate, the idea of herb spirals, really large pottery, edible plants tucked in and of course, the pollinator homes.

I love the heck out of the fairy queen chair and the large green jars from Washington Pottery are my favorite series of containers that they carry. But, I might have to go with the willow trees themselves, I always love the plants better than the stuff.

JB: The theme ‘Plant something pollinator friendly’ provided by the WSNLA was a huge inspiration for our plant choices and so many pieces of the garden. I love creating pollinator friendly gardens in my own work so I was thrilled to have this as a central theme.

I had an absolutely fabulous time creating the small pollinator houses and other details with Maria as we prepped for the show, but overall, I think my favorite part of the finished design is that we managed to make a relaxed space that also has this lovely flowing movement to it. It was so cool to see people moving through the space to find all the details hidden within.

Have you honed any specific skill(s) and/or gained new ones?

MB: I think I got a bit better at trusting my instincts when ordering supplies—normally I’m able to see the elements all together before I install projects. For the show, I had to estimate more carefully and trust what I know about plants and color as everything was arriving from different sources sight unseen.

JB: Most of my design work is a solo project so it was such good practice for me to coordinate and work with others as a team on this. Specific skills… more proficient at teamwork and more able to trust the process!

Would you encourage others to volunteer fo this WSNLA project? If so, what would you say to encourage their involvement?

MB: I would indeed; it’s an exciting opportunity to showcase your creativity in a highly visible venue with a lot of support from the WSNLA, businesses in the industry and great volunteers!

JB: Definitely! The WSNLA made the whole process really smooth and I am hugely appreciative of everything they did to promote our work and show off the garden.

WSNLA would like to thank our volunteers that helped set-up and teardown this year’s garden space: Jerome Kosman, CPH, Denise McDonough, Lynette Stair, Nicole Waring, Maria Bertucci, CPH, Juliana Bertucci, Scott Pringle, CPH and Holly Osborne, volunateers that staffed the garden and handed out