> n%areft 17 mnn
24
O tun a n a
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Continued from P age 23
no building permit and ‘*is more earth-friendly,
Davidson says.
T IP :
Recycle overgrown shrubs with careful,
extensile pruning; it also revitalizes the
plant.
0
T IP : .
S a v e money by being patient.
Select four-inch plants instead of larger, more
mature specimens. Ju st be sure to space
accordingly and allow room for growth.
teach others to do it themselves. Gates, who
has a degree in horticulture and is a certified
arborist, has been pruning for 20 years and
teaching for five. She gives both private and
group lessons and teaches at Portland Commu
nity College and other locations.
Gates is particularly bothered by the insen
sitive hacking and topping that she sees people
doing in an effort to control their landscape.
Instead, she emphasizes the aesthetics of fine
pruning and the health of the plant through
preventive removal of dead or decayed wood.
She feels her personalized instruction “helps
one see, understand and enjoy working with
the natural forms and rhythms of plant
growth.”
“1 like to work for our community,” David
son proclaims, adding that’s why he calls his
company Pride Landscape Maintenance.
He is happy to maintain the gardens he
designs, as well as ones he hasn’t, and _____
is able to keep his charges at $35 per
hour because he has low overhead
and a small crew.
“I expect to have my customers for
life— I give great service at a fair
Prune from the inside
price,” says the fellow whose motto is:
out and the bottom up.
“Proudly serving the queens of the
Pacific Northwest.”
Identify the growth
Before
(inset):
The blank
canvas that was
Bob Mensel’s back yard.
After: Mensel and his
partner wanted a Euro feel,
so they hired Don Davidson
to lay out a formal planting
area surrounding a classic
fountain. This is just the
start of something big
Cjates ]Pru nina J i p j
| erhaps you have a tangle of
1 neglected trees and shrubs and all
you need is some enlightened
guidance.
Julie Gates calls her company Gar
den Transformations, and her special
ty is pruning. Best of all, she loves to
Thin out crowded,
redundant and crossing
branches.
Step back periodically
and view your work
from all sides.
pattern, reveal the
natural form.
Remove dead wood
first.
Use only sharp, clean,
adjusted, oiled tools.
Make major cuts first,
details last.
w
hould your garden fan-
|
tasies involve extensive £
‘hardscaping”— masonry,
water features, paths, fences and other struc
tures— then Don Davidson might be your man.
Now in his 20th season as a landscaper, David
son does it all. He’s an arborist and both a mas
ter gardener and a master pruner, but he really
digs the butch stuff.
“I love construction and rock work, that’s
my forte,” he says enthusiastically.
One way he keeps his work affordable is
that he prefers to dry-set his rock walls. Each
rock is handpicked and embedded in the soil.
(Stone stairs are an exception; they are
cemented.)
As another cost-saver, Davidson is happy to
guide clients who want to be involved in the
work themselves. He also provides a free con
sultation and estimate on the spot. And since
his partner, Bill Dart, has a degree in construc
tion engineering, he can do blueprints if need
ed for building permits.
00 YOU THINK YOU OR SOMEONE YOU KNOW IS
BEING TREATED UNFAIRLY BECAUSE OF BEING
GAY/LESBIAN/BISEXUAL OR TRANSGENDERED?
T lu
1 A
a ì 4Ì
* 4 Ì m
Q a u y M |A |H
i
i l l moumuwi rHui rTvyr mu
Obviously a resourceful guy, Davidson says
he “likes to recycle what’s around." He also has
a sensitive, spiritual connection to gardening,
and says that when pruning he communes with
a plant in order to reveal its true beauty.
He’s also fond of extreme challenges. When
one client complained of a bothersome street
light that shined into her bedroom at night,
Davidson hung a stained-glass window high up
in a tree to obscure the glare.
Davidson likes saving his clients money.
He’ll take them plant shopping at nurseries,
where they benefit from his on-the-spot advice
and avoid costly mistakes. (Many gardeners
have been seduced by expensive, showy tropi
cal vines, only to see them die the same year
because they weren’t suited to the location.)
When it comes to sprinkler systems, less is
more. Money can also be saved by installing a
microsystem, which requires less digging, needs
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Before (left): Will the real AlE>erta spruce please come out? A fter: Newly pompommed by Don
Davidson, this old tree went from marked-for-death to a specimen worth $ 8 0 0
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