by Anne Jaeger
Garden
The Garden Gal
An Eye For Detail
Anne Jaeger:
I can’t remember, what got you into gardening?
Gavin Younie:
I think I was seven or eight, we had a half acre and my mom brought
home some plants from Cannon Beach. I think she bought some
Penstemon. I was just blown away. We had a half acre garden that was
very contained. And I made my own garden with a one brick wide path
(he laughs). I was like 8 years old then.
AJ: What fascinated you about gardening?
GY: My mom liked it, I could be outside. Maybe I wanted something of
my own, since I have a twin brother, this could be mine. I loved watch-
ing things grow and evolve, but I was into the design of it too. I needed
that path. And I liked birdbaths and sculptures and pots. It’s pretty weird
that I’m a landscape architect today. Now gardening is stress relief. My
mom died two years ago….everyone needs an outlet and this is mine.
It’s my baby.
AJ: When I met you at 14 or 15 you were already very knowledgeable.
Did you know early on you would always garden?
GY: Yeah, that was my passion. I’ve got a combination of interests. My
dad’s a structural engineer. So I would see his prints of these mega-hous-
es and I’d imagine what the gardens would look like. We built a green-
house together, but the plant part was me plus the Hardy Plant Society
and Barbara Ashmun (neighbor and established author, writer amazon.com/Barbara-
Gavin Younie, a 29-year old
landscape designer says
“When I bought this house,
I knew exactly what garden
I wanted when I drove by.
I drew it out on a cocktail
napkin. I designed this front
garden by turning sloped
grass into three different
tiers to show off masses of
the same plants. The repeat-
ing pattern is restful and
gives your eye someplace to
stop before seeing the rest
of the garden.”
Photos by Horace Long
Gavin was a garden prodigy when I met him eons ago.
You see, by the time Gavin Younie (say: “YOU-nee”)
was 14 years old he’d been featured in almost every
chichi garden magazine across the country. He was that
interesting; albeit rather shy and more introverted, but
wise beyond his years about plants. Today, the 29 year-
old man with a degree in landscape architecture and an
eye for detail does not disappoint. The two of us caught
up on lost time recently, played 20 questions (of which
you’ll get the best four because questions, like gardens,
aren’t always good) while overlooking his grown up
garden in Southwest Portland.
That got me started on a planting design obsession and then getting a
degree at University of Oregon gave me the knowledge and theory to car-
ry it forward. I mean, you really need to learn plants and hardscape for a
successful garden.
AJ: Tell me about branching out from creating gardens for others, to de-
signing and selling your own containers?
GY: I wanted something simple and I couldn’t find any containers I liked
for either side of the front door that weren't terra cotta, Asian pottery
or FiberStone. So I created a modern line, a more French line and now
I have interior steel planters, too. Some are in powder coated colors and
others have a more natural rust finish. With gardening and my contain-
ers, my job is my passion and I’m pretty lucky to do something artsy most
every day.
Anne Jaeger, writes The Garden Gal for Just Out. Anne was a hard news reporter and
anchor at KGW and KOIN before turning to gardening full time. After that her award
winning garden shows appeared on both stations. You can now look for Anne gar-
den videos on the Oregonian newspaper web site: oregonlive.com/hg , catch her
on Twitter: Anne Jaeger@GardenGalTV or send her a suggestion on her web site:
GardenGal.TV .
Ashmun.)
30
JustOut.com
August 2012