A Resilient Garden: What’s Working Ten Years In

Willamette Valley Hardy Plant Group presents Tamara Paulat, creator and owner of Chickadee Gardens speaking about her evolving garden.

Gardening has held Tamara’s interest for a lifetime. After creating her mother’s residential garden in 2000, Tamara began gardening on a 50’ x 100’ plot in Portland. The Backyard Habitat Certification Program caught her attention, and her gardens eventually gained platinum status.  In 2014, the small garden was a featured stop on the Garden Bloggers Fling annual tour in Portland.  About the same time, Tamara began blogging at www.chickadeegardens.com.  A year later, wishing to expand and challenge themselves, Tamara and her husband, David, purchased a house and property in Saint Helens, Oregon.

In her program, Tamara will share with us the experience of transforming two acres of clay-flecked soil, grass, rocks, and blackberries into a thriving, diverse ecosystem.  It was a labor of love for Tamara, and within five years, this south-facing property in northwest Oregon was featured in the November 2021 issue of Better Homes & Gardensmagazine.

This current garden, affectionately called Chickadee Gardens, is bordered on three sides by Douglas fir trees and mixed hedgerows. Between these boundaries lies a dry, sun-loving gardenscape focused on West Coast native and summer-dry-adapted plants.  Approximately half an acre consists of a vegetable garden and a fruit orchard with 25 trees. Chickens, one turkey, and mason bees coexist happily here.Tamara and her husband, David, grow, harvest, and process a wide variety of foods for friends and family to enjoy.

Tamara studied art history at Portland State University and worked in the art industry for over a dozen years before switching to the horticulture and gardening industry.  She worked for many years at Joy Creek Nursery in Scappoose as the photographer and social media creator, along with helping customers, until it closed its gates in late 2021.  She currently works part-time at Cistus Nursery.

Tamara is a member of the Hardy Plant Society of Oregon and has written for that group’s magazine as well as for Pacific Horticulture. She graduated from the Oregon State University’s Master Gardeners program in Multnomah County in 2013 and is the newest member of the Great Plant Picks selection committee.

For more information about the group or this event, visit our website at www.thehardyplantgroup.org/events or email us at info@thehardyplantgroup.org.