Featured Landscape Designer >> Featured Landscape Designer Archives>> Summer 2009: Kathryn Leech APLD

  
Kathryn Leech, APLD has been an active member of APLD's Oregon Chapter since its inception. She is also the owner of River City Gardens, a sustainable landscape design company in Portland, Oregon since 1998.

Kathryn's Bio:  
There is a photo of me as a 2 year old in my dear grandfather’s 2-acre mum field in Baldwin Park, Ca. where folks came from all over the San Gabriel valley to buy a big bucket of mums for $2.00. My father loved his garden in Pasadena where I grew up. Each night when he got home from work he’d hang out in the garden puttering around until dark. We had white & yellow peaches and a prolific fig tree behind the garage (where I went to smoke cigarettes with my girl friend Paula) as well as a huge victory garden in the front yard.

I enjoyed childhood under the shrubs and stepping on bees in the clover lawn. When I went to the APLD Pasadena conference in 2007 I visited my family home and his rose garden was still there. My mother grew up on a farm in Iowa where her family of 11 children canned 500 jars of food each summer to eat all winter. So I came to the love of plants and gardening naturally.

I was in my 20’s when I planted my first vegetable garden in L.A. After graduating with a BA in Art Design I worked  at the LA Art Museum, then as a social worker. In the late 60’s I opened an organic bakery with 4 other hippies and from there had a series of food adventures: restaurants, natural foods grocery, catering, & good eating. I moved to Portland in the early 80’s and subsequently got a job at a nursery in SE Portland (Dragonfly on Hawthorne) where I began helping people with modest design projects.

While at Dragonfly I took my first hort class, pruning, at Portland Community College, Mt. Hood. Then I began taking landscape tech classes at PCC Rock Creek. I remember the thrill of learning the names of my old friends, the trees. I then got a job for 5 years at Tsugawa Nursery in Woodland, WA. doing both sales and design. I loved being with the plants and learned tons. We visited the client once, did a design and had them come to the nursery to pick up the design and look at plants. There was no follow-up or feedback on the work. This was frustrating, as I didn’t have any idea if my work was good or bad. Probably some of both.

In 1998 I stopped working for the ‘man’ and went into business for myself – the best! Since then I have made my living from my design work and am thrilled with working out of my home office where I gaze into my garden from the drawing board. For some years I’ve been involved in the installation of my designs so I am getting lots of feedback. As a result I know I am continually improving. I also take my clients plant shopping in place of making an elaborate planting plan.

My own garden on a double lot in Multnomah Village, SW Portland has been an ongoing experiment. I bought the house in 1982 because of the big trees. Since then I have shamelessly been adding plants, paths, & reducing lawn. What is now my ‘Wild Style’ is a rambunctious collection of dwarf conifers, evergreens of all sorts, blooming trees, veggies, perennials and a general riot of plants. The spring garden is especially fantastic with everything in bloom. I am particularly interested in form, foliage color & texture. The garden continues to delight and surprise me as plants emerge and old plants move around. And of course I keep getting new plants as if I have empty places. My approach has always been organic and sustainable.

In 2001 I joined APLD and soon became Certified. Along the way I’ve also become Eco-Biz, Eco-Roof and Clean River Rewards certified. I’ve gone to 4 APLD conferences- Seattle, England, Salt Lake City & Pasadena. What wonderful fun they are. I’ve been busy helping produce this summer's conference here in Portland and am looking forward to seeing old friends, making new ones and generally enjoying the ‘party’. Portland has such a supportive and cheerful community of designers. Being a part of it is a privilege and honor.

To see more of Kathryn's work, please visit her website at www.rivercitygardens.com
You may contact her at 503-293-6114 or by email at kleech@pcez.com

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