Val Easton – Seattle Times columnist & author, “Petal and Twig”

Valerie Easton started gardening to bring nature into the house, and she hasn’t stopped planting, picking, and arranging flowers and foliage for the last 40 years. Her own new, simplified little garden on Whidbey Island has been published in The New York Times, Horticulture and This Old House. For 18 years, Valerie worked as a horticultural librarian at the University of Washington. She hasn’t missed a week of writing her “Plant Life” column for Pacific Northwest Magazine of The Seattle Times in the last 15 years. She also writes feature articles for the Times on the region’s most creative gardens and homes. She writes about gardens and the people who make them for numerous publications, including Garden Design and Organic Gardening magazines. Val is the author of four gardening books, including The New Low-Maintenance Garden (Timber Press, 2009), chosen as an amazon.com ‘2009 Ten Best Home and Garden Books;’ and Petal and Twig: Seasonal Bouquets with Blossoms, Branches and Grasses from Your Garden (Sasquatch, 2012). Valerie teaches yoga in Langley, on Whidbey Island. She lives in Seattle and on Whidbey with her husband Greg and wheaten terrier Bridget.
Follow Val online at:
Website & blog: www.valeaston.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/valeaston

Gardening 101: Indispensible Plants
Bulbs – Treasures in Small Packages
Thurs, Feb 21 at 11:30 am / Rainier Room
From fragrant little narcissus in March, delicate and bold fritillaria in April, through stately allium, bedazzling lilies and autumn crocus, bulbs enliven and scent the garden through the seasons. Chosen wisely and planted skillfully, bulbs are easy-care, drought-tolerant, and truly perennial. Best of all, they don’t take up much room in a small garden, and hold up as well in the vase as in the garden.