Barbara W. Ellis
» Garden Design (97)
» Native Plants (60)
» Organic, Sustainable (91)
» Ornamentals (79)
» Water-Wise Gardening (51)
Overview
21620Barbara W. Ellis is a horticulturist, writer, speaker, and lifelong gardener. Author of many gardening books, she lectures on topics such as combining perennials, using ground covers creatively, and planting drought-tolerant and native landscapes.
w: Eastern Shore Gardener Facebook page
w: Suite 101 bio and on-line articles
Description
Barbara W. Ellis is a horticulturist, writer, editor, speaker, and passionate lifelong gardener. Author of many gardening books, including Covering Ground: Unexpected Ideas for Landscaping with Colorful, Low-Maintenance Ground Covers (Storey, 2007), she is a hands-on gardener who lectures on the how-to aspects of topics such as combining perennials and other ornamentals, using ground covers creatively, planting drought-tolerant gardens, using native plants, and reducing maintenance.
Barbara has been an editor and writer in the gardening and horticultural fields for many years. She is the former Managing Editor of Garden Books for Rodale Press, and was Publications Director for the American Horticultural Society and editor of their magazine American Horticulturist, now The American Gardener. Currently, Barbara publishes an e-newsletter for gardeners on the DelMarVa peninsula, Eastern Shore Gardener.
In addition to Covering Ground, Barbara is the author of The Veggie Gardener’s Answer Book (Storey 2008), Deckscaping: Gardening and Landscaping on and Around Your Deck (Storey Publishing, 2002), Shady RetreatsTaylor's Guide to Growing North America's Favorite Plants: Proven Perennials, Annuals, Flowering Trees, Shrubs, & Vines for Every Garden (Houghton Mifflin, 1998), Taylor's Guide to Annuals (Houghton Mifflin, 1999), Taylor's Guide to Perennials (Houghton Mifflin, 2000), Taylor's Guide to BulbsBarron's Complete Gardener's Dictionary (Barron's Educational Series, 2000). She also is author of several books in the Taylor's Weekend Garden Guides Series, including Easy, Practical Pruning and Attracting Birds and Butterflies (Houghton Mifflin, 1997).
Barbara also is the editor of many gardening books, including Burpee: The Complete Vegetable & Herb Gardener (Macmillan, 1997), Burpee Complete Gardener (Macmillan, 1995), Rodale's Low-Maintenance Gardening Techniques (Rodale Press, 1995), Rodale's Illustrated Encyclopedia of Perennials (Rodale Press, 1993), The Organic Gardener's Handbook of Natural Insect and Disease Control (Rodale Press, 1992), and Rodale's All-New Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening (Rodale Press, 1992).
A life-long gardener, Barbara holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Horticulture from The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, and a Bachelor of Arts from Kenyon College, Gambier, Ohio. She lives on the Eastern Shore of Maryland next to the Chesapeake Bay with her husband and an assortment of rescued dogs, cats, and parrots. She and her husband have a “green” home with passive solar, heat collection, and many recycled materials. The house is surrounded by an ever-expanding garden that is managed organically and designed to be wildlife-friendly. It features a wide range of perennials, shrubs, herbs, and edibles for both sun and shade.
Topics
LIST OF TALKS
Barbara can develop programs that suit your theme or topic. The following is a list of some of her most popular lectures.
FULL TO OVERFLOWING: Using Layers of Plants to Create Continuous Interest in the Garden
Garden beds and borders stuffed to capacity with flowers and foliage are glorious to look at and surprisingly easy to care for. But how do you get there? This talk uses images and discussion to teach participants how layers of plants—perennials, bulbs, annuals, shrubs, and more—can create a succession of bloom that lasts for months. Beyond creating a rich, bountiful look, stuffing beds and borders full to overflowing also reduces tedious maintenance chores like weeding and mulching.
SIMPLE STEPS TO A SUCCESSFUL VEGETABLE GARDEN
Learn how easy it is to grow a bountiful, all organic vegetable garden. Participants will discover practical, easy-to-implement techniques for routine tasks like preparing soil, keeping weeds at bay, scheduling crops, training plants, managing pests, and growing all kinds of vegetables. Learn how to save time and effort in the garden whether you want just a few rows of salad greens or a garden full of edible bounty.
JAZZ UP YOUR GARDEN: COVERING GROUND CREATIVELY
Want to add polish and pizzazz to your garden without increasing your weekly workload? This talk takes a look at the wilder side of ground covers. Learn how to replace lawn areas with plants that don't need weekly mowing, and use easy-care flowers and shrubs to cover all sorts of sites. You'll find ideas for dressing up areas with all-green ground covers, creating colorful plantings that just look hard to care for, and using native plants effectively for ground cover. Since planting ground covers is a very effective way to make your garden earth-friendly, you'll also be learning how to keep your garden "green" in the process.
PLANTING DECKS AND OTHER OUTDOOR LIVING SPACES
Attractive, appealing outdoor living spaces add appeal to any home or garden. This lecture starts with a look at how to create a strong link between house and garden. After that, participants will learn how to create a welcoming space that is comfortably furnished, easy to use, and convenient. Container gardens are an essential element in making a deck, terrace, or other outdoor space appealing, partly because they bring the garden right up to the house. A portion of the talk is devoted to creating containers that will give any outdoors space a gardenlike feel. Next, participants learn about wrapping the deck or other space in a garden through a simple basic system for designing plantings. The last section of the talk focuses on characteristics of a few plants that are essential in intensive plantings.
Adventures in Plant Propagation
This is a free-form lecture and discussion covering how to propagating plants from seed, cuttings, division, and more.
Workshop: Constructing a Copper Trellis
How to make a handsome trellis from ordinary copper pipe purchased at any home-supply store. No welding necessary! This is a project participants can make again and again once they learn the basic techniques. Plus, they’ll have the tools to create their own designs. .Participants are provided with all pipe, pipe fittings, pipe cutter, and cement to make the trellis. They need to bring a folding carpenter's rule, tape measure, or yardstick and pencils to the workshop.
Photo Gallery
