Born in England, she grew up with a trowel in her hand.
After moving to the Pacific Northwest in 1996 she joined one of the leading garden nurseries as a garden plant specialist. Helping hundreds of customers create beautiful combinations of plants to enhance their outdoor living spaces was always a delight. Ten years later she established Le Jardinet in order to provide a service that takes all the time, stress and guesswork out of the design process.
In the recent past, she has taught container gardening at Edmonds Community College and continues to teach both container and landscape design in occasional workshops and events as well as offering a range of online learning opportunities .
With excellent reviews on the Great Garden Speakers website, she frequently gives presentations at flower & garden shows, trade conferences, horticultural organizations, nurseries and garden clubs.
When she is not teaching garden design or talking about it she is writing about it, and her articles and designs have been featured in many national gardening publications including Fine Gardening, Country Gardens, Sunset, and Garden Design. She has co-authored two books with Christina Salwitz: the award-winning Fine Foliage (St. Lynn’s Press, 2013) and the highly acclaimed Gardening with Foliage First (Timber Press, 2017), and the next book Deer-Resistant Design is due for release in July 2019 (Timber Press).
She specializes in creating artistic plant combinations with a four-season foliage framework, functional outdoor living spaces and deer resistant, summer-dry designs.
Lunch included in the price of the ticket. Karen’s books will be available for sale.