Why Choose Me?
"I was looking for a ‘down and dirty’ person to help me, but the ones I tried were unreliable. Diane comes when she says she will, doesn’t take on too many clients at once, and has a reasonable fee." Pat Parks, 206-713-3914
Reducing the size of an overgrown rhododendron
About Diane
Current Memberships
- Plant Amnesty: "Our mission is to end the senseless torture and mutilation of trees and shrubs due to mal-pruning."
- Vashon-Maury Island Chamber of Commerce
- Vashon-Maury Island Garden Club
- Vashon-Maury Island Fruit Club
- Vashon Island Growers Association
Recent Training:
Master Pruner Certificate awarded from the University of Washington and Plant Amnesty, 2018.
May, 2019: Japanese Garden Pruning Workshop at The Brig, Seattle
Experience:
- Past president, Minnesota State Horticultural Society
- Permaculture
Design Certificate holder, from Starhawk in 2012: Earth Activist Training
- Designed and maintained an organic garden in St Paul, Minnesota which was featured on many tours, included in an
issue of Better Homes and Gardens, appeared on the covers of the book Landscape
Gardening, and Northern Gardener magazine.
- Spent a summer gardening in France, traveling by bicycle and weeding public gardens I saw along the way that needed some care. Here is a link to photos from that summer:
- Vashon's Heart Garden: Once I moved to Vashon, one of the first major gardening projects I undertook was the creation and sheet mulching of a 5000 square foot food garden, enclosed by a brush deer fence I designed and built (with some help) in the shape of a massive heart. It is so large, you can't tell it is a heart from the ground. It took several years before Google caught it in a photo:
Special Skills:
- Pruning laceleaf Japanese maples
- Landscape guidance for people who aren't sure what they want. I find I can help people see their properties in a new light, and quickly come up with ideas to help them solve design problems - either with my help, or on their own, as they wish.
- Setting up an organic garden for low maintenance.
- Careful, fast, accurate, thorough weeding, especially in mixed plantings where you have precious plants with weeds or grass mixed in.
- Good plant ID: When weeding, I can tell the difference between a seedling ranunculus, native bleeding heart, or stinky Bob, for example.
- Garden renovation
- Small tree (including fruit tree) and shrub trimming/training. Holder of Master Pruner certificate through the University of Washington and Plant Amnesty.
- Perennial and shrub transplanting, division, propagation
- Sheet mulching to reduce weeds in existing gardens, or to create new garden spaces from lawns.
- Creation of new garden beds
- Worm composting guidance
- Nontoxic pest guidance: weeds, insects, slugs, disease, deer, and moss.
- Yes, will dig out blackberries, holly, ivy, other noxious weeds. I have a special shovel to dig out blackberries by the root, so they don't come back, and I can get into tough places like the center of a large juniper or shrub border.
- Plus, I can create beautiful flower arrangements with your own garden flowers for your home or office.
References and Rates
I have lots of references. My rate is $50/hour for landscape consultations, garden design, tree and shrub pruning, research, weeding, and general maintenance. I bring in helpers at $25 or $30 an hour, and high schoolers at $15 an hour during the summer, to make my services as cost effective for you as possible, and make the best use of my energy and skills.
"Oh I can vouch for this woman's gardening skills. Amazing! The
Heart Garden at Heartstad farm was the closest real life Secret Garden I have
ever seen. Beautiful, thoughtful, bountiful sustainable, magical work."
Dear Diane,
Thank you so much for the wonderful job you did on my Cottage Garden project, which was begun 17 years ago. In all that time, the plants were watered, but never pruned. You took that overgrown patch and turned it into a really beautiful area. Your efforts have allowed me to have an easier time of future maintenance rather than looking at it, thinking, how on Earth should I bring all that growth under control. I am appreciative of both the pruning decisions you made and the fact that a messy job is done. Thank you again.
Hasta luego,
Dianne Hyer
July 2018
Look around the website and if you have any comments or questions, please feel free to contact me. I hope to see you again! Check back later for new updates to the website.