ABOUT ME

Why Choose Me?

My garden in St Paul, Minnesota. No pesticides, herbicides, sprays of any sort. Safe for my cat and visiting children. All hand weeded by me, while working full time and volunteering. Low maintenance design of mostly perennials with only a few annuals.

Reducing the size of an overgrown rhododendron

Pruning a laceleaf Japanese maple in winter.

About Diane

Current Memberships

Plant Amnesty: "Our mission is to end the senseless torture and mutilation of trees and shrubs due to mal-pruning."

International Society of Arboriculture
Vashon Island Growers Association (VIGA)
Member and pruning instructor: Vashon-Maury Island Fruit Club
Member and regular speaker: Vashon-Maury Island Garden Club
Manager, Garden Green
Washington Native Plant Society
Member, Wild Ones (Native plant promoters)

Other Training

IPM (Integrated Pest Management) Online Seminars, City of Seattle, 2019-2025

Japanese Garden Pruning Workshop at The Brig, Seattle in May, 2019.

Building Resilience Through Innovation and Community Engagement - (how to deal with eroding coastlines and sea level rise). Feb 4, 2021

Master Pruner Certificate awarded from the University of Washington and Plant Amnesty, 2018.

Experience:

Past president, Minnesota State Horticultural Society
Permaculture Design Certificate holder, from Starhawk in 2012: Earth Activist Training
Designed and maintained my own organic garden in St Paul, Minnesota which was featured on many garden tours. It was also included in an issue of Better Homes and Gardens, and appeared on the covers of the book Landscape Gardening, and Northern Gardener magazine.
Spent the summer of 2011 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. You will need to scroll down past the photos of the Japanese Gardens I prune to get to the Guerrilla Gardening in France: https://www.emersongardening.com/photos
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:

Teaching others how to prune their shrubs and trees for the beauty and health of the plants.

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.
Low maintenance gardening
Restoring native plants to gardens, slopes, open spaces
Garden renovation: Shrubs especially seem to grow much larger than intended. What to do now? Depending on the plant, I will either turn it into a beautiful small tree, or reduce its size while keeping its natural look.
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, I have helpers to 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 with it we can get into tough places like the center of a large juniper or shrub border.
When I work in your garden, I will save any flowers that might be nice in a vase for your home.

Garden Green

My husband Michael Laurie and I also work to reduce the use of toxic pesticides on Vashon Island and Western Washington. This effort is named Garden Green. We share information on the problems caused by toxic products, and safe alternatives to them. We have worked with retailers to share with their customers info on the pesticides they sell (insecticides, herbicides, rodenticides, etc), We encourage retailers to remove toxic pesticides from their shelves, which they have done for many of the worst of the products. We have given talks to community groups, tabled at the Farmer's Market and other events, written articles, and published guides for the public, many of which are handed out by the Vashon Master Gardeners at their plant clinics outside Ace Hardware. If you would like to learn more, please see our website: www.GardenGreen.org or our Facebook page: Garden Green

Personal

"Choose a job you love and you will never have to work a day in your life."

I love my work. I began selling plants in paper Dixie cups to the neighbors when I was 4 years old. I had to stop because I had chosen the beautiful purple violets for my fledgling nursery, and I was told you couldn't sell the state flower. I subscribed to Organic Gardening magazine when I was 15, and was making terrariums in wine bottles and selling plants when I was 17. My grandmother became very worried about me because when I visited her and saw all her plant catalogs, I would read them in bed far into the night. I was smitten. So, when it was time to decide what degree I would pursue, I really wanted to get a degree in horticulture. But in Minnesota, where I grew up, the place was frozen for 6 months a year. Not a great place for a horticulture career. So I decided to keep gardening as my love, and make a living doing something else. Now, finally, here on Vashon, I am making a living doing what I love: sharing all I have learned over the years with others.

Presentations

I have shared gardening and pruning tips at meetings of the Vashon-Maury Island Garden Club. Most of these have been recorded, and you can view them at the garden club's website.

I also give free pruning classes through the Vashon Island Fruit Club. This winter (2026-2027) I will be giving a class on pruning espalier at the Fruit Club Demonstration Orchard at Sunrise Ridge.

On December 8, 2026, I will be giving a free talk on the Beauty and Benefits of Native Plants at the Vashon-Maury Island Land Trust, in advance of their annual native plant sale (inexpensive bare root native trees and shrubs)

Earlier in 2026, I gave this same talk at Little Bird Gardens Nursery

In 2023 I gave a pruning demonstration at Little Bird Gardens Nursery

In 2022, I gave a presentation in conjunction with Little Bird Gardens nursery on Plants to Hold Slopes.

In 2021, I gave a presentation on the Beauty and Benefits of Native Plants in conjunction with Little Bird Gardens nursery at the Country Store.

2020, I gave in-person workshops to small numbers of people on sheet mulching, which were outside, with social distancing. In addition, I was the key presenter or participated in several videos.

Here are the Sheet mulching Videos:

Sheet Mulching Videos in 3 parts

Part 1: https://youtu.be/ZrLNhsc2wAg

Part 2: https://youtu.be/1hULNPg23fY

Part 3: https://youtu.be/6h2g3GPa2qY

Organic Gardening Tips and Tricks, through the Vashon-Maury Island Garden Club:

Invasive Weed Removal Without Chemicals

This video was funded by the King County Wastewater Treatment Division in partnership with the Vashon Nature Center.

I presented to over 200 landscape professionals on effective alternatives to RoundUp herbicides, Oct 29, 2019. Here is a link to the talk, which I shared with my husband Michael Laurie. http://www.seattle.gov/Documents/Departments/SPU/Documents/Certification/IPMOct2019/9-Emerson-Laurie-Life_After_Roundup-Altenatives.pdf

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This two day seminar was offered by the City of Seattle and Seattle Parks and Recreation, and open to all landscape professionals. Attendees could go to one or both days for cutting-edge sessions on Integrated Pest Management, while getting recertification credits and other CEU’s.

In September, 2019, I gave a workshop on tree pruning at the 2019 Northwest Permaculture Convergence near Eugene, Oregon

Diane presenting Native Plants and Slopes.jpeg

Sharing Doug Tallamy's book during a presentation on native plants and slopes.

Pounding in rebar to make a hole for a live stake on a steep slope. A cheap, easy and safe way to add native shrubs to a steep slope to hold the soil.

I demonstrated tree pruning techniques and tools. Attendees learned how to prune efficiently for the plant’s health and productivity. They also received resources to help with their own tree pruning.