Garden coach gives bumblers something to cheer about
Every May, a crabapple tree with deep pink buds bursts into a great puff ball of white flowers in my back yard, its perfume thick and sweet.
It follows a succession of blooms. Peonies are next, with bright deep-pink flowers. Then Rose of Sharon shrubs, their pink-white and orchid blooms drawing an army of bumblebees big enough to need landing clearance.
Spring is a gardener’s siren song, the smell of wet mud and worms is a call of the wild – to dig in mud, plant, pull weeds and fertilize.
Amidst all this of nature’s finery, I – a masterful garden bumbler – yanked up a lavender plant and nurtured some sneaky weed I thought was an aster.
But apparently, I have lots of company in that department.
Master Gardener and now Garden Coach Debbie Notaro of Campton Township said trial and error is the way we learn. Only, now bumblers like me can rely on volunteers in the University of Illinois Master Gardener program, or pay for the services of a Garden Coach like Nataro.
When she first sent us an e-mail introduction, my first thought was coach? Does she cheer you on as you chop stinky skunk weed or hack at a stubborn burdock? Or is she like one of those whisperers, cooing softly to the dinner plate dahlias and Thumbelina zinnias so they grow and resist rust and fungus?
Nothing so exotic. Notaro, 53, started selling real estate in 1990 and lived in Batavia. While transferred to California in 2001, she became a Master Gardener. She published three papers on lavender, salvia and herbs for the University of California Extension.
Notaro came back to the area in 2005, and to her old job, but with an eye on gardening.
Then one day, the real estate office’s receptionist came in with an article in a national magazine about the garden coaching phenom.
SDLqShe said, ‘This is what you do. There’s a name for it.’ ”
“Garden coaching is big on the East Coast and the West Coast,” Notaro said. “The ultimate goal is to show people how to sustain a garden. To make it a hobby and not a chore.”
Notaro is registered on Susan Harris’ garden coaching Web site called Sustainable Gardening at www.sustainable-gardening.com/coach/. She is the only one in Kane County listed, and one of two listed in Illinois, though there are probably others, Notaro said.
“My whole mission is to educate people,” Notaro said. “I’ve done Gardening 101 classes with brand new gardeners. They’re afraid to touch anything but by the time I’m done, they’re pulling weeds and digging in the dirt.”
She helps design gardens, answer questions, and solves problems. She charges $35 to $50 plus travel time to go to clients’ houses and assess what they want and what their issues are. Her Web site is www.mysecretgardenonswl.com
Notaro got laid off from her real estate office in December, so though she sells an occasional house, garden coaching is what she does.
“It’s just like if a doctor makes a house call,” Notaro said. “I want to know how much work someone wants to put into their garden. Some people want a Victorian garden without maintenance. I give people a reality check.”
The University of Illinois Extension office, 535 S. Randall Road, St. Charles, also offers gardening and landscape help through its trained Master Gardeners. Call 630-584-6166 ext. 23. More information is available on its Web site, web.extension.uiuc.edu/kane/
• Brenda Schory can be reached at bschory@kcchronicle.com