Demonstration Gardens in Lewis County
We operate demonstration gardens in Lewis County. These are our living classrooms where we deliver many of our public workshops. In addition, our gardens are a place where you can informally tour to pick up on gardening ideas, we demonstrate composting, raised bed gardening, waterwise gardening and much more.
Our Foundation funds all the expenses it takes to run these fully functioning gardens. Everything from tools to seeds and soil, from pots to irrigation infrastructure. It takes a lot to run these gardens, but we believe that getting hands-on with gardening is the best way to learn.
Salkum Library Garden (est. 2004)
A Tough-as-Nails garden, highlighting plants that are drought-tolerant and deer-resistant. Two gardens offering ideas on interesting trees that stay at manageable heights, and perennials and shrubs that have year-round (and particularly winter) interest.
Two raised Hugelkultur beds that illustrate the European technique of building waterwise vegetable and herb gardens on a base of logs and other wood waste. Attractive hardscaping that includes grape arbor and twig-art trellises. A Color Garden full of perennials and annuals that attract beneficial insects and provide a lovely sight from Highway 12 heading east from Interstate 5.
A Pollinator Garden that attracts bees and hummingbirds around our garden shed. A Horseshoe shaped Fruit garden with apples, fig, blueberries and mulberry tree and black elderberry. A Water Wise garden of trees and shrubs with lots of color on the entry corner to the library.
Recent additions include a Food Forest garden, which uses all areas of the canopy with edible plants, based on Native American gardening and a raised bed Vegetable garden with annual and overwintering vegetables.
Providence Place Garden (est. 1998)
Providence Place is a HUD senior residence. Many residents have retired from homes and farms where they actively gardened. The residents enjoy gardening in raised vegetable beds that help them overcome physical barriers of gardening with some assistance from Master Gardeners.
Master Gardeners maintain various demonstration gardens at Providence Place where visitors can see us growing food in raised vegetable gardens, tour through beautiful rose gardens and walk along a path featuring blueberries. Interested in pollinators? We have a registered Monarch butterfly station and garden along with a hummingbird garden.
If you just want to relax, we have a sitting garden and a Japanese style garden along with a tiered garden and a patio garden. Haven’t seen enough? We’ve also got a native garden; a wet area garden; a beach theme garden and even a moon garden. Take an afternoon and come out and enjoy some of what nature has to offer.
Borst Garden (est. 1998)
Among the historic sites at the gardens is the Fort Borst Blockhouse, just east of the park entrance; the reconstructed log fort was occupied briefly by troops during the Indian Wars before being sold to Joseph Borst for use as a granary. The Joseph Borst House, in the southern part of the park, was built in 1864 and is well preserved thanks to wood and joints hand-dipped in white lead to waterproof them.
Today, the Borst family estate features 16 gardens maintained by WSU Lewis County Certified Master Gardeners, featuring a Pollinator garden, Shade garden and Grape Arbor. If you are interested in growing food, we have a Grape Arbor, a Salsa Garden, Heirloom Vegetable garden, fruit and berry gardens and Herb gardens.
Borst Gardens also feature Lavender, Native Plants and a trellis garden. There is a drought resistant garden, a square foot garden and a Winter garden. There is also an Arboretum program identifying trees throughout the garden and park, so come on out and spend some time in the garden.
Borst Greenhouse
We use a 20′ X 30′ double poly heated and cooled greenhouse to grow edibles, landscape, houseplants and teach others how to grow from seed and propagate plants using both soft and hardwood cutting techniques.
Outside, we have eleven raised beds and the use of two 10′ X 12′ temporary greenhouses for hardening off vegetables for our Spring Plant Sale. To keep our knowledge current we are continually trying new techniques/ideas as “experiments” to if they work and or how good they really are. Recording and tracking plant successes is a key to our continual improvement processes.
SWW Fairgrounds Garden (est. 2016)
There are two gardens located within the Southwest Washington Fairgrounds at the south end of Centralia. The first garden created is A Garden for all Seasons. This garden is located by the saloon stage and it features the year-round beauty and interest that can be achieved with shrubs, trees, grasses, perennials and annuals.
The second garden is the Pollinator Garden: this garden is located by the judging pavilion. This garden is designed with the intent of growing specific nectar and pollen-producing plants in a way that attracts insects known as pollinators. A nearby kiosk has information about these different pollinators and their needs.
