Hey, nice to meet you

A LITTLE ABOUT ME


I am a trained Master Gardener whose own interests are creating habitat gardens.  I’ve become a convert to the idea that even the smallest yard can contribute to a healthier ecology around us. As a professional member of the Ecological Landscaping Alliance and the Virginia Nursery and Landscape Association, I maintain contact with other professionals and have access to the latest information in the field. You can check out my bio with the organization here.

 I have been an avid gardener since childhood, and a Master Gardener since 2009. The Master Gardener program is sponsored by the State Cooperative Extension Service through the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture and -- here in Virginia -- Virginia Tech. The program provides intensive horticultural training and is a lengthy process with an annual continuing education requirement.  Through this program, I work in my community giving lectures, answering questions from the public, training new Master Gardeners, and many other projects. 

As a former environmental research chemist and lawyer, I understand all aspects of gardening well including plant identification and care, plant biology, soil science, eco-gardening principles, and organic pest control.

I garden on a one-acre parcel, including extensive native landscape plants, an 80-foot hedgerow of edible and ornamental native plants, a vegetable garden, and a peaceful courtyard.

Get in touch with me using my contact form to discuss rates, scheduling and more.


Sharon Burnham- your garden doc!

the Expertise you seek ~ the Knowledge you need

I am a lifelong gardener, gardening alongside my mother as I was growing up in Southern California. I clearly had an “early fondness” for plants, much to my mother’s dismay. I was also that girl at college who filled her dormitory room with many plants, annoying my roommate with re-potting in the shared bathroom. 

Although my career path took me from environmental research chemist to lawyer, my gardening education has been an intensive process for over 35 years. Through classes at Virginia Western Community College, numerous seminars in respected institutions, becoming a certified Master Gardener through Virginia Tech in 2009, and extensive self-study, I understand all aspects of gardening well:  plant identification and care, plant biology, soil science, eco-gardening principles, and organic pest control.

Plants play an important role in my main artistic endeavor: making baskets from plant materials I grow in my yard or collect (responsibly) in the wild. This is my very first basket, using day lily leaves and rush. The black ascent line is the stem of Northern Maidenhair Fern. Below are additional baskets, made from either wild materials, other rustic material, or commercial reed.

Basket with iris leaves and rush, with fringed rim

Basket in progess, showing the Western Red Cedar spokes. The weavers are rush, iris leaves, and dracaena leaves

Basket using natural jute twine, twisted paper, and dyed reed

A simple black and white reed basket, with a Gretchen rim

PLEASE SEE MY RESUME HERE

Green fingers are the extension of a verdant heart

Russell Page

Using Format