Information is power

We all know someone who is an overachiever. But Linda Chalker-Scott may take the cake on that title. Growing up on the family farm in Tacoma, Washington, she never had a plant until she went away to college at Oregon State University. It was a pink polka dot plant because everyone in the ’70s had to have some kind of exotic plant.

Early on, Linda was told that she had to “specialize, specialize, specialize” to get where she wanted to go in her career. Even though she eventually ended up in horticulture, she originally wanted to be a marine biologist. She has a bachelor’s degree in science and a master’s degree in marine biology but when it came to getting her doctorate, things didn’t turn out the way she planned. Her husband suggested getting into horticulture as a back-up plan, and she earned a doctorate in horticulture with a double minor in biochemistry and botany, specializing in woody plant physiology.

She began her career as an associate professor at the College of Natural and Social Sciences at the State University of New York in Buffalo from 1989 to 1997 before moving to the University of Washington teaching and doing academic research. After the university’s Center for Urban Horticulture was firebombed in the middle of the night in 2001 by a group a U.S. attorney referred to as a “secret eco-terrorist group,” according to the University of Washington Magazine, Linda decided to move into Urban Extension at Washington State University in 2004. Not one to let her laurels rest, she also added to her long list of certifications, and became an International Society of Arboriculture Certified Arborist and received the TRAQ credential (Tree Risk Assessment Qualification) from ISA.

Linda says moving into extension from academia put her into a practical science environment and “was accepted more readily in extension.” She has written hundreds of fact sheets and whitepapers and presented almost 700 invited seminars to different groups in the landscape industry during the past 25 years.

She started The Informed Gardener website in 2004 as a digital resource for landscape professionals. About three years later, Linda was encouraged to write books. Although she said being an author was something she never expected to do in her career, “The Informed Gardener” and the follow up, “The Informed Gardener Blooms Again” were published in 2008 and 2010 respectively. She is the co-author and manager of The Garden Professors Blog that started in 2009 with other professors from land grant universities. It purportedly attracts visitors from 199 countries. The blog also has an accompanying Facebook page.

Linda says she communicates her messages to consumers and the trade by providing lots of practical, easy-to-read fact sheets, books and other peer-reviewed information.

Neil Hendrickson worked for Bartlett Tree Research Laboratories where he served as Northeast Technical Specialist for more than 20 years before his 2019 retirement. He says Linda’s communication skills make her an especially effective presenter.

“I met Linda at a conference after being immensely impressed by her horticultural myths website, as well as her Garden Professors blog, where she provides us professionals with ammunition to shoot down unscientific practices that are all-too-often common practice,” Neil says. “And she turned out to be as impressive in person: she’s all about good, solid peer-reviewed science that is clearly presented. Linda is thorough and thoughtful, brilliantly analytical and synthesizes her ideas into coherent presentations, whether they be lectures, blog posts or print media. And she’s one of the nicest, most open-minded people you could ever want to meet. It has been my great fortune to be able to call her my friend.”

Riz Reyes, owner of RHR Horticulture & Landwave Gardens, is one of many working horticulturists who have learned from Linda.

“Linda embodies what it means to be a credible professional horticulturist today,” Riz says. “She taught me to always look at the simple science behind my work as the foundation of the art I create in a complex ecosystem of an urban landscape. She never hindered my passion and enthusiasm for rare plants and flowers, and challenged me to think critically about horticultural practices so I can better manage a team and lead as an educator.”

When Linda was asked about her thoughts on “garden hacks,” she said, “Most of them involve DIY remedies that I hate with a passion. I guess the one that is least bothersome is putting out beer for slugs. Works pretty well, generally harmless to other things and is a good use of crappy beer.”

Linda and her husband, Jim, have been married for 43 years and live and garden on the same farm she grew up on and raised their children, Charlotte and Jack. The four-legged family on the farm includes a small herd of Black Angus cattle, as well a barn cat and her five kittens that earn their keep. She also tends vegetable gardens and a 1-acre managed landscape.

Denise Schreiber is a professional horticulturist and garden writer based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

For more: gardenprofessors.com