Glean landscape tips at annual Garden Fair

Finding a new garden is always a treat, and here's another one you do not want to miss.

Although it is not a large garden, I enjoy visiting it whenever I get a chance.

The Paul Rasmussen Teaching Garden at the Utah Botanical Center in Kaysville honors the recently retired director of the Utah Agricultural Experiment Station.

The garden focuses on wise use of resources, including water. As the name implies, it features different plants so students can learn the best plants for Utah conditions. It also supports the ongoing mission of the UBC, as it will be used for different functions. The garden was designed by Anne Spranger, UBC gardens manager, and it consists of a series of planting islands or beds bordered by gravel pathways and framed by arbors on opposite ends.

The central point in the garden is a beautiful water feature, and each of the island beds is designed to be viewed from different directions to allow good access to the plants for students and garden visitors.

This week is the perfect time to visit the garden as the UBC holds its fifth Garden Fair.

Staff members and volunteers will be on hand to answer questions and help you select plants for your own garden.

As an added bonus, they will help you incorporate some of the many water-wise plants they are offering for sale at the fair.

Bring a landscape plan and/or pictures of your home for best results. You can also enter to win a water-wise starter plant package.

Richard M. Anderson, nursery manager at the center, has selected several perennials, shrubs and trees to feature at this year's sale.

They include some of the following selections, and many are planted in the teaching garden.

One of my favorite water-wise plants is the showy ninebark shrub.

Ninebark is a native Utah plant found in the mountains. When I first learned of this plant several decades ago, I thought someone should introduce it into the landscape trade.

There are several cultivars now available, including "Summer Wine" and "Diablo," which feature dark purple leaves, "Coppertina" with its copper leaves that turn to red, and "Dart's Gold" and "Nugget" with lime green color on the mature leaves.

Numerous water-wise perennials are showing their colors right now.