Gardening experts and celebrity chefs team up during the ”GARDENS OF EATIN” seminar, when they’ll explain how to grow and prepare delicious, edible plants. Then you’ll learn about food to grill, unusual herbs, local berries and flower drinks. Metro sponsors the seminar.

During “Grow a golf course-quality lawn,” you’ll learn from golf-course superintendents how you can grow a green “green” lawn without using products that could harm your family, pets, wildlife, local rivers or streams. Topics to be covered include irrigation, soil fertility, mowing, top dressing, and pest and weed management. Metro sponsors the seminar.

If East meets West in your interiors, come hear how the Japanese aesthetic became popular in the U.S. during the last part of the 19th century at the lecture called “the rose and the Chrysanthemum: Japanese Influence on Northwest architecture.” Oregon Home sponsors the talk, which architectural historian Jack Bookwalter will deliver.

Get your hands and feet dirty making and applying earthen paints, plasters and floors during this Earthen plasters, paints & floors three-day workshop. You’ll work with base and finish, interior and exterior plasters. You’ll apply natural paints, pour an earthen floor, and learn about lime plasters and the use of art made from earth materials. A tour of a finished natural home concludes the workshop, when you’ll
also be given detailed instructions and recipes for using the techniques you’ve learned at the workshop in your own home.

In master cabinet and furnituremaker Dan Biasca’s “WOODEN KITCHENWARE” class, you’ll use hand tools to make a beautiful set of wooden salad utensils. After you complete that project, you can also make a wooden towel rack.

Find out about new materials and products at Neil Kelly’s REMODELING
SEMINARS, where design pros will lead you through different aspects of remodeling at Neil Kelly showrooms in the Portland-metro area and in Eugene, Ore.

What’s not to like about a porch? Throw in a porch swing and you’re in heaven. By bridging indoors and out, the porch connects with your neighbors and your street. During the “HISTORIC PORCHES OF PORTLAND” talk, Jack Bookwalter and Jane Morrison will discuss the history of the American porch and explain the role it plays in society.

In the early 20th century, building houses on spec became a trend. During the “FROM SPECULATION TO PRESERVATION: RICE BROS’ CRAFTSMAN HOMES IN IRVINGTON” lecture, historic-preservation consultants Kimberli Fitzgerald and Amy McFeeters-Krone will discuss the architecture of Robert and Archie Rice, the contractors who used plans from Craftsman magazine and other sources to design their homes, many of which are in Portland’s Irvington neighborhood.

In the United States, green buildings are attracting the attention of architects, builders, public officials, environmentalists and homeowners, as they come to realize the important role historic buildings play in sustainable development.

It’s the personal touches that make your home unique. In “ACCESSORIZING,” a Portland Community College class that interior designer Pamela Sandall teaches, you’ll learn professional tips on creating visual impact, with a special focus on window dressing.