Close up of blooming pink rhododendron.

Demonstration gardens

A showcase for gardening techniques
WSU Extension > Mason County > Master Gardener Home > Educational Outreach > Demonstration Gardens
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Outdoor classrooms in Mason County

Master Gardener Mike Swartz kneeling in the garden harvesting onions.

Experience sustainable gardening firsthand in our outdoor classroom gardens. Our Mason County WSU Master Gardeners showcase techniques like water-wise landscaping, native plants, vegetable gardening, pollinator gardens, drip irrigation, and greenhouse production.

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Catalyst Park Demonstration Garden
WSU Raised Beds Demonstration Garden

Catalyst Park

799 W Harvard Ave, Shelton WA 98584
Open to the public dawn to dusk
Master Gardeners are available every Tuesday morning from 9am-12pm during the growing season, and some Saturdays. Please see the Upcoming Events list for more information.

Upcoming Events

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Close up photo of bright orange poppy blooming at Catalyst Park.

A place for all…

The Catalyst Park Demonstration Garden was created in 2009 as a collaboration between Shelton Kiwanis, WSU Mason County Master Gardeners, and the City of Shelton. Mary Ann Murray & B.J. Beatty donated the acre of land with the intention that it become a city park or community pea patch.

Over the last 16 years, the brush-covered city lot has been transformed to contain over 12,000 square feet of demonstration garden and a large community garden.

The Catalyst Dream

Overhead hand-drawn map of Catalyst Park Dream featuring different demonstration areas.

Where can we go?

The WSU Master Gardeners, with the support of the Master Gardener Foundation of Mason County, Blue Zones Activate Mason County, and the City of Shelton, have created a Dream to expand on the incredible growth that Catalyst has already experienced over the last 16 years and create a space where community members can enjoy the beauty of Mason County year-round.

Learn more about the Dream

Highlights from Catalyst Park

Handmade garden signs reading 'Arugula' and 'Peas' stand at the front of a row of planted crops.

Food Bank Garden

The food bank garden is one of the Park’s flagship demonstration areas. Our Master Gardeners work closely with Saint’s Pantry Food Bank staff to grow highly requested items and are able to donate on average 2000 pounds of produce per year! This area also serves to demonstrate organic vegetable gardening techniques.
Community gardeners and 4-H members tour the community garden overflowing with plants on a sunny day,

Community Garden

Our 24-bed community garden features different examples of raised beds to demonstrate options for various budgets, available materials, and accessibility preferences. Anyone is welcome to apply to become a community gardener and everyone is welcome at our monthly Community Garden Workshops during the growing season!
Learn more about our Community Gardens
Hillside with three levels of cinder block terracing, two sets of stairs, and a sloped pathway.

Pollinator Garden

Originally planted on the existing slope, our pollinator garden is getting a renovation thanks to a generous anonymous donation! Now, the steeply sloped area has beautiful terracing, pathways, stairs, and is currently being planted with an array of native and waterwise plants to benefit all of our pollinators.
Five volunteers smile and pose in front of newly cleared space for the native plant nursery,

Native Plant Nursery

Native plants have so many benefits for our landscapes – they provide incredible habitat, benefit pollinators, provide food, and need little to no water or fertilizer. Our new native plant nursery will showcase ways that community members can propagate native plants on their own and will produce native plants for our annual Plant Sale.
Master Gardeners in training standing in the greenhouse and learning about its uses and operations.

Greenhouse

Ever wonder where a significant portion of plants for the annual Master Gardener Plant Sale are grown? At the greenhouse! In addition to many home growers, this is the primary site used for producing all of the beautiful plants you look forward to buying each year. It is also used as an educational area for incoming Master Gardeners.
Thriving straw bale demonstration area.

Rotating Demonstrations

Along with everything else, our Master Gardeners are extremely creative and put together different rotating demonstrations. Most recently, our upper garden area featured a thriving straw bale garden (pictured above) – a great flower and vegetable gardening method for those who cannot grow in-ground or install raised beds!

WSU Raised Beds

303 N 4th St, Shelton WA 98584
We encourage you to take a look anytime you visit the Extension office or are in the area!

A small but hard working group of Master Gardeners cultivate the beds that surround the WSU Extension office. These beds have been everything from vegetable gardens to dahlias, and now feature three distinctly different examples of landscaping for different environments and purposes. Recently, our team has added signage with QR codes to provide passersby with education on many of the different plants.

Four Master Gardeners sit on edge of rock wall in front of newly installed demonstration bed.
Left to right: Master Gardeners Rena Lehmann-Bower, Kitty Lundeen-Ness, Karen Temen, and Carol Ann Acocks celebrating their hard work on the raised bed demonstration garden that surrounds the WSU office.

Highlights from the WSU Raised Beds

Bumblebee on red clover flower.

Color Garden

Located on the most sun-exposed, southern-facing side of the building, this garden features beautiful red crimson clover in the spring, followed by calendula, geraniums, and dahlias later in the season. This garden is lovely to watch throughout the season, as the flowers transition to provide habitat and food for many different species.
Newly planted drought tolerant landscaping bed with rhododendron and purple blooming heather.

Low Maintenance Garden

This corner bed, located in the southeastern corner of the building, has some areas with high sun exposure and others with deep shade. A beautifully maintained rhododendron provides cover for ferns and hydrangea, while heather and other drought-tolerant perennials soak up the sun.
Native bee enjoying purple Douglas aster flower.

Native Plant Garden

A wonderful example of what can be done with a partly shady spot, the eastern side of the building is framed by Douglas iris, lupines, honeysuckle, red flowering currant, and Douglas aster, among others! If you’re looking for a landscaping example that also takes care of the birds and the bees, this is it.