Demonstration
gardens

A showcase for gardening techniques

Outdoor classrooms in Pierce County

Experience sustainable gardening firsthand in our outdoor classroom gardens. Master Gardeners showcase techniques like water-wise landscaping, native plants, knot gardens, raised veggie beds, composting, containers, espaliered fruit trees, and berry patches through engaging classes and workshops.

More Information

WSU Puyallup Demonstration Garden

Located across the street from the WSU Research and Extension Center, our demonstration garden is a fun stop to tour a working garden. You can attend our free Saturday Garden Talks or just walk through and see what we’ve got growing.

Saturday Garden Talks

Location & Hours of Operation:

Open to the public: Tuesdays & Saturdays*
March through October: 9:00am to 12:00pm
* Saturdays with Youth Gardening, Garden is open only to families with Youth Attending Workshops.

Directions to Garden

Points of interest:

Urban Edibles garden

We study and demonstrate old and new gardening practices in small urban spaces, that best preserve the soil and earth. Our wide variety of edible plants grown are all donated to local food banks.

Composting demonstration area

Learn practical home garden options to produce compost and minimize yard waste to landfills.

Children’s garden

Free your imagination and explore our Magical Forest, Giant’s House, Pirate Ship, Secret Garden and marvel at unusual whimsical plants. We offer children’s programs Spring-Autumn! Check out our youth gardening page for more info.

Lawn Alternatives

The lawn alternative area demonstrates nine different types of plants you could consider instead of a turf lawn from thymes to clover, to EcoLawn mixes.  All are walkable alternatives that are pollinator friendly and, once established, require no fertilizer, supplemental watering and no/minimal mowing.

Pollinator garden

New in 2024! The pollinator garden includes educational displays with information about various solitary bees, plants the support pollinators, and a bee housing block. This year we celebrated National Pollinator Week with the opening of this new garden area.

Shade Fern garden

Reliant on form and texture. Dappled light and shadows add to its ambiance, encouraging reflection of one’s surroundings. Our shade fern garden showcases a variety of specifies that grow well in lower light.

Accessible garden beds

Raised garden beds to eliminate and minimize stooping, bending, and reaching. Come see how you can set-up an accessible garden bed at your own home, community garden, or facility.

Four Seasons garden

Fill your garden with foliage, flowers, and shape all year long. This area is the perfect place to see how to plant with spring, summer, fall, and winter in mind.

Great Plant Picks garden

Exhibits plants from the Great Plant Picks program. It is a list of out-standing ornamental plants for the maritime Pacific Northwest gardens.

Conifer garden

Small conifers and maples surround plants that thrive in a dry climate.

Gig Harbor Demonstration Garden

Our garden is located within Sehmel Homestead Park,  just past Volunteer Vern pavilion. Our mission is to highlight ways to garden in small spaces, raised beds, and containers. In addition to the demonstration garden, we also maintain a wooded native plant garden called The Heritage Garden, located nearby.

Location & Hours of Operation:

Open to the public:
Wednesdays, year round: 9:00am to 11:30am
Saturdays, 10:00am to 2:00pm April through September

Directions to Garden

Saturday Garden Talks

Points of interest:

Ask A Master Gardener clinic

On Wednesdays and Saturdays we set up an Ask A Master Gardener clinic inside our demonstration garden so that you can bring your questions and samples of problem issues for us to work through with you.

Sweet Alice apple tree

Directly across from the demo garden main gate is the Sweet Alice apple tree. It was hybridized by Seth Lewelling in the late 19^th century. He is best known for creating the Bing cherry and is known as the father of the Oregon fruit industry.

The flower wall

We’ve setup a container based flower wall garden to hide our composting area and give you some ideas of the things you can do with container plants. Check it out in the summer when it is in full flower!

Heritage Garden walking trail

A short walk from our demonstration garden is a trail where we’ve populated and signed over 30 native plants within the forest. Come enjoy a walk and learn about Pacific Northwest native plants at the same time.

Youth Garden

We run our youth gardening classes out of our demonstration gardens. We are in the process of rebuilding the area set aside for the next generation of gardeners. Stop by and check out our progress.

Raised bed veggie gardening

We demonstrate several raised bed gardening techniques in the demonstration garden, including cover crops and bunny blockers. All food grown in our beds is donated to the local food bank.

Composting Center

We recycle our garden refuse into compost. Stop by and we will be happy to show you how easy this is to do in your own yard. Improves your soil and keeps food wast out of our landfills.

Espaliered apple tree

Two in one: we can show you what a mature espaliered apple tree looks like and we put ‘footies’ on our fruit showing a chemical-free way to control pests and grow great apples.

Hugelkultur

Hugelkultur is a gardening technique that involves creating raised beds by piling up decaying wood and other compostable biomass plant materials. This method mimics natural processes and promotes sustainable gardening practices.

Hydroponic gardening

Hydroponic agriculture is a method of growing plants without soil, utilizing a water-based nutrient solution to provide essential minerals directly to the plant roots.