About

Cascara Gardens offers garden design, consultation and organic fine gardening services such as pruning, weeding, building soil health and ecologically minded clean-up. Our mission is to help our clients support biodiversity through the development of native habitat gardens that utilize ecological conscious gardening practices. We aim to transform and revolutionize residential garden design and maintenance. Our practice is to leave the leaves to protect insects and promote soil health. We mostly use hand tools and when we need extra support we use electric tools because they are quieter and there is no risk of gasoline leakage. We never use any pesticides, herbicides or fungicides.

Kendall Core (they/them) started Cascara Gardens in 2022 and for over a decade they have been researching, studying, maintaining and caring for native plants and learning gardening methods that promote biodiversity. Trained as a volunteer for Audubon Society’s Backyard Habitat Program, Kendall’s first native habitat garden design was installed in 2011 at a SE Portland residence. Soon after, they had opportunities to design other gardens and it was by observing the development of these gardens and maintaining them over the span of years that Kendall gained knowledge about plant health and development. They also worked with other professional gardeners to gain further experience as a land steward. In 2020, Kendall began working seasonally at Sauvie Island Native Nursery where they continue to expand their education with the propagation of native plants and design demo gardens on the property.

In 2013 Kendall received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Pacific Northwest College of Art where they focused on sculpture, photography and ecological art practices. In 2022 they began the Landscape Technology Program at Portland Community College to prepare for the Landscape Contractor’s License. This license will allow Cascara Gardens to add large scale garden installations to their services in the future.