Kathryn Leech, APLD
River City Gardens is a small sustainable landscape design company in Portland, Oregon. The heart of River City Gardens is Kathryn Leech, APLD, a Certified Landscape Designer with many years experience in gardening, garden design, ornamental pruning and consulting on landscape installations.
River City Gardens’ designs are influenced, as is Kathryn herself, by the beauty and serenity of the Pacific Northwest landscape—giant trees, rain, rivers, ocean and majestic sky. Our goal is to build gardens that look and feel as at home here as we do!
Professionally trained and educated
- Bachelor of Arts, Art Design; Long Beach State College, Long Beach, California
- Landscape Technology; Portland Community College, Portland, Oregon
- Pruning, Plant Growth Management; Mt. Hood Community College
- Graphics and Plan Presentation Seminar, Robin Templar Williams;
- Color Mastery, Richard E. Scott, ASLA, ASAI
- Accurate Freehand Perspective Sketching, Richard E. Scott
Professional and ethical
River City Gardens is committed to professional, high-quality design and fair, ethical business practices. To help stay informed and to facilitate interaction with other business and design professionals, Kathryn is a member of the Association of Northwest Landscape Designers, Association of Professional Landscape Designers, The Hardy Plant Society of Oregon and Oregon Tilth.
Professional certificates
APLD Certification
The Association of Professional Landscape Designers is an international professional organization the “advances landscape design as an independent profession and promotes the recognition of landscape designers as highly qualified, dedicated professionals”.
My certification (approved November 2002) involved submitting a body of work and letters of recommendation from clients and colleagues with whom I have built gardens.
Eco-Biz Certification
River City Gardens received certification in Fall 2007 from The Pollution Prevention Outreach Team, a regional muti-agency cooperative group working toward a cleaner environment.
It involved submitting a body of work that features sustainable practices and classes taken and taught that address environmental subjects.
Ms Leech was the first landscape professional to receive this certification.
Ecoroof Certification
An ecoroof consists of a layer of vegetation over a growing medium on top of a synthetic, waterproof membrane and significantly decreases stormwater runoff, saves energy, reduces pollution and erosion, and helps preserve fish habitat.
I was awarded an Ecoroof Certifcate of Completion by the City of Portland Environmental Services on June 4, 2008. The certificate acknowledges my completion of four workshops pertaining to the structure, design and materials use, maintenance and the permitting procerss for the installation of Ecoroofs.
Clean River Rewards
I have been trained by the City of Portland-sponsored stormwater retrofit program.
Besides being listed on their website as a resource for raingarden (stormwater facility) design, I am on their Clean River Rewards Professional Referral list here.
