● About Devil’s Club, akaAlaskan Ginseng
Oplopanax horridus
Devil’s Club
A magnificent plant native to the Pacific Northwest. It has medicinal roots, poisonous berries and sharp spines. It forms dense communities underground through rhizomes, protecting the rivers and hillsides from erosion. The majority of Devil’s Club grows on the west coast of North America, but there is also a small population in Michigan on the islands of Lake Superior.
Oplopanax horridus
● infoGuiding Principles
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Respect the land
Respect your elders! We’re some of the newest additions to this landscape, and all of the organisms that were here before us, or evolved alongside us, have something to teach us.
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Give back to the soil
Gardening shouldn’t strip the soil and leave it bare for the next inhabitants (or the current ones!). Regenerative practices and responsible landscaping preserve the whole ecosystem, including the soil.
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Education
I am always learning through experience, classes, and my clients! I love sharing what I know with whoever wants to know it.
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Honesty and Transparency
Ask me anything! I provide quality services with pricing that makes sense. We all work hard for our money, so I always take budgets and client requests seriously.
Meet Lia
Devil’s Club and I have the same native range - the PNW and the Great Lakes. I lived/worked in and around Detroit until early 2020, when the world shut down and I was suddenly without work for the first time in 10 years. I drove to Oregon that summer and have lived in SE Portland since. After several years working in horticulture, I didn’t understand why so many of the plants in the trade were imported, non-native, or just straightforwardly invasive. Devil’s Club is my way of doing a little urban restoration; not only for the plants and creatures that need them, but for people, too. We are stewards of our land, not the first and far from the last, and hopefully we can leave it a little better than we found it.
The Devil’s Club official mascot, Miso