Garden Ecology Lab

06/02/2026

05/24/2026

I am thrilled to share that Garden Ecology Lab alumna Jen Hayes has a paper nominated for the Environmental Entomology People's Choice Award ("Pacific Northwest native plants and native cultivars, part I: pollinator visitation") based on citations, downloads, and Altmetric scores for papers published in 2024 and 2025. The award winner will be determined through a vote by Entomological Society of America members.

In the meantime, all nominated papers are open access (via the link in this post).

https://www.entsoc.org/publications/environmental-entomology-awards

Environmental Entomology is pleased to announce the nominations for the 2026 journal awards. The award winners will receive a free publication in the journal, extra promotion of the paper through promoting the award winners, and will be featured in poster from the EE editors-in-chief at the ESA annu...

05/10/2026

Just in time to support your summer and fall gardening goals: registration for our on-demand, online gardening class is open now, with class beginning on June 15th.

Did you know that members of the Garden Ecology Lab developed and have been delivering Oregon State University's gardening class since 2008? We update course content regularly to ensure that we deliver the latest findings from OSU's horticulture research labs, as well as other leading-edge researchers in our region and beyond

Link in comments for more information.

05/02/2026

The third in a series, profiling the gardens (and the gardeners) that have been part of our research studies.

The Dedicated Community Members Who Make The Garden Ecology Lab’s Work Possibleby Anna Janowski PART 3: SHERRY SHENG From publishing educational materials to heading the Garden Ecology League, the …

04/30/2026

The research of Garden Ecology Lab graduate, Dr. Jen Hayes, was featured in this recent story about pollinators and native cultivars.

"We found that the development of native cultivars can change traits that matter to bees, even when breeders were not intentionally selecting for nectar or pollen. Plants that stayed closer to the wild-type phenotype tended to support bee communities that were more functionally rich."

Research suggests wild-type varieties better support pollinator diversity.

04/13/2026

The second in a series, profiling the gardeners and gardens involved in our past studies of garden biodiversity.

Cover photo: Garden Ecology Lab PhD student Taylor Janecek (left) and undergraduate Reed Manderfield (right) collect data in Common Ground Garden for Janecek’s PhD project. Photo credit: Sara Van D…

03/24/2026

Garden Ecology Lab M.S. student Anna Perry authored the latest Lab Report column for Pacific Horticulture, where she profiles 3 recent studies of microplastics in garden soils and plants.

https://pacifichorticulture.org/articles/lab-report-microplastics-in-gardens-and-landscaping/

Spring 2026 Plastics include a variety of common polymers. They’re found in many garden products including polyethylene sheeting, polyvinyl chloride pipes (also known as PVC),…

02/21/2026

The Garden Ecology Lab is participating in the North American panel, 2/21 at 9am PST.

02/21/2026

Garden Ecology Lab graduate student, Anna P. helped to organize this year's CAS Graduate Research Showcase. She also shared her research plans for the upcoming field season, during the event's poster session.

12/28/2025

The Clackamas County Master Gardener Association has another stellar lineup of gardening lectures planned for 2026, including one from Garden Ecology Lab affiliate, Dr. Gwynne Mhuireach (Microbiomes on grocery store-bought versus locally grown fruits and veggies), and another from Garden Ecology Lab grad student Anna Perry (Microplastics in garden soils).

• Happening in 2026 ~ a fresh collection of talks presented by interesting, local speakers. Topics range from pest problems to growing beautiful flowers in your garden.

• Stay tuned for more details in the New Year 🎉

https://clackamascountymastergardeners.org/lectures/