RESOURCES

Backyard Habitat Mentor Program: Arrange for a mentor to visit your yard and offer advice on creating a wildlife-friendly habitat. Contact: 778-7105, redwards@cob.org.

Green Building resources: Sustainable Connections, 647-7093, www.sconnect.org. Events and online resource center.

Household Hazardous Waste: Disposal of Toxics, 3505 Airport Drive, 380-4640. Open: 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. first Saturday of every month. Accepts: used oil and fuel, oil-based paint and paint products, fluorescent lamps, cleaners, medications, lawn and garden chemicals, solvents, automotive products, mercury thermometers.

Does not accept: latex paint, asbestos, ammunition, radioactive waste, biomedical waste, empty containers, explosives, unapproved business waste. Residents: free (55 gallons or less). Businesses: call for authorization and pricing.

Kulshan Community Land Trust: 671-5600, www.kclt.org. Provides opportunities for low- and moderate-income people to buy homes by offering financial and educational services.

Landscaping in city right of way: To cut, plant or trim a tree that is in front of a house but in the city’s right of way, obtain a street tree permit at the Building Services Division at Bellingham City Hall. Free "Recommended Street Trees for Bellingham" handout. Master Composter/Recycler Program: 676-6736, www.whatcom.wsu.edu, then click on "Composting." Volunteers speak at garden clubs, teach at schools, run informational booths at many events as well as spearhead composting and recycling projects for neighborhoods and schools.

Master Gardener Program: Master Gardeners are available to lend helpful gardening advice. Contact: 676-6736, www.whatcom.wsu.edu/mastergardener.

Northwest Washington Fair: Second week of August. Features numerous home and garden information booths, displays and seminars. Northwest Washington Fair and Event Center, 1775 Front St., Lynden. Contact: 354-4111, www.nwwafair.com.

Recycling Hotline: 676-5723. Information on waste disposal, recycling and household hazardous waste disposal.

Yard waste: Clean Green Transfer Station, corner of Lakeway Drive and Woburn Street, 676-6850. Drop-off fee for home yard waste is $2. 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday-Sunday. Closed December-February. Accepts the following materials only: grass clippings, garden trimmings, limbs (8 inches or less in diameter and less than 7 feet in length), vines and leaves.

Does not accept: rocks, garbage, roots, root balls, lumber, construction debris, land-clearing debris or hazardous waste.

GARDENING CLASSES

Bakerview Nursery, 676-0400, www.bakerviewnursery.com.

Cloud Mountain Farm, 966-5859, www.cloudmountainfarm.com.

Garden Spot Nursery, 676-5480, www.garden-spot.com.

GARDEN CLUBS

Birchwood Garden Club, 715-9204, www.tsparks.com/bgc.

Chuckanut District Garden Club, (360) 424-8635, chuckanut@clearwire.net.

DUPI (Digger Uppers Putter Inners) Garden Club, 592-2520.

Everson Garden Club, 966-4490, 966-5874.

Komo Kulshan Chapter of the American Rhododendron Society, (360) 757-6957, snelson@cnw.com or www.flounder.ca/komokulshan.

Lynden Garden Club, 354-7659.

Mount Baker Garden Club, 752-0075.

Mt. Baker Orchid Society, mt-baker@yahoo.com.

Whatcom County Dahlia Society, 354-4346.

PUBLIC GARDENS

Big Rock Garden Park: 778-7000, www.cob.org, click on "Services," then under "Recreation" click on "Parks." Located in the Alabama Hill area, this unique city park showcases original sculptures in a 2˝-acre garden with rhododendrons, azaleas, conifers and more than 100 maple varieties.

Master Gardener demonstration garden: Hovander Homestead Park, 5299 Nielsen Road, Ferndale, 384-3444, www.co.whatcom.wa.us/parks, click on "Hovander" under "County Parks." Includes vegetables, small fruits, herbs, a weed-identification garden, native-plant garden, perennials, dahlia garden, greenhouse and drip-irrigation system. Informative signs used extensively throughout.

Tennant Lake Fragrance Garden: Tennant Lake Interpretive Center, end of Nielsen Road, Ferndale, 384-3064, www.co.whatcom.wa.us/parks/tennantlake. Touch, smell and enjoy the beauty of the over 200 plants. The raised beds are wheelchair accessible and have a unique Braille system that provides plant identification for the blind.

COMMUNITY GARDEN PLOTS

No room for a garden at home? Rent a community garden plot. For more information, call Bellingham Parks and Recreation at 778-7000. There are currently three community gardens:

• Corner of 10th Street and Wilson Avenue, Fairhaven. Year-round, organic gardening only.

• In Happy Valley, on 32nd Street near Joe’s Gardens. Year-round, organic gardening only.

• Corner of Lakeway Drive and Woburn Street. Plots for rent May-October.