Meet Karen Travillo
Landscaping Camp Presentation
"Attractive Noninvasive Vines"
Karen Travillo was born and raised in Texas, and graduated from Lamar University with a degree in Education and a minor in Art. She taught gifted students in elementary and middle school while always pursuing her love of art, design and gardening. She and her husband retired to Oxford to be closer to their children and four precious grandchildren, and that’s when she decided to become a certified Master Gardener in Lafayette County. Karen will be teaching us about what vines, you'd like to grow in your yard without them taking over.
Karen currently serves as Vice President of the group, and has given gardening presentations to Master Gardeners and local civic groups. She has also participated in a Gardening Podcast through the Ole Miss library and writes a monthly Gardening Tips article for the Newcomers Newsletter and the Master Gardener website. Helping homeowners solve their gardening issues through the Master Gardener home consult program is also one of her favorite activities. Karen’s artistic background and her love of color, texture and design have the most influence on her landscaping plans. Just like with most paintings, she has an overall vision for the intended outcome but allows the process to evolve as she tries different plants according to size, growth patterns, texture and the color of their leaves and flowers.
Some of Karen’s earliest memories are of trailing along behind her grandmother as she cared for her beautiful flower and vegetable gardens. The sweet memories and love for her grandmother helped fuel her passion for gardening. One spring, years after her grandmother passed away and her old Victorian home was demolished, Karen paid a visit to the overgrown lot in East Texas. As she traced the brick outline of what had once been the border of her MeeMaw’s well-tended flower bed, she discovered her grandmother’s irises faithfully blooming decades after they were planted. Karen always felt that this was a final gift from her grandmother, and she has planted them at every home she’s lived in since their discovery. Karen, her husband Jim, and Lizzie Lou, their sweet but bossy thirteen-year-old Jack Russell terrier, along with her grandmother’s irises, are all happy and thriving in Oxford, Mississippi!
Below are photos of Karen's beautifully landscaped yard, her artistic design at work.
