Chandler will again teach her popular short course, "How to Design and Landscape Your Yard," one of the 110 spring offerings from Duke University's Office of Continuing Education. The class will be held on five different days between April 30 and May 9.

Newcomers to the Triangle who take Chandler's course often tell her they are surprised by the soils they encounter. "They're almost in culture shock about the soil," she said. "I think that's the biggest issue. People have such a hard time with the clay here."

"We as landscapers need to lead in the direction of low-maintenance, chemical-free, water-saving designs," Chandler said. But as a self-described grass lover who grew up playing golf near Burlington, she said there is often nothing better than grass in a home landscape. "After all, you can't stroll through English ivy," she says. "Just remember that grass doesn't have to be perfect. Who cares if there's chickweed as long as the lawn is green and the space accessible."

Chandler has helped homeowners in recent years who faced new opportunities to landscape after Hurricane Floyd downed massive trees. Suddenly the sun was coming through and they had 4-foot-high weeds growing. "It was snake city" in one such yard where she served as consultant. She and business partner Deborah Eagle designed stone retainer walls, steps, a seating area and a path down to the backyard creek. In another yard, she helped the homeowner design a brick patio with planters formed against a retaining wall -- a good way to plant above the clay.

Many of Chandler's students have looked to her for help with drainage problems caused by the clay soil. Sometimes it helps to take the rainwater down just a foot or two, she says. In other situations, it may be necessary to lay pipe to take the water to another part of the yard.

Chandler brings an environmentalist's sensibilities to her class. She said she is glad to see more concern with the downstream consequences of developed yards. But she is concerned that homeowners often don't have environmentally safe options when they hit the garden centers. Recently she went to buy some grass seed and couldn't find any plain seed, minus some kind of growth regulator or herbicide.

"We're buying things and we don't know what they're doing," she says. "'Weed and feed' is a catchy name but we don't know what it does downstream."

As an alternative to pesticides, we can buy plant varieties that are less susceptible to pests, she said, giving as an example the dwarf Yaupon hollies, which resist spider mites, scale and nematodes better than the dwarf Japanese hollies or dwarf boxwoods.

The Duke Office of Continuing Education and Summer Session is also offering short courses this spring on wine appreciation, gender communications, wood-fired oven cooking, retirement planning, memoir publishing and modern-day time management, among other topics.

For more information or to receive a course catalog, contact the Duke Office of Continuing Education and Summer Session at (919) 684-6259.