Food Forest, Medicine Garden, Cut Flower Garden in North Gresham

Food Forest, Medicine Garden, Cut Flower Garden in North Gresham

This 1/3 acre property is now packed with 46 different species of food, medicinals, natives, and cut flowers. You can expect to brush up against swaths of hyssop, yarrow, dahlias, lupine, and sunflowers under established canopies of figs, elderberries, boysenberries, grapes, rhododendron, and dogwood. With the diversity of plant and wildlife diversity now found in this urban lot, this garden has become a main hub for sampling and documenting bee and insect populations in 2024.

We were grateful to come into stewardship of this land in February 2024 with the yard having being heavily wood chipped for the last 9 years, making for some amazing soil conditions. Most of the plants present prior to this year were the higher canopy perennials listed above. We have a slight slope and thus made beds by creating swales on contour with logs anchoring the downslope. [Plant List Below]

March 2024

September 2024

 

April 2024                                                      September 2024

                 June 2024                                                Planting day!

September 2024

        June 2024                                             September 2024

        July 2024                                             September 2024

   Harvesting Blue Elderberries              Last remnants of lawn have self heal & clover           

Bee mimic on meadow arnica flower

Orange Belted Bumble on Rhodedendron

Big yellow faced bumble on Nootka rose

I use the specimens found in this and other gardens to educate youth during educational camps throughout the year.

Plant List: Blue elderberry, Black elderberry, Nootka rose, Coreopsis, Red flowering currant, Hibiscus rose of Sharon, Black fig, Green fig, Sunflower, Yarrow, Zinnia, Dahlia, Borage, Calendula, Fennel, Rhododendron, Boysenberry, Zucchini, Melon, Apple, Hyssop, Echinacea, Lavender, Russian Sage, Milkweed, Lambs Ear, Lingonberry, Sword Fern, Lupine, Meadow Arnica, Grape, Lettuce, Vine Maple, Huckleberry, Bracken Fern, Oregon Tea Tree, Blueberry, Comfrey, Douglas Aster, Clary Sage, Elecampane, Self Heal, Dutch Clover, Valerian, Veronica

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