Growing through the winter

Learn tricks for growing veggies and herbs through the winter at the Campbell Community Garden.

Join Sarah Smith (The Gardensmith Landscape Design and Campbell Garden director) at a winter growing class, this Sunday, October 19th, at  2pm

At the class you will learn what has and has not worked for us in our Milwaukie area garden, how to build a simple, inexpensive, cover to protect plants through at least the milder parts of winter, and how to get a jump on spring growing. The class will include handouts and a tour of the garden.

The Campbell Garden, Winter 2013. Soon after this snow storm, we harvested kale, chard, and lettuce!

We are entering our third winter gardening at the Campbell Community Garden and are looking forward to applying what we have learned in past seasons to an excellent winter harvest in 2015. Through our Harvest Sharing Program, we have donated 1,324 pounds of produce from the garden this year; we probably won't meet our goal of 2,000 pounds before December 31st, however we may be close!

Winter Growing Class

• Sunday October  19th
• 2pm to 3pm, (Stay after to help plant kale in our Harvest Sharing Garden)
• At the Campbell Community Garden (park at SE 47th & Adams Street and walk down the alley)
• This class will be held rain or shine -winter gardening can be wet!
• If you want to sit, please bring a folding chair.
• Free with a suggested donation of one packet of seeds (radish, carrot, and cilantro seeds are most needed), or a roll of Velcro plant tie, jute twine, or blank plant tags, or a jar of peanut butter for our neighborhood food drive. 

RSVP's are requested, please click here to fill out our RSVP form.

Questions? call Sarah Smith 503-653-0015

Gardens For Rent!

There are a few open garden plots for the 2015 growing season.

Why start a garden in the fall? 

• Rent a garden now and get a jump on spring.
• Fall and winter gardens are at a slower pace than spring and summer gardens - a great time for beginners to learn!
• Kale TASTES best in the cool season
• Rent paid now at the CCG will extend through 2015...15 months for the price of 12!
• Some of our open gardens are already planted...instant harvest!

4 foot x 12 foot gardens are $30 for the year
10 foot x 10 foot gardens are $40 per year

We tend our gardens organically, using natural gardening techniques. If you want to grow your own food, please join us! Call Sarah Smith for more information: 503-653-0015 or register on the "gardens for Rent" tab.

August Garden Photos

The Campbell Community Garden is thriving!

Gardeners, tending their plots

The garden in August 2014

The garden at dusk after tomato harvesting 

Tour the Campbell Community Garden

The Campbell Community Garden will be on the Better Living Garden Tour and Art Fair this coming Saturday, June 21^st. Five other gardens on the tour include Risley Landing Gardens along the Willamette River, three private gardens, and the gardens of Oatfield Estates, an assisted living facility devoted to horticultural therapy – 7 acres with fruit trees, native plants, raised vegetable gardens, and chickens!

Tickets are $10 each, and the proceeds benefit the Sara Hite Memorial Rose Garden at North Clackamas Park. Purchase tickets the morning of the tour at North Clackamas Park on SE Rusk Road off of HWY 224. This is where the art fair will be held, and if you want to meet up and carpool, there is plenty of parking at the park.

The Clackamas Review wrote a nice article about the garden and the tour, you can read it at this link: Tour Local Garden in Full Bloom

See our newly constructed blueberry beds on the tour! Thanks to Parr Lumber in Raleigh Hills for helping us with the cedar boards!

Gardens For Rent!

There are a few open garden plots for the 2014 growing season.

Small 4 foot x 12 foot gardens are $30 for the year
Medium 10 foot x 10 foot gardens are $40 per year
Large gardens are all full.

We tend our gardens organically, using natural gardening techniques. If you want to grow your own food, please join us! Call Sarah Smith for more information: 503-653-0015 or register on the "gardens for Rent" tab.

Campbell Community Garden, late summer 2013

Spring is here!

Our last post was about snow, this post celebrates the 35 pounds of greens, herbs, an rhubarb we harvested and donated today!

Chard and other greens in one of our hoop covered plots, before harvesting

Chard after harvesting. Look at those bright stems! Would kids eat pink stemmed chard?

The wheel barrow loaded with the days harvest, 35 pounds!

February Lettuce

Gardeners at the Campbell Community Garden are encouraged to grow  the year-round. Some years winter gardens are surprisingly fruitful, other years they are quite the challenge.

The garden covered in snow, February 7, 2014

The 2013 - 2014 winter has been a challenging one! We had a big freeze in early December that wiped out our peas just as they were starting to set pods, the row was covered with fleece, but that just wasn't enough protection. The lettuce bed was covered with plastic, so it was a bit warmer, however the cold killed most all of our lettuce transplants (donated to us by Yard 'n Garden Land ). The lettuce seedlings sown mid October came through just fine.

Crispy Winter Greens, seeds donated to us by Renee's Garden

In anticipation of the big freeze of February we cut the surviving lettuce to donate to Esther's Pantry food bank on February 5th, our first donation of 2014! While the donation was small, it was outstanding: 2 pounds of pristine lettuce greens, 1 pound of cilantro, and 1 pound of assorted dried herbs (from the fall garden).

Cilantro, grown from seed saved in the garden.

Mix of cut lettuce leaves, seeds donated to us by Renee's Garden, grown organically and donated to a food bank (Esther's Pantry, just over one mile away from the garden!)