The Boise Eliot Native Grove on N Ivy St. is transforming an unimproved right-of-way into a native plant and pollinator grove. Situated just to the north of the Fremont Bridge ramp, the land is owned by Portland Bureau of Transportation but cannot be developed due to a number of utilities running underneath.
Community gardens and cooperative gardens, despite sounding like they offer the same service, differ in essential ways. Community gardens rent plots of land to individuals and those individuals tend to their plot and only to their plot. In a cooperative garden, members share the plots. That means making decisions, planting, and harvesting food together.
Continue reading Albina Cooperative Garden Seeks New Members
Congratulations to Ashley Berry, the winner of the fall photo contest! These were all taken at the Garlington Wellness Garden, which is adjacent to NE Morris St. and MLK Jr. Blvd, in the Garlington Center. They are very proud of the harvests this year and are happy to be a part of the neighborhood!
Eliot is home to two cooperative gardens offering opportunities to learn how to grow amazing produce, meet wonderful neighbors, reap the benefits of the harvest, as well as give back to your neighbors in need. Unlike community gardens, where everyone has separate plots which are rented for a fee and planted, tended and harvested by the individual gardener, in cooperative gardens members make decisions, work, plant and harvest together.
By Lindsey Berman
Landscapes add value, beauty and livability to our homes. With water use often doubling in the dry summer months due to outdoor watering, lawns and gardens also offer great potential to save time, money and water by making simple waterwise improvements.
In the Portland area, we receive 90 percent of our rainfall October through May. That means we use the most water during the very same months that we get the least rain. Being efficient with your water use makes sound economic and environmental sense, and helps our region meet its long-term water supply needs.
You have probably heard “The Joy of Gardening” in radio and TV commercials for a local department store or seen the book by the same name. Sometimes, I question that joy! I tell myself “gardening IS fun and rewarding.” However there is also that constant war of you versus what seems like everything else trying to destroy your garden. Between the dog digging, the chickens scratching, aphids eating, squirrels burying, and mother nature’s unpredictable weather there are challenges. A few years ago I discovered yet another big enemy – the wireworm.
By Lindsey Berman
Many of us have ignored the sound of a trickling stream coming from our toilet, or maybe we’ve chosen to overlook those small, slow drips from a bathroom faucet or kitchen sink. After all, how much water do they really waste?
By Rose Kelsch
One of the things that makes Eliot such a great place to live is our beautiful lawns and gardens. Local residents also have a strong commitment to preserving the community’s natural resources, and we frequently hear from Eliot gardeners who are looking for new and better ways to save water while keeping their gardens green and healthy in the dry summer months.
Good news: the Regional Water Providers Consortium has some great free resources to help Eliot residents do just that.
Over the last several years Portland has undergone a transformation of sorts with city dwellers getting creative in how they Urban Farm. Many have created their own garden boxes to grow organic vegetables, planted fruit trees in their yards and parking strips, and added berry bushes to their landscaping, all using compost they’re making from kitchen and yard scraps. The latest trend is keeping chickens in the city.
Did you know water usage in the Portland Metro area can more than double and even triple during the summer months? We Oregonians work hard to keep our lawns and gardens green in hot and dry weather. Many of us have heard the advice to water our lawn about an inch a week – and more during hotter weather – but few of us actually know what that means. In fact, many people actually over-water their lawns without realizing it.
At the first signs of spring when the crocuses and daffodils poke their heads up, my husband gets excited about starting to plant his “farm” as we like to call it. He scours seed catalogs reading all about the new varieties of heirlooms available. We make the first of many quick trips to Livingscape Nursery, just north of NE Freemont on N Vancouver Ave. They carry our favorite brand of seeds, Territorial Seed Company, lots of plants, flowers, fruit trees, and baby chickens which are always fun to see.
Port City Development will plant a vegetable garden this spring on a vacant lot near Williams and Tillamook. The half-acre lot is being loaned free-of-charge by Jim Howell, a retired architect and building planner. Port City Development is a non-profit organization in Eliot that serves adults with developmental disabilities.
Eliot Neighborhood 