2012: The year in review

Master Gardeners have been busy working in the gardens since early spring.  It's been a wet spring, but things are shaping up nicely. The gardens are a work in progress, as any garden should be.  We have many changes in store and hope to be able to post those for you soon.

The gardens were a big success in 2012, so before we get too far in the 2013 growing season we wanted to share with you some of the facts and photos from last year.  Public interest in backyard vegetable growing has been increasing and the gardens offer an opportunity to showcase sustainable gardening practices.

The Kitchen Garden 

The demonstration kitchen garden serves as an educational tool for the public. Master Gardeners make presentations on sustainable gardening and related topics to student groups and other visitors to the site. Volunteers made 640 public contacts in 2012.

Volunteers harvest and package seeds for sale in the Visitor Center.  Proceeds from the sales totaled $340 in 2012. This "seed money" is used to purchase supplies for the educational activities.  Food crops from the demonstration kitchen garden were donated to Milwaukie Center seniors.

Volunteers

Fifteen Master Gardeners participated in the project this year. They tallied over 80 hours of primary service in preparing for and giving presentations to student groups and to adults (Speakers' Bureau). Volunteers provided 223 support hours which involved pruning, planting, garden maintenance, watering, harvesting, and seed collection.

Heirloom Rose Garden

The heirloom rose garden at this site was researched and developed by Erica Calkins, author of Hatchet, Hands & Hoe. The garden was planted in 1992 and 1993 and is now in need of restructuring and renovation.  Northwest Rose Historians are a group of individuals dedicated to preserving our region's oldest blooms, dating from the early settlement days of the Oregon Territory.  The End of the Oregon Trail Pioneer Garden is on their list of places to see heritage and old garden roses. Members have met with Master Gardeners to provide suggestions for revitalizing the rose garden and will provide on-going consultation.    

End of the Oregon Trail: Historic Oregon City

Historic Oregon City has a goal to improve signage at the site and to provide 24/7 information to the public.  We hope to make improvements to our signage for individual plants and crops, and to provide related horticultural information via the Master Gardeners™ link on the Center's website.   A Visitor Center provides information about points of interest and events in Clackamas County and throughout Oregon.  More public events will be scheduled at the site in 2013 and there will be additional opportunities for MG volunteers to provide information to the public. 

We are looking forward to a productive year in the gardens.  If you are interested in being involved please let us know by sending us an email.