Spring is always a busy season for gardeners, but my landmate Emily outdid herself this year. If you have had a chance to visit, you no doubt admired Emily's work. She is an artist and a gardener — a garden artist. She can spot shot weed from 15' away, build garden structures with what's on hand, and has decades of experience growing food in Oregon. We are going to have quite the harvest this year thanks to her efforts this spring. Frog Pond Installation One day in Februar

for Portland, Oregon Making a Garden Buzz When I first started growing vegetables, I planted in rows and blocks and added sunflowers and marigolds to attract pollinators and deter pests, and one narrow row of wildflowers. My garden still had pests. Not a lot, but aphids were problematic enough that I stopped growing brassicas in warm months and embraced overwintering broccoli, cabbage, and kale. Eight years ago, I began shifting my focus, adding fruit trees, shrubs, herbs, an

I've put together a sowing planner for 2026 based on the seed catalog at East PDX Plant Club. You can download a copy to modify and save for your use. Spring Sowing and Fall & Overwinter Sowing tabs. Each crop has: what to sow and when, best sow time (spring vs. fall vs. both, and which is primary), sowing rationale, succession interval and notes, weeks to transplant, and date columns where you enter your sow date and the transplant and expected harvest dates calculate aut

The Case for Pacific Rim Vegetables in the PNW When I moved to Portland from Maryland in 1996, I did what any reasonable person does: I planted the vegetables I grew up with. Part of the pantry my grandmother, Anna Bell Doll Musser, put up in circa 1942. Tomatoes. Bell peppers. Broccoli. Green beans. Big fruiting crops meant to ripen all at once, because that's how gardening worked where I came from. My father grew up on a farm in Pennsylvania and he and my mom gardened inten