By Erika Weisensee
The Portland Upside
July 2009
The Portland Upside
July 2009
Photo by Rob Bednark
In the heart of Southwest Portland is an urban oasis known as Gabriel Park. Sprawling for more than 90 acres, seeing it all requires a lot of time and a good pair of shoes. From walking trails to a skate park, from tennis courts to baseball and soccer fields, Gabriel Park has something for almost everyone.
Arguably the prettiest spot in the park is the Gabriel Park Community Garden, which stretches like a green patchwork quilt across a sunny slope at the park’s south end.
Gabriel Park’s garden is one of 32 organized by the City of Portland’s Community Garden Program. Because Gabriel Park’s garden was started in 1975, some of its gardeners have had their plots for 10, 15 and even 20 years. Interest in the program is at an all-time high, according to program manager Leslie Pohl-Kosbau. Twelve hundred people are currently on the waiting list for gardens located throughout the city. Because the community garden program is affordable ($75 per year for a 20’ x 20’ plot and $38 for a 10’ x 20’ plot), the program is ideal for people of numerous income levels, for families living in apartments, and for seniors who have downsized to apartments or retirement homes. And when you visit Gabriel Park’s garden, you realize it is truly a community of many types of people.
When I visited the garden in late May, I was greeted by two retired women sitting near a plot cultivated mostly with cutting flowers. I noticed a mother working in her plot with a small boy. And I saw many people gardening alone. Of course, they weren’t really alone. Constant company is one of the many benefits of community gardening.
While looking over the garden’s fence, I met Dave Lee. He invited me in for a personal tour. Lee shares a 20’ x 20’ plot with his wife, Linda, and another couple. Dave, a high-tech writer, and Linda, a massage therapist, live in a condo and don’t have enough space or sunlight for a garden at home, he explained.
In their third year at the garden, the Lees have a neatly designed plot producing a healthy assortment of vegetables, herbs, and some fruit. Their plot is so bountiful that they end up giving what they can’t use to friends, family members and local food banks. Others do the same, Lee says.
As for the “community” part of the garden, Lee says it’s real. The garden has social events and harvest parties. People become friends.
“We give each other pointers all of the time,” he says.
Before I left the garden, Lee graciously answered a couple of my questions about growing tomatoes and strawberries. As I walked away, I knew I had visited a special place—a place that grows food, and a whole lot more.
_____
For more information on The City of Portland’s Community Gardens program visit www.tinyurl.com/pdx-com-gardens
Erika is a writing mom. She lives in Milwaukie and teaches writing at the University of Portland.
Arguably the prettiest spot in the park is the Gabriel Park Community Garden, which stretches like a green patchwork quilt across a sunny slope at the park’s south end.
Gabriel Park’s garden is one of 32 organized by the City of Portland’s Community Garden Program. Because Gabriel Park’s garden was started in 1975, some of its gardeners have had their plots for 10, 15 and even 20 years. Interest in the program is at an all-time high, according to program manager Leslie Pohl-Kosbau. Twelve hundred people are currently on the waiting list for gardens located throughout the city. Because the community garden program is affordable ($75 per year for a 20’ x 20’ plot and $38 for a 10’ x 20’ plot), the program is ideal for people of numerous income levels, for families living in apartments, and for seniors who have downsized to apartments or retirement homes. And when you visit Gabriel Park’s garden, you realize it is truly a community of many types of people.
When I visited the garden in late May, I was greeted by two retired women sitting near a plot cultivated mostly with cutting flowers. I noticed a mother working in her plot with a small boy. And I saw many people gardening alone. Of course, they weren’t really alone. Constant company is one of the many benefits of community gardening.
While looking over the garden’s fence, I met Dave Lee. He invited me in for a personal tour. Lee shares a 20’ x 20’ plot with his wife, Linda, and another couple. Dave, a high-tech writer, and Linda, a massage therapist, live in a condo and don’t have enough space or sunlight for a garden at home, he explained.
In their third year at the garden, the Lees have a neatly designed plot producing a healthy assortment of vegetables, herbs, and some fruit. Their plot is so bountiful that they end up giving what they can’t use to friends, family members and local food banks. Others do the same, Lee says.
As for the “community” part of the garden, Lee says it’s real. The garden has social events and harvest parties. People become friends.
“We give each other pointers all of the time,” he says.
Before I left the garden, Lee graciously answered a couple of my questions about growing tomatoes and strawberries. As I walked away, I knew I had visited a special place—a place that grows food, and a whole lot more.
_____
For more information on The City of Portland’s Community Gardens program visit www.tinyurl.com/pdx-com-gardens
Erika is a writing mom. She lives in Milwaukie and teaches writing at the University of Portland.
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