PDX Farms +
Garden Troll Farm
We are excited to introduce you to our new location and your new hub for veggie starts and educational workshops on all things permaculture, gardening and art.
Veggie starts
Here at the farm our passion is to help you grow and eat as local as possible. What’s more local than from your own yard?!
Workshops
Take a workshop from one of our farmers. Learn about permaculture methods you can utilize in your garden.
landscaping/ garden design.
Let us bring the garden of your dreams into reality. From full yard makeovers to juniper raised beds, we’ve got you covered.
2023
When we first saw this property the asphalt was collapsing into the building, trash and invasive weeds were pervasive. This space was overlooked by many who came through on the bus. A space to pass by, never the destination.
2026
Now with a new retaining wall in place we were able to create an inviting outdoor amphitheater. Planted throughout we have herbs, fruiting trees, flowers and ground cover to bring back to life this forgotten industrial area of Portland. On the neighboring lot we have our greenhouse, workshop and the epic Push Movement skatepark.
Our Story
In the fall of 2023, we were presented with the opportunity to help redesign the old City Liquidators location and bring food production to SE MLK. As an edible landscaping business, we were excited and curious, but also skeptical; it was hard to imagine the transformation as we drove by the crumbling space at first.
Nonetheless, the idea of revitalizing the space and being part of the transformation on MLK between Belmont and Morrison was too good to pass up. The area is often referred to as “Produce Row,” where farmers for generations have delivered their crops. Hence, Garden Troll Farm was born.
Our mission was to redesign the space to function as an outdoor event space. You may not know this, but Portland was built on a watershed; many of the buildings you see today are sitting above flowing water. This was never more apparent than with the collapsing retaining wall on site. This presented some challenges, such as really wet winters followed by increasingly hot summers.
The design of the outdoor amphitheater serves multiple fronts to these issues. Giant boulders and a new retaining wall help hold back soil erosion in the winter, while our rainwater catchment captures what normally would run off into the sewer. Our plantings around the amphitheater not only provide a beautiful ambiance to the space, but also serve an educational purpose by modeling what can be grown in today’s climate. Trees such as olives and elderberries provide food and shade to the space while creating a drought-tolerant environment when it matters most.
It’s been a long journey to get here, but we made it!
Partnering with Push Movement, this space has become a micro-nursery/educational garden on the outside and an indoor skate park below. It is a unique combo, if we do say so ourselves.
Garden Troll Farm allows us to meet our mission of creating greater access to organic veggies for people in the Portland area, while weaving together a connection between the farming, education and community building.
Food matters and so should how it’s grown.
Big box stores don’t care about where and what conditions your plant starts are in as long as you buy them. You never know where they came from or what fertilizers were added before you bought it.
At Garden Troll Farm our starts are 100% organic and adapted to our Portland climate for your best success at growing your own food.
Check out our plant library and let us help you grow the food you deserve!
library coming soon!
