Spring is here, and this is our favorite time of the year!
Even though the temperatures can vary in Portland you can get a lot of veggies in the ground. This is the ideal time to plant your potatoes, brassicas and onions in the ground. I like to get creative with how I plant my potatoes, using burlap coffee bags can be a fun, innovative way to grow your potatoes. This is also my favorite time to be planting as many greens as possible, as they seem to taste the best in the Spring. With the sometimes cool spring, having a cold frame or a hoop house can still be useful as the nights can still be cool.
Here at PDX.FARM we are busy building raised beds, pruning fruit trees and getting veggies in the ground. We are also helping people feel more confident in growing their own vegetables through consulting and coaching. We find that it is important for everyone to be knowledgeable, confident and able to grow as much food in their own backyard as they want. We help test your garden soil, come up with recommendations for how to build up your soil and what amendments to add. We are also happy to deliver compost to our clients. In addition, we love teaching people how to prune their fruit trees, as it can be a challenging experience to improve production or trouble shoot diseases.
If you are looking for veggie starts to go in your raised beds and you are not sure where to get the best starts, we recommend Naomi’s Organic Farm Supply store located 34th and Powell, or one of our favorite local spots is at Marisha Auerbach’s urban farm (check out permaculturerising.com for more info). Marisha is a permaculture teacher who has her own nursery in her front yard and has plant sales on the weekends throughout the Spring. We will always keep you posted when she is selling her starts. Portland Nursery and One Green World are also great options for getting starts and fruit trees.
A helpful guide to planting your veggies during the growing season is the Portland Nursery’s Veggie calendar https://portlandnursery.com/docs/veggies/VeggieCalendar.pdf We recommend keeping this guide on your refrigerator!
If you are looking to setup a veggie garden and need help getting it started, PDX.FARM helps design growing spaces so you can get the most production in your garden. We also build raised beds if needed, as a lot of the soil in Portland is not conducive to a thriving veggie garden unless the soil has been amended. Raised beds built at least 12 inches high can offer a jump start to your veggie garden. We build our raised beds out of Juniper and source the lumber from Terry Campbell at Sustainable NW Wood, a sustainable lumber source. Juniper has the added benefit of not rotting as fast as cedar. We have a great team to build raised beds and install them into your yard so that you can have fun growing veggies in your backyard.
So cheers to another Spring and we’re looking forward to seeing you in the garden!
