Demonstration gardens across Oregon

The OSU Extension Benton County Master Gardeners have created two beautiful landscape areas at the Benton County Fairgrounds entrance: A Xeriscape garden and A Pollinator Garden. These two gardens compliment their existing Demonstration Garden and we hope that they can serve as inspiration for your own home landscape. They are located by the south entrance to the Fairgrounds, 110 SW 53rd St. in Corvallis. Full planting lists for the gardens are on our website.

The Learning Garden features eleven different garden features that are used to teach gardening techniques to the community. Areas include a curb garden, compost demonstration, herb garden, shed garden, ecolawn, native plant garden, bioswales, brick fountain, Japanese Heritage Garden, and ornamental grass-scape. It is located on the grounds surrounding the OSU Extension office in Hood River at 2990 Experiment Station Rd. The garden is open to the public. Visitors are welcome to take a self-guided tour of the gardens at any time during daylight hours. Visit our website to see videos and download brochures for all of the different gardens at The Learning Garden.

This peaceful place, with its gentle vista of hills and orchards, honors the important role of the Japanese American community in the development of agriculture in the Hood River Valley. This site is particularly significant as it looks out upon lands which the Issei, the first generation Japanese settlers, were instrumental in developing. Inspired by the amazing but little-known gardens created in the stark desolation of the World War II Japanese internment camps, this restful place represents the Hood River community’s desire to recognize in a permanent and public way the grave injustice of the forced relocation of over 500 Japanese adults and their American citizen children from this valley from 1942 to 1946. Little has been written about the significant role of gardens in the life of the internment camps where few outsiders were allowed and cameras were forbidden. However, the spontaneous creation of both ornamental and edible gardens were expressions of ethnic identity and beauty that represented steps toward personal and community healing. For the gardeners, the process offered an unusual measure of freedom in a constricted setting. The gardens allowed them to express their cultural values of hard work and the desire to improve their surroundings, values that the Hood River Japanese community has contributed so productively to the development of this valley for 100 years. Read more about the features of this garden and its history at our website.

OSU Extension Master Gardener volunteers designed, installed and help to maintain a low water garden at the Hood River County Library. Visit the library to learn see what a waterwise garden looks like, and to view the plants across seasons.

Central Gorge Master Gardeners work in partnership with FISH volunteers at this food bank garden. They lead work parties from soil prep through harvest and garden clean-up. Educational features, including a kiosk and informational signage, are being added to help visitors see and learn on-site about growing food. The vibrant and productive garden is also home to hands-on demonstrations and classes. Learn more on our website.

Referred to as a "hidden gem right in the middle of Parkdale" this garden is a community partnership of the Parkdale Garden Club, Parkdale Grange and Hood River County Extension Master Gardeners. Learn more about the special history of this garden.

This garden was started in 1992-1993, with plantings of heirloom roses and vegetables. After initial development, funds fell short. The vegetable gardens were plowed up, and the roses lost their identification tags.

In 2004, Clackamas County Master Gardeners were asked to assist. A dedicated group of Master Gardener volunteers reestablished the vegetable garden, planted several heirloom fruit trees and grapes, and rejuvenated the rose garden.

Today, the Garden showcases many varieties of fruits, vegetables and flowers of the 1860’s, when pioneers made their way west. Master Gardeners harvest and package seeds to sell at the Visitor Center. Proceeds augment the Clackamas County Master Gardener Association's funding for tools and seeds that are used to maintain this Garden.

Master Gardeners are in the garden biweekly April – October. Workdays are every other Wednesday morning from 10 am to noon. Work schedules may change due to extreme weather. Learn more.

This 5000 square foot vegetable garden is a project of the Clackamas County Master Gardener Association. Located at a large community garden site, all produce harvested from this garden is donated to area food pantries. Although the primary goal of this garden is to produce vegetables for donation, it has a demonstration element as well. The public is welcome to visit to view the various sustainable gardening methods utilized to grow bountiful crops of vegetables.

This is an organic garden that does not use herbicides or insecticides. Garden features include: composting, organic gardening, insectary garden (planned), herbs and vegetables.”

OSU Extension Master Gardeners are at the garden on Tuesday and Friday morning from April through mid-October.

The gardens, which were started in 1998 by the Clatsop County Master Gardeners, are located at the public entrance to the Clatsop County Fairgrounds. In the garden we feature a cutting garden, vegetable beds, straw bale garden, plants for shade, herbs, vertical gardening, containers, berries, ornamental trees, conifers, annual borders and ground covers. Workshops and classes are held for the public and Master Gardeners. Learn more.

The Clatsop County Master Gardeners designed, installed and help to maintain an award-winning Pet-Friendly Demonstration garden at the Clatsop County Animal Shelter. Master Gardeners do not staff this garden. However, literature is available to help families - looking to adopt a pet - to learn more about landscaping techniques that are safe for pets. Families can also learn about plants that are poisonous to pets, and should be avoided. Learn more.

Alderbrook Learning Garden is a teaching garden for organic vegetables and fruit, pollinators, and composting, while donating all fresh produce to local food pantries. Learn more.

This garden was focused on vegetable growing with a few annual flower blocks. There were experiments with "Walls of Water", new at that time, and various trellis concepts.

The garden was grown organically for the first several years and the produce went to food pantries in the area. The Master Gardeners knew that the soil wasn't perfect, but a very wet spring in 1991 demonstrated that raised beds were critical to have a garden suitable for fairgoers by mid-July. Annual tillage stopped. The favorite bed for the public that wet year was a failed corn planting where the Columbia County Master Gardeners labeled the weeds.

Since then, the garden evolved to a series of raised beds with the rest of the garden devoted to woody small fruits, some trellised tree fruits, several herb beds, and roses. A shade garden planting, a perennial flower bed, a scattering of other interesting plants, an ornamental grass bed, and a compost display.

The demonstration character of the garden changes from year to year with most of the experiments focused on vegetable variety and production techniques in the raised beds.

The Columbia County Master Gardeners work hard to make an attractive garden with a good educational content. The Master Gardeners host an annual pruning demonstration. Every other year, a seminar is held on adding spring heat to vegetables (known locally as the "Melon Madness" event).

The garden is available for public, self-guided tours whenever the Fairgrounds are open (weekdays and some weekends).

The Good Earth Community Garden is a satellite garden of the non-profit South Coast Community Garden Association. The SCCGA received non-profit 501(c)3 status with the IRS in June of 2006. Their mission is to provide guidelines and support for the establishment of community gardens on the southern coast of Oregon. Coos County Master Gardeners have demonstration/educational beds and also do educational classes throughout the growing season.

Lady Bug Landing is part of a group of Community Gardens in Coos County, located 2 blocks from downtown Coos Bay. There are 60 garden plots, 12 of which are handicap accessible, that are used by the public for a small fee. It costs $10 a year to be a member and then an additional $10 per garden plot.

The plots are all 4’ x 12’ and the gardens are open from February 1-December 1. When the garden reopens, each February, the plots are available on a first come, first served basis. Applications for the new garden year are available January 2nd. The garden is always open for the public to come in and look.

The Coos County Master Gardener beds located on the inner and outer perimeter of the garden. On the outside perimeter, there are perennial beds, blueberries, 3 kinds of raspberries, and a large herb bed. Inside the perimeter, the Coos County Master Gardener beds are used for growing different kinds of fresh vegetables. The food grown in the Coos County Master Gardener beds is donated to a local food bank and mission.

Coos County Master Gardeners host several educational programs throughout the growing season, including a children’s program that runs from mid-June to Labor Day, every Saturday afternoon. The garden is open to the public on Saturday mornings from 9:30 am until Noon, April-September, and Wednesday mornings 9:30 am to Noon, to tend the demonstration beds, harvest produce and answer garden questions.

This garden has 19 raised beds (12' by 4' by 2' high), which are available for rent by local community gardeners. Applications are available at the Lakeside City Hall, on a first-come, first-served basis.

This garden was started in 2007 by a Coos County Master Gardener.

The Riley Creek School Garden is a beautiful collaboration between Riley Creek School, Curry County Master Gardeners, and Curry Watersheds Partnership, along with extraordinary support from our greater community.

During the school year, students participate in garden activities with lessons tailored to meet Oregon Common Core State standards in the classroom and out in the garden. Students are involved with all aspects of the garden including, preparing soil, seed starting, planting, weeding, harvesting, and composting. Harvest from the garden is served in the school cafeteria during the school year as well as for the Summer Lunch Program, which feeds kids all summer for free. Excess produce is donated to the local food bank and volunteers who help in the garden.

During the summer months, the garden is open to the Gold Beach community and offers weekly activities for children as well as an opportunity for adults to engage in gardening and harvest their own produce for home use.

The garden houses a 20’×40’ greenhouse which allows for year-round growing, seed starting, and an outdoor classroom in inclement weather. All of the vegetable and herb plants grown for the annual Master Gardener Plant Sale are started here. Lettuce is grown hydroponically through the winter in the greenhouse to provide the school cafeteria salad bar with fresh lettuce weekly. Learn more.

This demonstration garden includes perennials, trees, and shrubs that demonstrate cold hardiness, adaptability, water wise and fire-resistant plants. The garden also features a water smart controller and a three bin compost system. All plant materials have permanent arboretum style signs that include the plant name and characteristics. The garden is also home to an All-America Selections Display Garden featuring annuals and vegetables.

This garden began in 2003, with the installation of infrastructure that was donated from the local chapter of Oregon Landscape Contractors Association (OLCA). The garden has since been a work in progress with the OSU Extension horticulture program faculty and staff managing the gardens. Local OSU Master Gardener volunteers also helped with the garden. In 2009, the Central Oregon Master Gardener Association officially partnered with OSU Extension to continue work and maintenance in the gardens. Open 7 days a week, during fairground hours.

Hollinshead Community Garden is located in Hollnshead Park, on the Northeast side of Bend. This garden provides ninety spaces for for individual members of the community to garden. Eighteen of the spaces are 12X15. The remaining seventy-two are 10X12.

Bend Parks and Recreation provided the fencing, irrigation, a dumpster for weeds and wood chips for the pathways. Gardeners are required to volunteer at the garden for four hours during the season. Gardeners are also required to garden organically.

On the outside perimeter of the vegetable gardens are five demonstration garden perennials, herbs, grasses, annuals, and beneficial insect and butterfly. The garden is run by Central Oregon Master Gardeners, who are better know as the "Hollinshead Gang". These Master Gardeners maintain the demonstration beds. Ten of these Master Gardeners serve as "Garden Angels". Each Garden Angel oversees ten gardens and serves as a mentor for the gardeners assigned to those spaces.

The area that is now Hollinshead Park was once a farm belonging to the Hollinshead family. In the early 1980’s the family sold part of the land to the city of Bend and gave an additional parcel with the stipulation that there always be space set aside for a community garden. In addition to the gardens, the park contains the original family home, plus a tiny house which serves a small museum, a barn that has been converted into a meeting hall, a small orchard, and a small enabling garden. Recently a large portion of the park has been designated an unfenced off-leash dog park.

The Hollinshead Community Garden season runs from the end of April to the first Saturday in October.

The NorthWest Community Garden (NWXCG) was built by the developer of NorthWest Crossing, West Bend Property Company, and is managed by the Central Oregon Chapter of the OSU Master Gardener program. The garden features cedar raised beds with drip irrigation and is enclosed by an eight-foot tall wire fence. It is located on on the corner of NW Crossing Drive and Clearwater Drive. All plots are reserved and assigned to residents of the NorthWest Crossing community. At such time that we have extra raised beds to rent, neighboring communities may be invited to rent beds within this Community Garden

The garden features 59 cedar, 9ft X 7ft raised beds, each with individual drip irrigation and 2 native plant gardens. The community garden is enclosed by an eight-foot tall wire fence, with four separate wash stations. There is a state of the art composting bin, built by a COMGA Master Gardener and her husband.

There are 2 co-managers and 10 Garden Angels (all COMGA Master Gardeners) that oversee 6 to 7 raised beds each. The Garden Angels serve as a mentor for the gardeners assigned to them, based on the site of the raised bed. NWXCG is open from the end of April to mid to late October, dependent upon weather conditions.

The Discovery Garden is open year round for both self-guided and Master Gardener-led educational tours. The Garden and Pavilion are used for instruction and demonstrations on various aspects of gardening. A variety of ecologically sound management practices are displayed, including waterwise gardening, mulching, composting, pruning, and recycling. A detailed compost area with worm bins is used as an outdoor classroom.

The Discovery Garden was established in 1999. The entire garden has been built by volunteer Master Gardeners’ labor, work crews from Job Corps and inmate work crews. Supplies and hardscape materials were generously donated by community businesses and funded by the annual Master Gardeners’ Plant Sale.

The garden is open 7 days a week, from dawn to dusk.

Established in 1994, the Demonstration Gardens feature twenty-one different gardens that are used to teach gardening techniques to the community. It is located on the grounds surrounding the OSU Extension office in Central Point. The garden is open to the public. Visitors are welcome to take a self-guided tour of the gardens at any time during daylight hours. Brochures detailing more information about most of the garden features are available for download or at the OSU Extension office. The 21 different gardens are:

• Bird, Bee & Butterfly Garden
• Vegetable Garden
• Dahlia Garden
• Daylily Garden
• Entry Garden
• Herb Garden
• Kitchen Garden
• Lavender Garden
• Native Plant Garden
• Orchards
• Perennial Garden
• Peggy's Propagation Garden
• Rain Garden
• Rose Garden
• Succulent Garden
• Vineyard Garden
• Wanda Hauser Herb and Rose Garden
• Waterwise Garden
• Wildflower Garden

Learn more.

We have an award-winning adaptive demonstration garden, several native plant gardens including two rain gardens, a dry garden, pollinator gardens, Four Seasons Garden, fruit trees and blueberries, herb gardens as well as a compost demonstration and vermiculture. Open 8-5 Monday-Friday and various events. Learn more.

Free compost workshops are led by certified OSU Extension Service Compost Specialists at the Compost Demo site at BRING Recycling at least three times per year.

Compost Demo workshops are for beginning to experienced composters, these hands-on workshops will cover the basics of how composting works, which materials to use, and the different methods and types of compost bins available. Workshops are led by certified OSU Extension Service Compost Specialists.

The compost made at the BRING site will be used in BRING's "Garden of Earthly Delight".

BRING Recycling is located at 4446 Franklin Blvd, Glenwood. Parking is limited. BRING is on LTD's 85 bus route and the EmX McVay Station. The compost site is in the “Garden of Earthly Delight” at BRING Recycling. Learn more.

Lane County Master Gardeners run an educational site for composting at the River House Outdoor Center.

The GrassRoots Garden is a community-building project that works to alleviate hunger, teaches earth-friendly gardening and self-sufficiency, and encourages diverse community building.

The two-and-a-half-acre GrassRoots Garden was started in 1991 as a partnership between Lane County Master Gardeners (who needed a training location and community service project), FOOD for Lane County (which needed a source of fresh produce for the food bank), and St. Thomas Episcopal Church (which had unused land to lease for a community service project). The partners decided the Garden would also teach sustainable land-use practices. Gradually it grew into a location where youth, seniors, business and social groups, physically and mentally challenged, and at-risk populations all come together working for a common good. The Garden now has an outdoor kitchen, three large greenhouses and a grow tunnel, a shade house, and over 100 planting beds.

The Garden is a welcoming place where organic produce is grown for distribution through the county food bank while demonstrating ways to grow, cook and preserve fresh produce. Volunteer contribution and education opportunities abound.

Over 60,000 lbs. of fruits and vegetables are harvested from GrassRoots Garden on an annual basis. This occurs because over 2000 volunteers (many of whom are Lane County Master Gardeners) donate over 20,000 hours of service. Volunteers learn to grow food using sustainable practices. Learn more.

The Lincoln City Demonstration Garden was established in 2010. It is a Certified Wildlife Habitat featuring native plants, a Keyhole Garden with a centralized composter, culinary garden and plants selected to provide habitat for the endangered Oregon Silverspot Butterfly.

In 2023 the garden welcomed a 5-bed Community Garden, “Juntos en el Jardín” and an established wheelchair bed that offers access to more people.

The garden is open from dawn to dusk and is located off the north end of the Oregon Coast Community College north campus at 3788 SE Highschool Drive, Lincoln City.

This garden is located at the Oregon Coast Community College (OCCC) in South Beach. The garden is one of three Lincoln County Master Gardener demonstration gardens constructed in 2010. The garden consists of a greenhouse powered by two solar roof panels, a water collection system, a rock garden, raised beds for vegetables, herb beds, one cloche for growing tomatoes, potato growing bags, wine barrels filled with flowers, a raised accessible bed for growing herbs, and trellis beds for peas and beans.

The Lincoln County MG Demonstration Garden South County is located at the Oregon Coast Community College in Waldport. It is currently in the process of being established with an official opening in the spring of 2024.

The garden features 12 Durable Greenbeds and a three-bin compost system. Some of the beds will have cloches. The garden will demonstrate a water catchment system with three water storage tanks so we won’t have to rely on city water.

We plan to grow natives to support the Oregon Silver Spotted Butterfly, herbs, and many varieties of vegetables as well as tomatoes. Beds will be available to showcase apprentice projects. Fruit trees will be added in the future. Signage will be throughout the garden and landscaping will include natives. The garden will host workshops and classes open to our MG volunteers and the community.

The garden was given a tool shed and one of our volunteers built a shed for larger items both of which we brightly painted. Plans are to add murals. A fence will be built to keep the deer out of the garden. The public will be welcome to visit from dawn to dusk.

The Linn County Master Gardener Demonstration Garden, begun in 1997, continues to expand its educational exhibits and improve and refine garden elements. Over the years, Master Gardeners have transformed the originally barren, rocky site into a lively, vibrant garden that welcomes visitors and gardening students.

A dedicated team of Master Gardeners maintains and improves the Demonstration Garden throughout the year. Normally, the garden is always open for public viewing. Currently part of the garden is open. We anticipate that it will fully open soon. Classes and special events are open to the public and are held throughout the year.

The Linn County Master Gardener Demonstration Garden is located at the Linn County Fair and Expo Center, in the northeast corner of the fairgrounds, 3700 Knox Butte Rd, Albany, Oregon. You can access the demonstration garden via the north walkway by foot. There are signs around the fairgrounds directing visitors to the demonstration garden.

The Demonstration Garden is open from March through October. On Mondays, Wednesdays, the 1st and 3rd Fridays, and the 2nd and 4th Saturdays (1:00-3:00 p.m. in the spring and fall, 9:00-11:00 a.m. during the summer) you will often see Master Gardeners at work and ready to answer your questions. Check out all the informational signage too.

The Marion Demonstration Garden is the learning garden of the Marion County Master Gardener Association. The garden is open to the public, free of charge, and is located behind the parking lot of the county Health and Services building at 3180 Center St. in Salem.

Master Gardener volunteers plan and maintain the gardens throughout the year using sustainable research-based techniques learned in the Master Gardening Training Course and Continuing Education programs. The garden provides a hands-on learning environment for our volunteers, visitors, workshop attendees, and partner organizations. It also provides the plants and produces MCMGA donates to partner non-profit organizations.

The Marion Demonstration Garden includes more than 30 ever-changing garden themes. You will find gardens appropriate for all levels of experience and reflective of a variety of issues that enhance or constrain your garden plans. You will see roses, annuals, vegetables, a variety of styles and heights of raised beds, drought-tolerant plants, native plants, conifers, shrubs, sun to shade transition garden, a formal and informal beneficial insect garden, edible landscaping, intensive gardening, square foot gardening, foodscapes, espaliered fruit trees, an herb garden, perennials, hummingbird and butterfly garden, companion plantings, small space gardening, grapes, berries, apples, pears, figs, dahlias, deer resistant plants, ornamental grasses and more. Learn more.

Since 2008, Multnomah County Master Gardeners have maintained a demonstration garden in SE Portland. In 2018, gardeners began a transition to a new, larger site not far from the original garden. The garden now occupies a little over an acre of land. The garden includes 16 garden beds where you can see different gardening techniques for growing a variety of vegetables, small fruits, and herbs. A ‘square foot’ garden plot demonstrates successfully growing vegetables in a small space. Produce harvested at the garden is donated to area food banks.

In addition, there are perennial beds featuring a children’s garden, meadowscaping, native plants, and xeriscaping with informational signage to educate visitors. The garden is currently taking part in a Dry Farming trial, in collaboration with Oregon State University. This year the Dry Farming beds are growing tomatoes and tomatillos which were watered when planted but which will receive no supplemental water during the growing season. This trial will help OSU determine recommendations for tomatoes that do well with a reduced water supply.

The garden follows organic gardening practices and is striving to become a pollinator parkway in SE Portland. Visitors to the garden can observe a variety of growing techniques, from trellising plants to pruning methods, and ask questions of the gardeners.

Visit the garden throughout the spring, summer, and early fall on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays, 9 am to 12 noon. The garden is located in SE Portland at 57th Ave, just south of Duke.

The Inspiration Garden at Mountain Fir Park is a demonstration garden created by the OSU Polk County Master Gardener Association in order to promote sustainable gardening practices and to promote educational outreach programs to the Polk county community. Generously donated by the City of Independence, Mountain Fir Park is a former lumber mill site located along the south fork of Ash Creek. The entrance to the park is located a short distance west of 7th and F streets in Independence. The 7-acre garden feature numerous individual gardens demonstrating a wide variety of gardening practices. There are trails among the gardens, benches at restful areas and strategic viewpoints, and meditation and sensory experiences. Learn more.

The Tillamook County Master Gardener Learning Garden is located at the Tillamook County Fairgrounds. It was established in 1989 and over the years has had many improvements and renovations. These projects have included building a garden office, storage areas for tools and large equipment, a hoop house for propagation, and extending seasonal growth. The most recent addition was an added paver area for picnic tables by the garden office in the shade of a large Sycamore maple tree. We also have a tiny house lending library for children.

The Learning Garden is the lab for Master Gardeners to use the skills they have learned during our Master Gardener classes. Veterans and apprentices work in the garden practicing propagation, pruning, composting, plant identification, and much more.

Areas of special interest include a dahlia bed, shade bed, native plants, an espaliered apple tree, container gardening, herbs, a pollinator bed, beds for vegetables, and beds of blueberries, raspberries, and strawberries. All food grown in the garden is donated to the Tillamook Food Pantry.

Master Gardeners host visitors to the garden each year during the Tillamook County Fair in early August. The garden is a popular respite from busy fair activities. Many visitors have gardening questions or just want to share their love of gardens and gardening. The garden is also a perfect place to relax and enjoy a yummy Tillamook ice cream cone.

Master Gardeners are in the garden on Thursdays from 9 am to noon from mid-February through mid-November.

Alder Creek Farm hosts a community garden, greenhouse, ethnobotanical trail, native plant nursery, and a 50-acre wildlife sanctuary on the north edge of Nehalem Bay. The Lower Nehalem Community Trust purchased the property, a former dairy farm owned by the Anderson family, in 2005 with funding support from partners Natural Resources Conservation Service and Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board, who both hold conservation easements on the Farm’s wildlife sanctuary. They immediately went to work restoring historic riparian vegetation, wetlands habitats, tidal sloughs and removing invasive plants, and introducing native plant species.

The Alder Creek Farm Community Garden is tended by volunteers who grow and harvest food to share among themselves as well as with North County Food Bank. The community gardeners work together as a team rather than individually with separate plot ownership. Garden members pledge to work in the garden at Alder Creek Farm 3 hours per week. Garden workdays are Tuesdays and Saturdays from March through October. See what’s happening in the Garden on our Events Calendar. This garden is not operated by the Master Gardeners, but many current and former Master Gardeners serve as volunteers. Learn more.

This garden is just North of 713 SE 1st Street across from the John Murray Building in Pendleton. The garden provides nearby residents a space to grow their own produce and a meeting place for classes. Raised beds for rent to community members for $10/season.

This garden site is located at Umatilla-Morrow ESD. The garden is open for volunteers at all times. The public is invited to demonstrations.

This garden was started in 2005. UMESD plumbed water to the site. In 2006 grants were written that added fencing, storage shed, and compost bins. In 2007/08 Boy Scouts built benches and cold frames. Umatilla County Master Gardeners and non-Master Gardener volunteers work together to clean the garden in the spring, lay drip-lines and plastic much, plant, harvest, and put the garden to bed in the fall. Community demonstrations take place in the garden throughout the year.

The garden features a 3-bin composting system, herbs, perennial bed, heirloom vegetables, drip line water system, and resident quail 'tenants'.

This is a community garden, and Master Gardeners help with several plots to serve as demonstration gardens to fellow gardeners.

This garden is a Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation Community Garden. Garden managers participate in Master Gardener training, and Master Gardeners provide on-site education events.

The Dalles Imagination Garden (also known as the DIG), began as an offshoot of the Wasco County Master Gardeners Seeds and Soil Program. Through the work of the Wasco County Master Gardeners, as well as private business and local government, the DIG is a permanent educational, gardening and gathering site for the community. The DIG earned the Marje Luce Search for Excellence Award in 2011. The DIG is located at the intersection of Klindt Drive and Steelhead Way, along the riverfront trail in the Port District of The Dalles. Learn more.

The WCMGA Learning Garden offers hands-on opportunities to explore a wide range of sustainable gardening practices through Garden Themes. Educational signage is located throughout the garden. Visit, Explore, Learn! Let’s walk our way through the interesting garden themes that are featured in the Learning Garden at Jenkins Estate.

The Pollinator Garden is designed with trees, shrubs, and flowers that provide pollen and nectar sources from early spring through fall. Nesting stations for our native mason bees are located here and throughout the garden. Flowers are planted in extra-large clumps to help attract pollinators.

The Waterwise and Dry Garden will appeal to anyone who wants a low-maintenance and ecologically sound, low-water-use garden. This garden was developed to showcase plants that thrive in a Mediterranean-style climate (and our Pacific NW climate) – mild, wet winters and warm, dry summers. Though the garden ultimately is low maintenance, it does require careful assessment of soil, drainage, light, and moisture. The use of gravel mulch is featured in this garden.

The busiest section of the garden is the Vegetable Garden with planting, pruning, harvesting, and weeding. The Raised Bed area features several ideas for constructing raised beds from a variety of materials including wood and cement blocks. Trugs, Square Foot Gardening bed, a keyhole bed add to the mix of vegetable gardening methods. Vertical plantings include various trellis and re-purposed pallets adding to the examples of gardening options. In-ground crops are also featured. Plants and beds are chosen to be something that the home gardener can readily do. Throughout the growing season, produce from this garden is donated to the Oregon Food Bank.

The Small Fruits Garden includes a collection of fruits that do well in our area and take a small amount of space. Included are apple trees on dwarf rootstock, honeyberry, goumi berry, goji berry, and guava. This garden section is bordered by three olive trees donated by Red Ridge Farms in 2014.

The Native Plants Garden features a log-bordered trail, a dry creek bed, small conifers and many beautiful flowering plants that help illustrate to home gardeners uses of native plants in the landscape. This garden includes many of the plants Lewis and Clark came across during their voyage of discovery in the early 1800s and provides some interesting history for children and adults.

The Spiral Herb Garden contains over 40 herbs that grow well in the Northwest and can be used to enhance a landscape by sight, fragrance, and, most importantly, add flavor and color to our favorite dishes, making them “sing”. The path spirals around narrow beds, enabling you to see ‘up close’ the mix of perennial and annual herbs. Herbs with a variety of uses – culinary, medicinal, insect repellant, fragrant, pollinator attractant – can all be found here.

The Companion Planting Garden showcases perennials in complementary combinations. The original topography of the area was relatively flat with full sun. A 4-foot high berm showcases plants at different levels and creates shade on the north side. With varying light conditions, this garden supports both shade-loving and sun-loving plants. A Japanese maple serves as the anchor for this year-round interest garden.

Espaliered Fruit Trees plantings of apple and pear trees are along the south edge of the Companion Planting area. Espalier roughly translated is french for ‘resting on the shoulder. This space-saving technique for growing trees takes about 4 years to properly shape an espaliered fruit tree and ongoing pruning to maintain it. It can be the answer to the gardener who wants to grow fruit but has a small garden or who appreciates this interesting method to grow fruit.

The Urban Edibles Garden features a blend of ornamental and edible plants selected to fit into small residential spaces and provide year-round interest. Evergreen conifers, small trees, shrubs, and grasses were selected for their narrow width and compact height to fit in this long, narrow area. Columnar apples, herbs, blueberry bushes. currants, gooseberry, and grapes function as perennial plants. Annual vegetables add to the list of edibles incorporated in this garden helping to demonstrate how they can be interplanted with landscape plants for the gardener who wants to have it all.

The renovated Jenkins Estate Pioneer Herb Garden features five herb beds. The Medicinal (home remedies of the past), Aromatic (see photograph), Culinary, Industrial (household uses), and Shade Herb Bed (featuring garden equipment used on the Estate). Plantings employ herbs typically grown in the early 1900’s. Like an old English garden, you will discover Heirloom roses, flowering red and white currant bushes, which are hummingbird attractors, aromatic lavender. Benches offer visitors a chance to sit and take in the sights and aromas of this garden of the past. Grown free of herbicides and pesticides, visitors might just want to touch, taste, and smell Lemon Balm and Golden Pineapple Sage. Signage provides more insight into this amazing glimpse into the past.

Located just outside the fenced garden, the Deer Resistant Garden displays the use of a range of “deer-resistant” plants. Some plants are tried and true, some depend on local tastes and drought conditions. A stressed deer will eat anything. It’s a constant give and take, but this garden will help gardeners become familiar with several plants that can be used in the home landscape featuring year-round interest.

Little Lending Library (coming soon)

Visitors are invited to borrow a book from the Little Lending Library located in the Deer Resistant Garden. Books are housed in a weather-resistant cupboard for use and return when completed. Or, use the nearby bench to relax and read a few pages.

The one-third acre garden site was originally a staging area for heavy construction equipment. In January 2018, a partnership between PCC-RC and WCMGA marked the beginning of transforming this site “from gravel to garden.” Located adjacent to the PCC-RC Learning Garden which focuses on food production, the WCMGA Education Garden chose to center on the use of landscape plants for the home garden. The design was built around several different “garden classrooms” themes described below.

The Waterwise Garden Classroom incorporates the use of a diverse selection of low-water needs, low-maintenance trees, shrubs, and perennials that provide alternatives to large areas of turf (grass). Like-needs plants, both native and non-native, are grouped to create plant communities and habitats for pollinators, birds, and insects. This garden also features drip irrigation, a “Hellstrip” garden, and bare areas for ground-nesting bees.

The plantings in the Insect Habitat Garden Classroom were selected specifically for their ability to provide habitat for beneficial insects. “Insect Hotels” can be found throughout the garden. While their ability to attract beneficial insects is still in the research stage, these structures do promote awareness of the need to provide habitat for the many beneficial insects that play an important role in home gardens and in the ecosystem. And they are fun garden art!

Our Pollinator Garden Classroom includes a variety of native and nonnative plants with overlapping blooming times that provide foraging from early spring through fall. Plants are chosen that require minimal care once established and are planted in flower groupings (clumps) of rounded blocks to minimize weeds and to localize the pollinator flight range. The diverse plant selection resembles natural native plant communities. Native grasses, nonnative perennials and ornamentals, and common garden herbs are also included.

A fragrant plant stimulates our senses, lifts our mood, evokes memories, adding to the healing pleasure of nature. The Fragrance Garden Classroom offers a four-season palette of fragrant shrubs, vines, annuals, and perennials. With help from a local horticulture therapist, plants were chosen that support some of the seven universal characteristics of a therapeutic/healing garden. This garden provides a welcome “escape” for stressed students and community visitors, a peaceful setting for reflection and learning, and, of course, a fun sniffing adventure for kids of all ages!

A series of Mason Bee Nesting Stations are located throughout the garden. Each station contains nesting trays specifically designed for our native Mason Bee, although other native cavity-dwelling pollinators frequently make their nests there as well. Two of the nesting stations have sliding doors, allowing visitors to view the ongoing activities within the trays. Educational signage about the solitary Mason Bee is located near one of these stations. Mid-March through June is the active time for Mason Bees.

Three arc-shaped beds make up the Community Circle Garden Classroom. Each bed features a different genus of dwarf and semi-dwarf conifers – Pine, Chamaecyparis, and Cryptomeria – that are suitable for the home garden. Companion plantings of shrubs, perennials, groundcovers, and grasses are interspersed.

Preparations are underway for a PNW Native Pollinator Hedgerow on the east edge of our garden. This 21’ x 84’ area will be comprised of low-maintenance, low-water needs native plants that provide habitat for pollinators and wildlife.

Located at 325 NE Burnett Rd. in McMinnville, this thriving community garden was started in 2002 as a joint project between McMinnville Salvation Army and a group of community volunteers - many of whom were Yamhill County Master Gardeners. Their vision was to help families in need grow their own food, to provide fresh produce for the food pantry boxes and to help families learn new self-sufficiency skills. In 2013, the Garden moved from The Salvation Army to property owned by the McMinnville Cooperative Ministries. Its raison d’être is to provide fresh produce to folks who are at nutritional risk.

Today, The McMinnville Community Garden is a cooperative enterprise among a group of volunteers—several of whom are Master Gardeners—who operate the Garden, the Yamhill County Master Gardeners Association (gardening expertise), the Yamhill Community Action Partnership (fiduciary services), McMinnville Cooperative Ministries (land on which we garden), We enjoy widespread community support from Lowe’s, Wilco, Cascade Rolling Steel Mill, Kiwanis and Rotary, the McMinnville Area Community Foundation and Greenlands. The Garden is self-supporting by selling flowers and other plants grown at the garden as well as by holding fundraising events.

The Garden comprises three areas; raised beds, which are rented to community gardeners for a nominal fee, ranging from $17.00 to $30.00 for the gardening season; raised beds that are dedicated to growing produce for the regional food bank operated by the Yamhill Community Action Partnership (in 2020 we donated of 14,400 pounds of fresh produce to YCAP.); and an all-access area for wheelchair-bound folks.

The garden offers a general membership for folks who would like to help grow food for the food bank but do not want a raised bed of their own.

Personal row garden memberships are for folks who would like to grow food for the regional food bank and also food for themselves. For their annual fee, personal row gardeners are assigned a raised bed and are provided with some seeds and starts. Compost and water are also provided. In addition to tending their own garden, personal row gardeners must work at least 4-hours per month on food bank rows and general garden maintenance. Visit their Facebook page for photos and more information.

This garden is the result of the work of the Newberg Public Works Maintenance Division, the Yamhill County Master Gardeners, and other contributing partners. Together, they turned a parking lot into a year round WaterWise and Wildlife Habitat demonstration garden to give the public and private sectors examples of sustainable choices they can make when building, designing, and installing landscapes, irrigation systems, and hardscapes.

This 2,500 square foot garden features a green roof kiosk; four unique low-water irrigation zones (Drip, Rotors, Micro-Spray, No Irrigation); a solar synch EvapoTranspiration Weather Irrigation Controller; more than 60 varieties of water-wise wildlife inviting trees, shrubs, and ground-covers; a 500 gallon rainwater harvesting system; a Turfstone/Ecoblocks parking strip demo area (i.e. storm-water retention); permeable paver paths and walkways; LED low voltage lighting; rain chains; numerous water-sources, feeders, and houses for wildlife. This garden is also 100% pesticide free.

This garden is a strip along the front of the Yamhill County Extension office, that is planted with a variety of WaterWise plants. The plants are labeled with permanent markers and there is a WaterWise logo sign and an all-weather pamphlet container with a brochure about WaterWise gardening in place. Come and see what a low water use garden looks like!

This garden is located across from the Delaschmutt Arena, on the Fairgrounds. The garden includes a propagation greenhouse, a conifer garden, a shade garden, a rose garden, a garden of grasses, seasonal plantings, and a memorial sitting area.