Happy Spring!

 The garden is full for the season; the sign-up list is now a waiting list.

What to plant in early spring? Cold tolerant crops like greens, peas, radishes, cabbage, kale, onions, and lettuce. Wait on heat loving crops like tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant until early to late May.

The Clackamas County Master Gardeners Spring Garden Fair is a great place to find a variety of plants, garden art, and tools. Plus lectures and free soil pH testing. May 4th and 5th at the Canby Fairgrounds.

2026 Garden Registration Now open!

 Get a jump on your spring garden by getting it ready this fall! We have two open garden plots available to rent right now, go to the 'Rent A Garden" tab to learn more and register,

What should I plant in my garden this fall? Lots of things! Fall is a great time to garden, weed and pest pressure is generally less in the fall and winter compared to the warmer months. September and October are great times to plant kale, chard, hardy herbs, onions, lettuce, and chicories. Late October into early November is the time to plant garlic (consider planting garlic in the space where this year's tomatoes grew.)

We look forward to adding a few new gardeners to our little garden community! 

Garden Chats

You are invited to the Campbell Community Garden to take a casual deep dive into timely gardening topics. We will gather in the garden to learn and ask questions about our gardens. Feel free to bring a picnic dinner, bring a folding chair or blanket and a friend. If the temperature is extremely hot, we may reschedule.

Wednesday, July 16th, July 23rd 6:30pm - INSECTS, Sarah will show you what to look for when scouting for insects, how to nurture the good ones, and how to combat the bad ones. NOTE the date change!

Wednesday, August 6th, 6:30pm - FALL & WINTER GARDENING, Sarah will share tips on how to set up your garden to grow through the winter and how to set your garden up for a successful start to spring.

Wednesday, August 20th, 6:30pm - SAVING THE HARVEST, Sarah will share her creative tips on how to save your overabundance of summer produce. 

Do you want to garden at the Campbell Community Garden? It's not too late, we have a few open gardens, sign up on our "rent a garden" tab!

Happy Spring!

 The garden volunteers have been doing amazing work on clearing weeds, THANK YOU!

We have just two small plots open, perfect for new gardeners or small families. Sign up on the rent a garden tab.

Dreaming of summer days!

2025 Garden Plots Are Available!

 The registration form for the 2025 garden plots is ready for sign-ups! New and returning gardeners fill out the form on the "Rent a Garden" tab. 

Do you want to learn how to grow your own food, garden alongside your neighbors, and supplement your grocery budget with garden veggies? Please join the Campbell Community Garden! Prices range from $35-$65 a year. 

Garden Work Days

 It is time to get our Community Garden ready for the growing season. We have two volunteer workdays scheduled each month. Please join us! While we work, Sarah or other gardeners, can answer your gardening questions and offer suggestions about what to plant and do in your own gardens. 

March 24, 10:00 - 12:00 We will work on weeding common areas/paths and clearing out abandoned garden plots for new gardeners. 

April 13, 10:00 - 12:00 We will work on getting the harvest donation garden plots ready for planting and work on weeding paths. 

April 27, 10:00 Garden Kick-Off Party! Come celebrate the garden and get ready for summer gardening. Everyone is invited. We will have refreshments, a plant and seed giveaway, and Sarah will give a short talk on how to set your garden up for success and then allow lots of time to answer your gardening questions. 

Other workdays this spring into summer will be spent spreading wood chips on our paths and replacing rotten wood plot edging. Check back for updates. 

NOTE: Workdays will be postponed if there is steady rain, the ground is frozen, or if there is extreme heat or poor air quality. Please dress for the weather and wear sturdy closed-toe shoes. 

Summer dreaming!

Spring will be here in a few months; it is time to plan for your garden!

 Registration for garden plots is open! If you live in the Hector Campbell Neighborhood, or in another Milwaukie neighborhood and want to garden with us, please go to our Rent a Garden Page and fill out the registration form. 

Check out or Calendar Page for dates of upcoming workdays (starting in February) for opportunities to volunteer. And save the date for our Garden Kick-Off Party on April 27th. 

Look what you can grow in a community garden!

Getting ready for spring!

 Spring is just around the corner! It is time to start planning for the growing season. Registration for the 2023 growing season is open, go to the Rent a Garden page for more information and sign up via the RENT A GARDEN link on that page. Returning gardeners should register by February 1st. We will start assigning plots to new gardeners in mid-February, with preference to gardeners living in the Hector Campbell neighborhood.

Last year the Master Gardeners recorded monthly gardening webinars, the recordings are available here: Growing Oregon Gardeners: Level Up Series 2022
Topics range from seed starting to pest control - lots of great things to learn about over winter. 

Peas and cabbage from a few springs ago

Garden work days will start up in February, we will update the calendar soon. 

We are back!

 After a long time not able to access this website, we've figured out the problem and are getting updates ready to load. Just in time for spring gardening!

Harvesting winter greens and making plans for spring

We are busy harvesting winter greens, sowing seeds for spring, and making plans for summer. The mild winter has worked in our favor, we have already donated 20 pounds of greens and herbs to Esther's Pantry this year!

Radicchio, fennel, and spigarello harvested from the Campbell Community Garden in late February.

FYI: Garden plots are all full for the year, anyone who registers now will be placed on the waiting list.

When can we plant tomatoes?

Will it ever warm up? It is still too cool to plant tomatoes and other warm weather crops outdoors, tomatoes need night time temperatures that are consistently over 50° and soil temperatures over 60° Peppers would like it even warmer!

Until it warms up I recommend moving tomatoes from  4" pots into a gallon sized pots, then to a 2 gallon pot. Setting them in the sun each day (or sheltering them from rain and hail) and moving them inside at night. Once the weather has warmed, dig a deep hole, remove the lower branches and leaves and plant the tomato deeply, allowing the stem/trunk to sprout roots. The video below was taken 4 years ago, since then I've perfected my tomato growing method, now I train them onto a trellis instead of staking them; however you choose to grow them. be sure to use a very sturdy support.

Trellised Tomatoes.
Each plant is pruned to 2 to 3 main stems that are tied to the cattle panel trellis.

Spring Plans

Counting down the days to spring! It is too wet and muddy to do much gardening now, but the weather is great for planning.

We plan to grow 2,000 pounds of herbs, veggies, and greens to give to Esther's Food Pantry this year, so far we have given them 19 pounds of winter squash and cabbage so only 1,981 pounds to go! How do we plan to grow that much? By planning what and when we grow it. Our goal is to have another crop ready to plant as soon as an earlier crop declines. As our overwintering kale and cabbage is harvested we are planting snap peas and after snap peas we will plant pole beans and cucumbers, then we will cover that plot with plastic covered hoops and grow lettuce, chard, and carrots over the fall and winter.

This is the first year that the garden doesn't have a big project in the year's plan. We just finished hooking up our rainwater harvesting tank and our perennial herb garden was completed last fall. This years plans include building a trellis to shade our classroom/bench area, and acquire a pop-up canopy to shelter volunteers from sun and rain during volunteer and educational events.

This tank will hold 275 gallons of rainwater. It will take about 8 inches of heavy rain to fill it. It isn't big enough to use for summer watering, however we have several garden plots covered with plastic or cloth in the winter and this water will really come in handy. 

Thanks to all of our supporters who help to make the Campbell Community Garden Great!

Gardens For Rent!

Spring will be here before you know it. The Campbell Community Garden has plots open for the 2017 growing season! Plots are available for City of Milwaukie residents with preference given to Hector Campbell Neighbors.

Currently we have 2 small plots open, $30, and one medium plot open $40 + 4 hours of volunteer time per year. Register on the "Rent a Garden" tab. If you want a bigger garden, register and you will be put onto our waiting list (we expect a few more plots to open up soon).

Planning for Spring Seeds

2016 was a great year in the garden. It was our fifth summer gardening at the Campbell Community Garden and we continued to learn more about how to best grow veggies. We have tried many varieties of plants over the seasons and have found a few that really stand out as good ones. We are very thankful to Renee’s Garden Seeds for the donation of many seed packets to our garden. Below are a few of the standouts.

Raven Zucchini

We have found the Raven Zucchini to be one of the best producers in our garden; it is late to get powdery mildew, doesn’t scratch the picker like many other varieties, is a compact form and tastes great. We direct sowed 3 rounds of Raven Zucchini in 2016, the first planting was under row cover in early May, it grew fast and strong. The second planting was in late June, it did not do as well as the early planting, it was stunted and never really produced, I think it failed due to too hot weather and the fact that it was shaded by the earlier plants. Our third seeding in mid-July did great, producing all the way to the fall rains in Mid-October. In 2017 we will plan better to provide full sun for all seedlings, and absolutely plant a mid-summer group for fall harvest, we may even try a fall row cover to extend the season to Thanksgiving.

Green Fingers Cucumber

Another outstanding veggie is the Green Fingers Cucumber. These little cucumbers happily scrambled up a trellis and produced handfuls of cute little thin-skinned fruit all summer long and continued to produce into mid-November (in spite of have the second wettest Octobers in history!) We have grown Marketmore 76 for donation in the past, but plan to plant Green Fingers for donation in 2017; we think the small size and thin skin will be appreciated by the food pantry.

Baby Honey Nut Squash

Baby Honey Nut Squash! Wow it was great in our small garden plots. Our squash were about one pound each; the small size is perfect for a meal for two. And I think the small size is great for beginning vegetable eaters and for donation to the food pantry, a full size butternut squash can be intimidating, but Baby Honey Nut is cute!

Peppermint Stick Chard

Peppermint Stick Chard is one of the prettiest greens in the garden. It deserves a place in the front border, an annual you can eat! We direct sowed it and also grew transplants; we found the transplants did a little better. Leaf miners were kept away with row cover early in the season and later we kept a watch for their eggs and rubbed them off as we saw them. We were able to donate many gorgeous bunches to the food pantry.

Lettuce picked for donation

We have been told that the food pantry had trouble using of the kale we have been donating and we have had trouble with white flies in the garden, so in 2017 we will focus more on growing lettuce. Garden Babies Lettuce has performed very well for us and is a good one to donate. We cut it as a full head and donate it whole. The “stump left behind makes a second set of baby Babies! The whole heads are easier to rinse and stay fresher than cut leaves.

In 2017 we plan to plant the following Renee’s Garden Seeds in the Campbell Community Garden’s Harvest Sharing plots:

Raven Zucchini
Green Fingers Cucumber
Baby Honey Nut Squash
Summer Perfection Spinach
Crimson Crunch and Pink Punch Radish
Bush Improved Roma Beans
Little Jade Napa Cabbage
Peppermint Stick Chard
Kohlrabi Crispy Colors Duo
Garden Babies Lettuce

Fall Gardening Starts NOW!

The Campbell Community Garden has a few plots open right now. Our rental season usually goes from January 1st through December 31st, but anyone who rents a garden now will get 15 months of gardening for the price of 12!

The Campbell Community Garden in January, YES you can grow veggies in winter!

Fall is a great tine to start gardening. There are many things one can grow over the winter in Milwaukie. Hardy greens, root veggies, garlic, If you live in Milwaukie and want to start gardening, go to our Rent a Garden page to get signed up.

Mid August in the Garden

Tomatoes are coming on strong now! Beans, cucumbers, and squash need to be picked nearly daily. And plans for our fall and winter gardens are being made. This week we will donate over 100 pounds of garden veggies to Esther's Pantry.

Thanks to The Peck's for visiting our garden and writing this nice story about our community effort:  Community gardens grow more than vegetables, fruits.

The garden in August

Ready for summer!

Lots is happening in the Campbell Community Garden. We are busy harvesting lettuce, kale, artichokes, peas, herbs and more for donation to Esther's Pantry and gardeners are busy planting summer crops like tomatoes and zucchini.

Artichokes and herbs

Lettuce and onions

Ready for beans to sprout

Tomatoes

Plants to share

Spring!

Technically spring is still a little ways off, but it sure feels like it is here in the garden. We are busy harvesting lettuce, kale, carrots, radishes, herbs and more. We are planting seeds (its time to plant peas!) and pulling weeds.

All of the plots at the Campbell Community Garden are currently rented for the 2016 season. however if you want to garden with us, please fill out the registration form (link found on the "Rent a Garden" page) you will get onto our waiting list for the next open garden plot.

Spring is on the way! The time to get gardening is NOW!

Peppermint Stick Chard and Cut & Come Again
Mustard from Renee's Garden Seeds January 2016

The harvest sharing program is an essential part of the Campbell Community Garden; in 3 plots food is grown to be donated to Esther’s Pantry - just a few miles away from the garden. Gardeners who find themselves with more to harvest than they can eat add to the donations. In 2015 we donated 1,411 pounds of produce. We have donated 9 ½ pounds this month and hope to exceed last years total by the end of the year.

If you want to join our great gardening community rent a plot! We have several spaces open for Milwaukie residents to rent, just $30 a year for a small plot or $40 a year for a medium plot (large plots are all rented). 

• New to gardening? Don’t worry we have several experienced gardeners who will help you out.
• Don’t have tools? No problem. Thanks to generous donors we have tools to use and free seeds too!
• Don’t like vegetables? Grow flowers! You may find yourself eating more veggies and salads when you taste what is truly fresh J

Mid-summer harvest for donation

Winter is a great time to get started, you have time to plan before spring really hits us, and it is nearly time to plant peas and other cool weather crops. We garden year round!

Ruby Gem Romaine, nearly ready for harvest in Winter! Thanks to Renee's Garden Seeds!

Gardens For Rent

Fall and winter gardening starts NOW! We have 4 open plots at the garden, all ready for planting fall veggie starts and garlic. We garden year round, and if you join us now you will get the last few months of 2015 for free when you pay for 2016.

The Campbell Community Garden in December 2012

Go to our Rent a Garden tab to sign up!