Wilsonville Spokesman Online

Wilsonville community garden registration opens Thursday

Plots and raised beds available

• By: Michelle Te  
• Published: 3/18/2010 8:00:00 AM

Community Garden
Geraldine Springall and her son Benjamin spent quite a bit of time at their plot in the Wilsonville Community Garden last year.

Spring starts in just a few days, and gardeners already are pulling out their gloves and trowels.

That’s because the city of Wilsonville opens registration for its popular Community Garden on March 18.

The garden is located on Schroeder Way via Rose Lane, just off Wilsonville Road past Murase Plaza.
The community garden has both garden plots and raised beds. Cost is $12 for a 10-foot-by-12-foot garden plot, and $16 for a raised bed.

Although the number of plots and raised beds was increased last year, both are reserved rather quickly, said Brian Stevenson, recreation services manager.

He oversees the community garden, its reservations and growing season.

ng>Getting to garden
One of the things the city – and gardeners – are most excited about this year is a deer fence put up around both the garden plots and raised beds. Despite busy traffic and modern conveniences, deer still roam the Wilsonville countryside. And they get hungry.

“It was frustrating when gardeners had worked hard all season, then show up one day to find all their produce gone,” said Stevenson.

Also, the city has been able to increase the number of garden plots and raised beds. Currently, a resident can reserve two plots – two in-ground, or one raised and one in-ground. A person cannot have two raised beds.

“The raised beds sell out rather quickly,” he said.

If additional plots are made available, Stevenson said those on the waiting list will be notified.

Water spigots are available, and gardeners should plan to use their own hose and gardening tools.

“The garden will open after we till the plots,” said Stevenson. “It’s weather dependent.”

Geraldine Springall rented a space last year for the first time. Along with her husband Simon, and their children, the Wilsonville family tried a technique called “square foot gardening,” where the plot is divided up into smaller sections of 12-inch-by-12-inch squares.

“It made weeding easier and allowed us to grow a wide variety of vegetables in a small space,” she said.
The Springalls grew broccoli, peppers, onions, chard, scallions, radish and lettuce, among their bountiful harvest.

“They all tasted great and we had more zucchini and tomatoes than we knew what to do with,” Geraldine said. “In fact, we bought very few vegetables from the store during the summer.”

They even grew pumpkins which the children proudly used at Halloween.

“Our whole family really enjoyed watching the garden bloom,” she said.

Additionally, they made new friends through an active group of gardeners at the site.
“We are planning on getting two plots this year, and growing even more vegetables,” Geraldine said.

Sign up at: www.ci.wilsonville.or.us. 

Access
The garden is accessible by car. Turn onto Schroeder Lane and make an immediate right onto Rose Lane. You can get to the garden on foot by going through Murase Plaza. The south side of the garden has trails that connect to Memorial Park.

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