PLANTWISE

Visit Luscher Farm

Oregon Tilth Organic demonstration gardens, a clematis vine collection, community gardens, Three Rivers Land Conservancy trails and more

Posted by: Kate Bryant on Jun 30, 2010 at 06:00PM 0 Comments

Photo: Kate Bryant

There is a huge City of Lake Oswego community garden on the property – I’ve never seen so many creative and beautifully-maintained plots!

View Slideshow » Photo: Kate Bryant

There is a huge City of Lake Oswego community garden on the property – I’ve never seen so many creative and beautifully-maintained plots!

View Slideshow » Photo: Kate Bryant

A luscious clump of red Oswego tea (Monarda didyma) grew in one of the community garden plots. You can taste the sweet and spicy-floral nectar by pulling out the individual red tepals – the nectar collects at the base. Just make sure you have the right plant! (Thanks, Josh, for introducing me to this delicious treat.) Monarda is a fantastic hummingbird, butterfly and bee plant – but spreads a bit too fast in damp soil.

View Slideshow » Photo: Kate Bryant

Oregon Tilth’s Organic Education Center is at Luscher Farm. There are many demonstration plots showing food crops being grown using different methods. I gleaned some interesting ideas.

View Slideshow » Photo: Kate Bryant

One new thing I learned about my all time favorite food: potatoes can be grown in partial shade and within a bale of straw. Nice idea! Let me know if you want more info on doing this.

View Slideshow » Illustration: Clematis florida Sieboldii – a fussy customer but that’s never stopped clematis lovers from trying… this was in a greenhouse at the Rogerson Clematis Collection at Luscher Farm. View Slideshow » Illustration:

In flower now at the Rogerson Clematis Collection garden at Luscher Farm – Clematis crispa.

View Slideshow » Photo: Kate Bryant

Twining delicately around a bird bath, this pink clematis (Adagio) only grows a few feet tall – perfect for the small garden.

View Slideshow » Photo: Kate Bryant

The farmhouse is surrounded by blowsy cottage gardens stuffed with clematis vines, interplanted with shrubs and perennials. It’s a great place to see the versatility of clematis in the garden – they can twine up the trunk of a tree or into a shrub, wind up a trellis or tuteur in the traditional style, drape over a bird bath, or just twine through perennials, depending on the size and type.

Looking for inspiration or want to learn more about organic vegetable gardening? Interested in seeing a diversity of clematis vines in a lovely, cottage-garden setting? Or perhaps you’d just like to take a walk on one of the metro area’s Three Rivers Land Conservancy trails.

There’s a lot to do and see at Luscher Farm in West Linn. It’s a great field trip, including with kids – there is a historic bird house with cavorting chickens, pigeons, and small game birds, and plenty of room for kids to run and play.

During my visit with photographer friend Josh McCullough of Phytophoto, I took in the Oregon Tilth Organic Education Center and demonstration garden, the Lake Oswego Community Gardens and the Rogerson Clematis Collection. The Hazelia Field Dog Park is also on the property, as well as an athletic field and several CSA farms.

Click on the slide show (above) to get a little taste of what’s there – and do visit Luscher Farm soon. It’s a remarkable site, with sweeping views in all directions and so much inspiring vitality and diversity in the food gardens. There’s a fantastic story to the place posted on the wall of the historic bird house. Apparently, the property (including house, barn and outbuildings) was donated to the City of Lake Oswego by a retired farmer. It seems to me it’s being put to the best possible use by its current caretakers. You’ll leave feeling inspired.

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Tags: Slideshow, Flowers, Vegetables, Edible Gardening, Vines

Hops

Posted by: Kate Bryant on Jun 27, 2010 at 07:11AM 0 Comments

Photo: Great Plant Picks

In honor of Portland Monthly’s July beer issue and the many brew festivals happening in the next month, I present hops (Humulus lupulus) – a fun, funky and fast-growing climber with ornamental flowers that are also a crucial ingredient in beer.

If you make beer yourself, you’ll have a special interest in exploring the flavor and aroma differences of some of the different hops cultivars. You can try growing and harvesting your own (see the Oregon Hop Commission’s cultural tips) or purchase hop flowers from a brewing supply shop.

If you’re growing hops not for beer-making but for the attractive vines or to harvest the pretty cone-like hop flowers for wreaths or decorations, there are some differences in flower shape and size but the foliage is generally similar – except in the case of the golden hops.

While not much used in beer-making, golden hops (Humulus lupulus ‘Aureus) is by far the most striking of the hops, with greenish-yellow spring foliage which turns brassy, sunshine yellow in summer. Since the foliage can bleach and develop brown edges in full, hot sun, it’s best to plant it where it gets a bit of shade in the afternoon.

Be forewarned – hops are super-vigorous vines with roots that spread considerably so confine the roots in a roomy whiskey barrel or large planter or trench the area in late spring to keep the roots from spreading far and wide. Find more detailed cultural instructions at the Great Plant Picks website, here.

Hops are herbaceous perennial vines, meaning they die back down to the ground each winter but return in the spring with fresh shoots from the base. In an established plant, these shoots can grow 15-20 feet in a season and twine around anything in their path.

Golden hops are available in 4-inch pots at some retail nurseries for about $6 and, more commonly, in 1-gallon pots for about $10-15.

When sampling suds at some of this summer’s beer fests, take note of which hops are used in your favorites – you may be able to grow it in your garden:

Portland International Beer Festival, July 16 to 18, 2010

Oregon Brew Fest, July 22 to 25, 2010

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Tags: Plant of the Week, Vines