The Firehouse Restaurant, located at 711 NE Dekum Street, is selling tickets for a five-course dinner benefiting the Woodlawn Children’s Garden. The event will be held on Tuesday, October 6th, with a no-host cocktail hour beginning at 6:00pm, followed by a family-style supper featuring fruits and vegetables grown in the Children’s Garden. Tickets for the event are $50, which includes dinner with wine, and are tax-deductible. The evening will include a short speech by Portland Parks commissioner Nick Fish, and an opportunity to tour the garden from 5:00pm – 6:00pm. Please use the contact information above for tickets and other ways to support the Children’s Garden.

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A few months ago I was planting seeds in the front of my house, hoping they would grow into something tasty.  Neighbor Gina was walking by and stopped to chat with me and ask about the piles of wood chips in my yard, and some gardening methods… Read the rest of this entry »

Henry V,  located at 6360 NE Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd, has some large containters ready to be turned into edible wonderlands, and is offering Woodlawn neighbors the opportunity to grow food in them on site (and take it home and eat it!).  Give Steve a call at (503) 232-6666 and go buy yourself some kale seeds.  Yum.

Do you have skills to share and a few hours to give to your community?  Woodlawn is bursting with opportunities for our neighbors to get involved and help make events and programs that benefit everyone in our neighborhood even better than they already are!  Interested in organizing a raffle to benefit programs helping schoolkids?  Have a green thumb but no garden of your own?  Enjoy helping organize fun events for the whole neighborhood to enjoy?  There’s no reason to sit home when you can… Read the rest of this entry »

From the North East Portland Tool Library:

The North East Portland Tool Library is now 236+ members strong (and growing every week.) We have 637+ tools (also growing every week.) We just started a free seed library, open and available to our members, and anyone else who is interested in planting veggies and flowers.

We recently received our first grant ($4,400) from the North East Coalition of Neighborhoods and our first large private donation ($2,200). We have already spent much of these monies on the tools most requested by our members.

The advisory council of NEPTL is seeking 8-11 interested members who would be willing to commit to a 2 ½ hour shift once a month to become volunteer tool librarians (we are all volunteers at NEPTL).  Duties would include checking tools in/out, signing up new members/ etc. We will have a training for tool librarians this Saturday March 21st from 8:40am-12:30 pm (the first 3 to respond to this email).  In fact, we really need a portion of these hours covered by volunteers this Saturday, so if you have been wanting to get involved, NOW is the time to jump in!  Working shifts is relatively easy, and a nice way to get to know your NE neighbors.
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East Multnomah County Soil and Water Conservation District hosts great workshops on naturescaping, which means landscaping with nature in mind.  The workshops can help teach you what plants to include in your yard and what features you can include that will help attract wildlife and encourage species diversity. And we’re not talking pesky raccoons here, naturescaping can help attract beautiful butterflies and birds to your yard.

An extension of Naturescaping Basics, this workshop gives participants experience with the specific steps involved in planning a landscape or project. You will learn how to map your property, assess your garden style and needs, do some garden dreaming, and work on a group design scenario. For this particular workshop, participants must have attended the Naturescaping Basics Workshop first.  See the EMCSWCD website for details on other workshops.

Sunday, March 15
1:00 – 5:00pm
Historic Kenton Firehouse
Register online at www.emswcd.org/workshops-events. For more information call 503-935-5368.

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Portland Parks and Recreation is hosting a series of classes and work parties.  The schedule includes vegetable gardening and composting classes, as well as work parties for garden clean-ups, fruit tree plantings, and native habitats. At 10 a.m. on March 28, the program will celebrate the opening of its newest community garden, the Peace Community Garden at SE 127th and SE Market.  Though none of the activities happen at our community garden, there are always projects available at our community garden. Stay tuned to this website for updates.

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Woodlawn is assembling a volunteer crew to assist with the Friends of Trees planting BY BIKE!  If you’d like to be involved, please contact Gregg Lavender: WoodlawnTrees //at// Gmail.com.

(From Laura Demeri)

Hello Woodlawn Neighbors,

Please join us this Saturday in beautifying the neighborhood with our scheduled tree planting with Friends of Trees.  The activity is planned around family and neighbors who come together to make the day memorable.  There will be plenty to do and the more volunteers the better.

Many friends and local businesses within the Woodlawn/Vernon/Concordia areas will be providing breakfast, lunch, and snacks. We will have a special opportunity to sample some desserts made by local pastry chef, Gretchen Glatte, who, along with Matt Busetto (co-owner of the Firehouse restaurant), will be opening the new Woodlawn Coffee and Pastry shop next to Good Neighbor Pizzeria this Spring.

We will meet for breakfast and assignments by 8:30 AM at the Redeemer Lutheran Church located at the Southwest corner of 19th and Killingsworth.  Please dress for planting trees and be prepared for rain.  Bring your own tools if you can (make sure they are ID’d).

If you have questions or are able to donate a dish, please contact Laura Demeri at 503.285.5005 or Laura //at// BelieveMovementStudio.com.

Thank you – Laura

By Michael Bales

Fresh organic produce and other foods may be available as early as May at a new Sunday farmers market planned for Northeast’s King neighborhood.  The Portland Farmers Market would operate the King Farmers Market in partnership with the Northeast Coalition of Neighborhoods. A formal agreement is near completion.

The Portland Farmers Market operates four of the city’s 14 markets, including the largest at Portland State University. The only other Sunday market is in Hillsdale.

Ann Forsthoefel, Portland Farmers Market executive director, said a primary site is under consideration but declined to disclose it, pending zoning review. The King Neighborhood Association has been told that a possibility is at or near King Elementary School at Northeast Seventh Avenue south of Alberta Street.

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