Garden Research, aka, ‘Honeymoon #1,’ at McMenamins Edgefield

Eric and I decided to take a much-needed weekend away, it being our first week as husband and wife, and all. We rode our bikes to Troutdale/Edgefield for a night of planning for our future, reading/catch-up, exercise, quality time, and soaking at night (too hot during the day).

I savored the opportunity to explore the McMenamins grounds, particularly their edibles garden. Here is what I discovered. This post starts with some existing garden updates. And then with the grapes, I launch into a look at the McMenamins gardens. These are not my plots.

Garlic picking time!

Prepping dinner with new garlic

Peas and carrots. I prepared them Asian style. Slowly carmelized the carrots with ginger and butter and seasonings. Chopped the peas and made a dressing with soy sauce, ginger, freshly squeezed orange juice.

Me picking the garlic! Planted it back in October.

Time to harvest the favas? I’m honestly not sure. This is also a Winter 2012 crop.

Chopping down some of the fava forest.

And now, a look at the McMenamins gardens. Grapes – I observed that they have only one leader row on the bottom. They don’t train a second higher level.

A nice structure in the middle of an orchard. Raised and clean, but still wild feeling.

Seaberries? Could it be? A grove? Is this how big mine will get? I can see why people use this as a stranger danger hedge.

I like seeing the wild flowers underneath these fruit (peach) trees.

Closeup of flowers under fruit trees.

Mulched walkways

These brassicas get some nice shade.

Closeup of the irrigation system. Same kind I bought at home. But much easier to deal with, I bet, with beds in these long orderly rows.

Is this oceanspray? The flowers are the same but the leaves are different. Goats beard?

Nice cloche

Cool structure in the middle. I like the non-working sink and the massive work table. Very practical. A place I’d enjoy standing at on a nice (or not nice) day.

Observing the pea setup. Simple. Bamboo and string.

This bed looked more permaculturey to me than the others which had a monocultural thing going on. A mix of beets and chamomile and other things.

Broad beans! Same massive size as mine. Same spacing. Less beans than mine, interestingly. But I didn’t see any signs of the black spot fungus mine has. Were these planted in spring? Or did I overwater? I thought it may be overcrowding, but now I don’t think so.

Tomatoes

Rows of peppers covered in black groundcover cloche. I imagine this is a leftover from previous weeks. It’s been pretty cold thus far.

More beans and their trellis in bamboo.

A beautiful wild flower/pollinator area. I would love to have this many Love in a Mist next year. But I think my borage/echinacea bed will be interesting. And the new hyssop/mullein bed on the parking strip could turn out to be big. Reminds me I need to move the elderberries over, having seen how big they can get. I forget that everything I’ve planted in the last year will expand over the years. I must be patient, and provide ample room.

I took this photo bc I wanted to remind myself that even the pros have greens that bolt, even when protected in the shade.

I appreciate the border around this bed.

…And this orderly pathway.

These are trellised CHERRIES!

Piece de resistance – the Asparagus Forest!

Another of the Asparagus Forest. How gorgeous.

I took this shot to show the walkway.

Full shot

Structure with wine barrel filled with bamboo. I have lots of bamboo from a neighbor that I use, and that needs a place to call home!

The structure from behind. Nice shading.

They actually have a huge roll of bird netting. Here it is in action. I’ve used it, and I love it.

Looks like they had something like raspberries here before.

Side photo of the pea system.

Another overview shot.

Cute fence. Some things are structured. Others are hippy. I like that.

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