But even after the ivy was removed, another obstacle presented itself. The bare front yard was steeply sloped, and needed a lot of ingenuity to become something attractive.

“I didn’t know anything about gardening,” Cohen said. But a lifelong educator who is now an associate professor with the College of Education at Oregon State University, Cohen was accustomed to tackling difficult problems in a very straightforward way. She began reading everything she could get her hands on about gardening, and taking advice from friends who knew what they were doing.

“I dreamed about plants,” she said, as she began immersing herself in the world of gardens.

She poured over garden catalogs, plotted her dreams on graph paper, and called old college buddies for suggestions. The best advice she received was that gardens are never complete – they’re always a work in progress.

“What a great idea! Nature takes its course,” she said. “Some things work and some don’t.”

Nora Cohen of the College of Education spends her free time in her garden, which is full of lilies, peonies, hostas and campanulas, including some OSU-colored flowers. She likes to bring bouquets from her yard to co-workers at OSU. (photos: Theresa Hogue)

What worked for her front yard was creating a series of tiers, lined with rocks, in a stair-step fashion, so that plants had a level space to grow. Then she began experimenting with plantings to see what thrived, and what got tossed out.

“I’m even allowing some spontaneous natives, like mulleins, to grow,” she said. “I think they’re very dramatic. If nature helps, and it has some attraction, why not? I’m learning to be really relaxed about it.”

Being relaxed isn’t easy, especially because Cohen’s yard seems to be a series of challenges. Just when she got the right mix of perennial flowers, thickets of hostas and lots of roses and peonies scattered about, the neighborhood deer moved in and made a Sunday brunch out of the yard.

And when a neighbor’s pine tree fell on their house this spring, and their own began leaning dangerously, they suddenly ended up with a bright and bare patch of yard where cool shade once dominated. This dramatic shift means what once worked on that side of the yard is no longer right for the space.

Despite the challenges, Cohen feels deeply connected to her yard. She also has a cutting garden on a farm she and her husband own in Fall Creek. Between the two gardens she’s able to harvest big bouquets for friends, family and co-workers during a large portion of the year.

In fact, after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, Cohen turned to her garden for comfort, and found flowers helped her in ways that words couldn’t. She went to her farm and picked a large number of bouquets, and then went knocking on neighbors’ doors back in Corvallis, delivering bunches to everyone. It gave her and her neighbors a chance to connect, and even cry a little, after the events of the day.

“It’s become a tradition. Every Sept. 11 I pick 30 bouquets of dahlias and zinnias, whatever is available.”

She has planted fruit trees along the parking strip in front of her house so that passersby can enjoy fruit as they walk. The fruit from the trees and shrubs on her farm she uses to make into jam, which she often gives away as gifts. She’s made enough that she now sells the jam to co-workers, and uses the proceeds to donate to the Linn-Benton Food Share. She was able to make $400 last year for the food bank.

And in addition to the bounty she shares with friends, there’s the satisfaction of stepping back and just watching the garden through all its phases.

“There’s just always something magic.”

~ Theresa Hogue

From right, Lane Middle School student Matt Bergeron cranks the handle on a composter as students Duyen Do, Viviana Arellano, Claudia Cedeno, Taylor Jada Garcia and Felix Alvarez-Millard watch. The students are learning in a garden laboratory with help from OSU Extension staff. (photo: Leela Ross)

Under the program, the six-graders at Lane Middle School spend 1 ½ hours a week studying among arugula, beets, carrots and cabbage at the 12-acre Learning Gardens Laboratory, which is across the street from their school.

Taught by four students in PSU’s Graduate School of Education, the six-graders have been learning since the start of the school year how to design a garden, grow and identify plants and make compost.

“We want to help the students understand where their food comes from,” said OSU Extension horticulturist Weston Miller, who manages the site with help from Extension program assistant Beret Halverson. “We do this by having them get their hands dirty.”

But their education goes beyond gardening. They’ve also learned about biological diversity, food chains and the lifecycle of earthworms. They’ve taste-tested pears, dunked potatoes in water and watched them sprout roots, drunk tea made from Oregon grape, watched birds, and made sauerkraut to learn about fermentation. The instruction fits in with the students’ science curriculum and takes place during the time slotted for their science classes.

For many of the students, it has been a new experience, Halverson said.

“A lot of the children in the neighborhood don’t have backyards,” she said. “They’re not used to being outdoors and getting their boots muddy. Educating them about these things at a young age is important because they’ll value the environment when they’re older.”

This month, the students will see the fruits of their labors in the garden when they harvest radishes they helped plant. The radishes will be served in Portland Public Schools this month as part of the district’s Harvest of the Month program, which dishes up an Oregon-grown fruit or vegetable on lunch trays twice a month.

Over the next two months, the garden is expected to donate about 800 pounds of radishes to the school district’s cafeterias, Miller said.
For next school year, plans are in the works for students to harvest additional vegetables for the monthly lunch program, he said. Last fall, the garden donated lemon cucumbers to the school district for Harvest of the Month, and it gave Lane’s cafeteria tomatoes and greens that students had grown, Miller added.

The Learning Gardens Laboratory consists of five greenhouses and land that has been set aside for gardening, cover cropping and open space. PSU leases the property from Portland Public Schools and Portland Parks and Recreation.

~ Tiffany Woods