Elderberry Wisdom Farm’s new business, Native American Plant Nursery LLC, delivered its first Native plant order to Portland Bureau of Environmental Services (BES) on November 2. It was good to meet Toby Query, Natural Resource Ecologist and ESA certified Senior Ecologist at Portland BES, and put a face to the name. We hope our partnership will continue to grow as Native American Plant Nursery grows.
Our Habitat Restoration Interns and I went to the organic farm this month and put down our cardboard barrier around 212 Sambucus nigra ssp Cerulea (blue elderberry) plants that we planted last month. We also were privileged to dig camas with the landowner of the organic farm and transplant them to one of her fields. MJ really has a talent for finding the camas when there is no outward appearance to show us where the plant is located specifically.
Our interns, along with our Native Plant Nursery Specialist, Rose, and myself met with our newest partner who owns 9.25 acres above the North Santiam River. She has asked us to help with habitat restoration on her property which was affected by the 2020 North Santiam Canyon wildfire. We look forward to restoring her place to its former beauty.
We also started planting the 250’ east hedgerow at Elderberry Wisdom Farm and added some more plants to the south hedgerow. We were able to sow some native seed cover crops ideal for Oak Woodlands as well and have high hopes that those seeds will enrich the soil and help to strengthen biodiversity and reduce invasives.
The interns and I have begun constructing our first Hügelkultur bed (mound raised bed). This will provide a place for plants that require less water at the top of the bed and for those that require more water at the base of the bed. This is part of our climate adaptation plan for our site at the Elderberry Wisdom Farm.
We expect to have the greenhouse foundation completed before Thanksgiving and we can add that to our list of things that we are thankful for this year.