The 3rd Annual FoPo Garden Tour

Please join us for the 3rd annual FoPo Garden Tour tomorrow June 19th from 10:00 am-2:00 pm. Maps are available at Sweetness Bakery, 7 Dees, Bar Carlo, Holgate Library, and A-Boy Pumbing/Garden Center. 24 host gardens are participating this year!

We Like Your Garden!

We Like Your Garden!

Did you receive an invitation to join our 3rd Annual FoPo Garden Tour?

What sort of work does being on the tour entail?

Really, all you have to do is have fun in your garden! It's O.K. if you don't remember the names of the plants or have a half finished project, this is an informal friendly way to meet some of your neighbors and show your FoPo pride!

Also, you will write a couple of lines about your garden and choose a category (formal, edible, sustainable, eclectic...) for us to publish on the tour map. These maps will be available at local business or by email sign up the week before the tour.

The day before, we will deliver a sign for your yard and a colorful balloon that marks the host gardens.

You might be wondering, as a host, how will I see the other gardens?

We are planning an "after tour" outing for interested hosts. We will meet and travel the neighborhood together, visiting the gardens and ending at the home of gracious host gardener Donnie. He will fire up his massive outdoor oven so we can all enjoy homemade pizza, complimented by sweets and drinks of your liking!

Also, as a host gardener or visitor, you are encouraged to enter the fabulous FoPo garden tour raffle. Local business will be donating prizes for the lucky winners at our pizza party drawing.

With just five weeks to the big date, we hope to get everyone signed up soon! Please email your reply to fopogardens@gmail.com. And please, if we missed a passionate gardener on your block, let us know! There are many beautiful backyard gardens we miss:)

Donnie's spectactular outdoor oven!

Looking Back: The 1st Annual FoPo Garden Tour

Garden Tour Builds Community in the City

Linda Goertz


City planners pouring over maps, zoning laws, meetings with politicians jawing-are these really the things that create a community? Or is it possible that simply digging in the dirt-dreaming, sowing, tending and sharing with other gardeners-could spark a neighborhood's spirit of connection?


This past year in mid-southeast Portland, residents of the Foster-Powell neighborhood added zing to their summer with a first-ever neighborhood garden tour, and it was by all accounts a rollicking success. Many visitors came by bike or on foot, others by car. While most were southeast Portland neighbors, at least on family haled from Vancouver, Washington.


One garden host, who counted over 40 visitors, enthused, "I loved one of the visitor's comments that she had been to garden tours in the fancier neighborhoods, where lots are sometimes an acre of luxurious landscaping...but she liked this one because the houses/gardens were more humble and she could get ideas she could really use in her own yard!"

To read the full article, click here

Plant Sale at the Rhododendrum Garden Today!

I love to walk the paths of the Rhododendrum garden in the spring. Everytime I return there is a new explosion of color.

There are over 94 species of birds that nest around the spring fed lake.

This is great spot to watch the sunset. If you visit the garden after 6:00 pm, it's free and you will feel like you have the place to yourself!

For more information, here's the

Rhododendrum Garden PDF

Photos and post by Tamra

Garden Tour 2009

A special thanks to Linda for organizing the 2009 garden tour! My experience as a first time garden host was very rewarding, especially touring all the host gardens and meeting passionate and creative gardeners in Foster Powell. We ended the day with a fabulous feast of homemade pie and quiche made from the eggs of gracious backyard hens.

-Tamra