Gardening Class Opportunities in the Portland Metro Area

Are you interested in raising mason bees? How to grow plants from seed? When to plant potatoes/tomatoes/basil/garlic?

Portland gardeners are incredibly fortunate to have many nurseries and organizations that offer classes and workshops on subject matter ranging from beginning gardening to specialized topics. Because our area is filled with folks who have strong horticultural backgrounds or are experienced staff from local nurseries, you can be sure you will receive science-based garden information. And best of all, most of them are free or very low-cost.

The following nursery websites list the classes that they make available to the public. Many require advance registration, so be sure to call or email them if a class interests you.

 

Portland Nursery is remarkable in the breadth and depth of its classes, everything from veggie gardening to soil building, beekeeping to growing roses, insects to mounting orchids…and that’s just one month’s list.

Cornell Farms – Sign up for their newsletter and get first knowledge of the many classes that are taught at this very beautiful nursery.

7 Dees  With several branches throughout the Portland area, 7 Dees is known for their professional landscaping services, and so many of their classes focus on horticultural topics. Their website also offers a very useful garden blog.

Joy Creek Nursery is the plant nerd’s paradise; their classes are extremely popular, very professional, and after class, you have the excuse of spending hours strolling through their very specialized gardens.

Garden Fever offers classes largely focusing on garden sustainability and specific vegetable types.

In addition to nurseries, there are a large number of nonprofit, government and private organizations that offer specialized and general classes, sometimes for a fee.

Metro, the tri-county conservation agency, has a website alive with in-depth articles on everything garden related for this area. They frequently hold their classes at Garden Fever and at local libraries throughout the city.

Growing Gardens whose mission is to promote home scale organic food growing, offers many classes on a sliding scale fee, and is one of the most robust nonprofit gardening organizations in the metro area.

The Hardy Plant Society of Oregon is primarily a membership organization whose focus is on ornamental garden plants, but they occasionally offer very excellent classes open to the public for a small fee.

Portland Community College Landscape Technology Program is an academic degree program that focuses on all aspects of the landscape industry. Other community colleges in the area specialize in horticultural degrees.

Oregon Food Bank Seed to Supper Program This free beginning gardening course teaches participants the tools they need to start a garden and grow their own food.