Size of garden: 0.11 acre
Location: Hillsdale Community Church, SW Capital Highway
The Crossroads Community Garden was developed through a partnership led by the Friends of Portland Community Gardens with Hillsdale Community Church, Stephens Creek Crossing, many community funders and volunteers. West Multnomah SWCD provided funding for the project.
Opened in 2016 and dubbed the Crossroads Community Garden, it is located in part of the back parking lot of the Hillsdale Community Church. While the garden is open to all, the coalition that developed the garden was especially interested in ensuring low-income residents at nearby Stephens-Creek Crossing housing community have access to grow their own food.
As the project was being designed, the church was also enthusiastic about converting an adjacent planting strip into a natural habitat for birds and other pollinators, flowering plants, and native flora. Both the garden and the native habitat area are entirely organic, thus reducing chemicals in the environment. The new plantings also help reduce runoff and soil erosion into Stephens Creek, a tributary of the Willamette River. The habitat area serves as a native plant demonstration garden for all residents of SW Portland.
The garden development involved testing and preparing the soil, installing irrigation and a perimeter fence installation, building raised beds, garden paths, and a bioswaleBioswale A structure planted with native plants designed to capture and filter rain water between the garden and parking lot to filter runoff. The team also developed educational signage and tags to identify native plants.
The work was completed by residents of Stephens Creek Housing Development, a nearby Home Forward development, and other members of the surrounding neighborhood. Volunteers continue to work in the garden, planting and harvesting vegetables for themselves and their families.
This property is owned by Hillsdale Community Church and the garden is leased to Portland Parks & Recreation to operate. Learn more.