Jane Hartline, owner of Sauvie Island Natives, is a dedicated and generous supporter of native plants for landscaping and propagation within the Portland metro area. She is an advocate for use of native plants as a wonderful gardening option.  In the past, she has often donated to the habitat restoration mission of FOBW. So it was welcome news when she again informed us that 25% of all sales on Saturday September 16, 2023 would be donated to the Friends of Baltimore Woods. Jane rounded that total up to $300! A win-win for your garden, native plants provide habitat for native pollinating insects such as bees and butterflies who have co-evolved…

Friends of Baltimore Woods will again be partnering with Sparrowhawk Native Plants for our annual native plant sale in St. Johns on April 26 and 27 this spring.  The sale takes place this year in the St. Johns Church parking lot located at 8044 North Richmond Avenue, a block east of last year’s sale location. Pre-ordering online begins Sunday February 25th and lasts until March 24 or until plant supplies last, additionally you are now able to window-shop the 100 native species for sale on the Sparrowhawk website. Every Spring and Fall, Sparrowhawk Native Plants partners with community organizations around the Metro region, providing eco-minded gardeners the opportunity to order…

This fall the Friends of Baltimore Woods were indeed fortunate when Garrett Kaiser of Scout Troop 71, focused his beam of Eagle Scout volunteer light on the slippery dirt trail along the undeveloped portion of North Alta Avenue, which is a trail that walkers can use to access the postage stamp sized parcel of Baltimore Woods known as the Old Oak Lot. To earn Eagle Scout status, one needs to plan, organize and provide leadership on a beneficial community service project.  To increase the safety for walkers, Garrett chose to mobilize his troop members to build a set of stairs and a hand rail along the steep dirt path. In…

What would happen if the Friends of Baltimore Woods (FOBW) had access to rare and unusual native plants, beyond the familiar favorites Portland Parks can provide? How would we plant them in the Baltimore Woods Lower Meadow, which was once covered in asphalt, and has hot, dry clay soil in summer? And what would be the best way to plant them, so that they aren’t in soil either too rich or too hard-packed for them to succeed? These are questions we hope to answer, thanks to a $3,000 grant from (Gardening in America) Garden Club of America.  When the Garden Club of Portland (PGC) approached Friends of Baltimore Woods with the…

Seeds are like a promise, yet to be kept. They encompass hope, toughness, fragility, survival, and new beginnings. They are like a gift, wrapped in the most homely of gift-wraps, but with the best possible payoff when opened – a continuation of new life in our ecosystem. The Friends of Baltimore Woods (FOBW) group is in the midst of a new restoration project, which includes the growing of native wildflower and grass species from seed to increase botanical diversity in our meadow. We hope our project results in a natural area which more closely resembles the incredible biodiversity of Willamette Valley oak meadowscapes, now largely lost to human development. When we were…

  The Friends of Baltimore Woods are thrilled to co-sponsor the showing of the “Once a Braided River” documentary at St Johns Cinema this month. It will play one night only on Tuesday September 12, at 7pm. A panel discussion follows the 53 minute film. For thousands of years the North reach of the Willamette River was a braided waterway of shallow channels and islands, rich in biodiversity and a home to many indigenous communities. Today, after years of human engineering of this natural riparian habitat, the area is designated an Industrial Sanctuary, and a Superfund Site. Along a six mile stretch of Portland Harbor, hundreds of aging tanks store…

Has the record breaking summer heat made you concerned about climate change? Do you wish you could do something? For one day only, on Saturday September 16, if you mention the Friends of Baltimore Woods at check-out, the folks at Sauvie Island Natives Nursery will generously donate 25% of your plant purchase to our native habitat preservation mission. Native plants are naturally drought tolerant and provide habitat and food sources to insects, bugs and bees, which in turn feed native birds and other wildlife. Your investment will have a double benefit. You’ll add plants to your garden that are adapted to thrive in this climate and you’ll support the continuing…

Once again, the Sparrowhawk & Friends of Baltimore Woods Native Plant Sale helped to distribute thousands of new plants into Portland gardens this April.  Thank you to all the volunteers, the FOBW board and owners of Sparrowhawk Native Plants who helped to make this spring plant sale another glowing, or should we say, growing success! This year 8,550 native plants were purchased to be planted in Portland landscapes, including the St Johns neighborhood.  Approximately, 534 people placed plant orders and FOBW earned $4,000 from this event. This is our only annual fundraiser, and helps with our mission of preserving a North Portland nature corridor scheduled to be aligned with the…

Did you know you could adopt a local bioswale and take care of it as a steward? Bioswales are areas along city streets and sidewalks containing rain gardens intended to collect stormwater. They use soil and plants to capture and filter rainwater to reduce the load on the city’s stormwater system. They also help prevent pollution from washing into our rivers. The streets that have bioswales on them are called “Green Streets.” The City of Portland Environmental Services builds and maintains Green Streets all around Portland. Many of the bioswales are available for adoption! The primary stewardship tasks involve trash collection, weeding and clearing of debris from water inlets. Watering…

After an unusually cold and wet May, the Portland area experienced a sudden and rather drastic change to hot and dry conditions. While the sudden heat gave us humans “weather whiplash”, wildflowers in the meadow proceeded to burst into bloom. Friends of Baltimore Woods has been gratified that so many of the native plants, which were planted several seasons ago, are beginning to spread and propagate themselves, with the result that some areas of the meadow were putting on quite a floral display this May! Care has been taken to cultivate many varieties of flowering native plants which bloom throughout the entire growing season, providing a steady supply of food…