Welcome to the Medicine Garden
We are a Medicinal Plant Nursery and 2-acre organic Herb Farm. We firmly believe plants are our teachers and allies, providing us with knowledge, nourishment and support as medicine. Through Education, Plant Starts and Medicine we strive to foster resilience, health and community through our love of plants. We know they can help you too!
While we have wrapped up plant sales for the year, plants are still available, and it is still a great time to plant! Below is a list of everything we are growing. Stay tuned as next year we will be adding more native plants and perennial vegetables to the Nursery. Most exciting to me, is that in 2026 all plants will come from seed, root or stem cuttings from plants grown right here in Oregon City! This means that all our plants will have a strong sense of place and know how to thrive in NW gardens!
Running a pretty special deal for the rest of November too! For just $120 I will deliver TEN medicinal plant starts, seeds and hang out for 90 minutes in your garden, getting you all the know-how to be successful with your new plant friends!
Did you know that right now is the BEST time for planting perennials? They are putting their energy into the earth during the cooling weather, building a solid foundation, so they are ready for the upwards pull of spring. Plus, with the rain returning we don’t have to worry about watering!
With our time, we can also ID plants or weeds in your space, identify microclimates in your landscape so we can find suitable places for your new plant friends, etc. Really, however you’d like to use the time to grow better. This is a wonderful time for this offer as fall is the best time for planting, and our brains are full of what worked and what didn't.
I have selected ten plants for their ease of growing in the Northwest as well as covering basic medicinal needs of a household. Included in this package you will be getting 4-inch starts of Skullcap, Echinacea, Marshmallow, Comfrey, Arnica, Blue Vervain, Elecampane, Catnip, Meadowsweet and Yarrow. Substitutions are welcome! I'm also colluding a seed pack for some easy to grow annuals that you can just scatter about in the winter. I promise these will come!
Sign up for our newsletter
So we are going to be bringing back the bi-monthly newsletter! I am hoping to send the first one along February 1st so let me know if you’d like to join! I will be sharing gardening tips, feature a plant that has really been talking to me lately, share where you can purchase these hard-to-find medicines, bits of herbal wisdom, when you can come visit the farm, botany, mycology plus new classes and workshops that are coming up!
Upcoming events and classes
Tending the Winter Landscape
Class will meet on the following Saturdays from 10a to 4p: January 24th, February 7th, February 21st, and March 7th
This series is a hands-on, deep dive into understanding and tending place during the winter months. Participants will learn the secrets to identifying plants throughout the year and recognizing ecological features that tell the narrative of place. With these basics in mind, we will explore hands-on activities to tend the landscape while also providing ourselves with food and medicine. We will see that we can provide for our needs while also improving the landscape around us!
Class will be held at the beautiful Mahonia Land Trust just outside Oregon City, with carpools available from Portland. Folks will take home a bounty of what the land has to offer: medicinal preparations, a mushroom log, plant starts, and the know-how to better serve the landscape around us.
Skills you will learn: Winter twig ID, Ecology, Finding microclimates and planting native plants, Winter tree pruning basics, How to safely fell a tree, Tapping Maple Trees for syrup, Planting mushrooms into a landscape for food and habitat, Harvesting winter plant medicine and Making herbal preparations to new a few.
Class cost is: $700, including materials. Early bird discount: $600 if registered and paid by December 15th.
Gardening for Medicine Class Series
This series will help you create a medicinal landscape in your backyard, working with easy to grow medicines. We will study herbalism, basic gardening techniques, and medicine making on an established two-acre farm. You will leave the program with over 25 herbs stocked up in your apothecary, plus get tons of starts and seeds to move into your space. As the class meets over a 6-month garden season we will get to sink into the long-term rhythm of tending plants. All of this in a tight knit community of just 8 other students.
The Gardening for Medicine series will have a cohort meeting Wednesdays and another gathering on Saturdays, one day a month from May to October. Both options are held from 10am to 4:30pm for a total of 40 hours. The total cost, including monthly herbal harvest of four plants, handouts, seeds and starts galore is $750. Click below, email gardeningformedicine@yahoo.com or call (503) 489 3483 to schedule a time to make sure this is a good fit for you!
Community Supported Herbalism
We also offer a CSH to get our community fresh medicinal plants gathered at their optimal harvest time and with the deepest respect, so that you and yours will be empowered to navigate most common illness. Our goal is to provide a year’s supply of medicine from each plant, and a well-rounded medicinary by the end of the season. Our small-scale approach allows us to sink into the needs of the plants as well as our community.
As we continue to grow we are now offering pick-up options each month too! So if you are already growing certain things, want to double up on something special, or try out a new plant we can help you out! Each month you will get 5 different plant medicines to work with and we will provide you with 7 or 8 options to choose from!
If you are new to Herbalism we host a 2-hour gathering to provide a little back story with each plant, discusss medicine making and cover some herbailsm basics. Plus you will be bringing home quality plants, the best teachers there are!
Pick-ups occur monthly on the following Friday evenings from 3:30 to 6:30 in Portland. The following Saturday pick-ups are an option too, just let us know if that is better for your schedule. Location for gathering your herbs is in SE Portland.
May 28th, June 21st, July 27th, August 29th, September 26th, & October 24th
The cost for a share for our 6-month CSH is just $400 for the season! Payment plans are available. A great thing to do with a friend too!
Community Day
Want to come hang out at the Medicine Garden Farm and see what’s growing?! This year we will host community members to come tour the farm and nursery! we will also take on a larger land project together while we all discuss the magic of plants, learn about growing medicine and grow our community of plant people!
Our next gathering will be on Friday, March 28th from 10 to 2:30. To keep things to a manageable size, I am asking folks to email if they are able to come. I will also work to arrange carpools from Portland and Oregon City. Let me know if you have any questions or ideas.