We're incredibly fortunate to have an awesome team of plant-loving people here at Cornell Farm, and we want to show them off! That's why, every so often, we try to sit down for a one-on-one conversation with one of our team members so that you can get to know them better. In today's "Interview the Gardener" segment, we're excited to share our recent conversation with Patio lead Emily Portinga about her gardening ethos around experimentation and building community through plants.
Hi, Emily! You've been here for several years and are now the manager of the Patio, where we showcase annuals and perennials. What's your gardening space like at home?
Right now, I'm very lucky to have lots of outdoor gardening space for container gardening. A lot of my containers are mixed, so I have annuals, perennials, edible items, and other herbs. I test the limits of my container space, that's for sure. I also tend to raised beds at my friend's house. I sort of do the dirty work for them and we all reap the benefits, so it balances really well. They can't keep anything alive on their own, but they do the day-to-day watering, and I stop by to do a lot of clean-up and give them advice. It's pretty sweet and it's a kind of community-building.
How did you get to start with plants? What got you into gardening?
I grew up in the garden with my grandpa, so I have to credit him with my early start in gardening. He's a potatoes and onions sort of gardener – he knows what grows well for him and he sticks to his classics.
In a similar way as I do with my friends, we would go to the community gardens when I was really little and help out the other people who had plots there. I loved weeding as a kid, so it was like a match made in heaven. Weeding is instant gratification. I feel like my definition of weeds and my stance on them now has slightly changed, but one of my first memories of gardening is pulling up all those little sprouts.
How did you find yourself at Cornell Farm?
When I went to school at Pacific Northwest College of Art, my BFA in Animation had a lot of overlap with their ecology program. I sort of got back into the scientific side of plants in college, but I was really looking for more of that practical plant knowledge. When I graduated in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, my five-year plan changed very quickly. The ‘what could have been’ kind of washed away and I found myself here afterward, so life kind of finds a way. I feel really good about being here at Cornell Farm and being with the plant side of things. I think it was meant to be.
I was set on working with houseplants when I applied here. I never saw myself working on the outdoor end. In retrospect, I'm so glad I'm on the outdoor side of things because there's a lot more flexibility.
I feel very lucky so far to have had a lot of outdoor space available to me where I'm living. You can't really grow tomatoes indoors. There's something to be said for houseplants bringing the environment into your home, but going out into the environment and doing the gardening there feels almost therapeutic. It's meditative to shape my containers and water them every morning.
I feel like there's a different relationship with outdoor plants because there are all these natural forces that you are interacting and collaborating with. Sometimes, I call it a dance with nature to garden outdoors. Often, I'm shifting a container at 3 pm to get a little bit more shade, so it’s sort of like a waltz with forecasts, bugs, critters, and the plants themselves.
How would you describe yourself as a gardener?
I like to be the rule breaker in terms of mixed containers and experimenting. I think every gardener has very unique stances on gardening, but there are a lot of personal opinions as rules. I think that my method of gardening is currently being interested in something and trying it out. I like to have firsthand knowledge of something before I fully commit to spreading that information. You can read a lot about a plant, but growing it is where you really learn.
Right now, I have probably five different tomato varieties, so this is where the experimentation happens. I was super excited for them, but I planted them outdoors in probably early March and didn't do anything to protect them from any sort of weather. So, they are alive, but are they thriving? They're very small, but they're loving this 90-degree weather and they're catching up pretty quick. You know, it’s one of those trial-and-error sorts of things.
I don't enjoy eating tomatoes, but you know what they serve as? A great gift! Like with the raised beds, I really see gardening as community building, which is why I love working here at Cornell. I can spread the love of plants. It gives me a really good excuse to talk to my neighbors because I'm too nervous to say “Hey,” but I can say, “I have so many tomatoes, can you take some?”
What do you find most rewarding about gardening and working with plants?
This seems a little selfish, but one of the things I find the most rewarding is proving to myself that I can do it. That's huge. It's sort of a self-trust practice that I have: yes, the plants are outside and they have these elemental factors, but I am showing up every day and doing this thing. That is something I find very rewarding. It's another living thing, so I'm like, “I'm helping you grow and you're helping me grow.”
I love testing out plants so that I can give better advice, especially for people who are too afraid to try something new. It’s reassuring to have a point of reference for what our guests are attempting to grow. There are so many nuances to different gardens like sun conditions, container size, and elevation. There are a lot of details that you need to be mindful of when picking plants. And sometimes you don't know till you try!
What are some of your favorite plants at the Patio?
This year, I have fallen in love with poppies, and people could probably tell from all of the poppies we had for sale earlier in spring. Poppies are sort of ephemeral in a lot of people's minds, but they are such prolific bloomers. That's probably my favorite plant.
One of the things I love about Cornell is that we also do on-site growing, so we get the luxury of having a great supply of plants and especially in the summer, heat-loving plants at the patio. Lantana is probably one of my favorite heat-loving plants. It has multi-colored flower blooms, which are kind of hard to find. It‘s such a tropical look. They're a great tie-in because you get everything from red to orange to pink to yellow and everything in between. And they're such long bloomers – I had Lantana that bloomed until well into fall. Mandevilla is another one of those options that doesn't skip a beat and holds up quite well to the heat. I find that they're so fuss-free, which is another reason I like them. They catch up so well to our fluctuating climate in Oregon. It's just always looking beautiful.
Now is the time for succulents and sedums. A lot of them are coming into bloom right now, which is really sweet. I think they're one of those things that just like plays so well with other full-sun options.
What's the best garden advice you've ever been given?
The best gardening advice I have sort of contradicts everything I have just said: have a focus for your gardening plans!
Make a vision board if you have to. I like to start with what I'm the most excited for, or maybe the thing that's going to be the largest – in container design, you start with the big thrillers and then you build from there. I don't love doing everything all at once. It's sort of like having to see into the future in terms of the garden plan.
Focus and start small – it happens quickly. Your garden will thrive and flourish in three months, but you don't need to have it all done in February. Set realistic expectations at the end of the day. People can get really serious about gardening, but I feel like sometimes we lose the fun of it, which is what gardening is all about for me.
What final takeaways would you like to share about your experience as a gardener?
I feel like with technology we’ve never been more connected, but we're also simultaneously losing that sense of community and connection. Gardening brings your awareness back to the present moment and your immediate environment. You're connected to this container and maybe the bees around it. And that is so powerful.
I need to have hope for the world, and gardening is a practice of hope.
