Mission Street Parks Conservancy is excited to announce our annual Art Fair Plant Sale in conjunction with the Salem Art Fair at Bush’s Pasture Park! Friday, September 13, 2024: 10am – 7pm Saturday, September 14, 2024: 10am – 7pm Sunday, September 15, 2024: 10am – 3pm The plant sale is located in the blissful shade…
The woodland garden project at Bush’s Pasture Park took another step towards reality today when volunteers cut an opening through the hedge into the new garden space. Over the next 6 weeks, the City will level the uneven ground, grade two paths, and install irrigation. Then, in mid-October, volunteers will begin planting trees, ornamental shrubs,…
The Tuesday Gardeners wasn’t the first volunteer group Anita Engberg joined when she moved to Salem in 2013. That was the Willamette Humane Society which she joined just days after moving here. It was 6 months later, in January of 2014, when she learned of the Friends of Bush Gardens through a coworker of her…
In 2005, the Oregon Legislature adopted the Dawn Redwood Tree (Metasequoia) as Oregon’s state fossil. The story of how this came to happen and how a “living fossil” came to grow in Bush’s Pasture Park is a fascinating one. Dawn Redwoods were common during the Paleocene and Eocene Epochs (beginning about 55 million years ago),…
If you follow our Facebook page, you know we spend a lot of our time mulching landscape beds and tree circles. It’s a task that is both never-ending and strangely satisfying. It’s also critically important for the long-term health of the park’s plant collection. Mulch is any loose material that covers the top of the…
Mission Street Parks Conservancy is excited to announce the kickoff of our next project in Bush’s Pasture Park! The City of Salem has authorized development of a new Woodland Garden in an unused area near the Conservatory (greenhouse) and the Bush Barn parking lot. The new garden, designed by Michael Slater and Gretchen Carnaby, will…
Donna Shepard is one of our dedicated greenhouse Tuesday Gardeners.. She’s been volunteering with our group for over 20 years, starting back in the days of the Friends of Bush Gardens. I’m always curious to know what brought someone to the Tuesday Gardener group to begin with. For Donna, it was a lecture on winter…
This week, the Tuesday Gardeners moved into the historic Orchard area of the park, which holds the majority of the Lord & Schryver flowering tree collection. The area also holds 9 landscape beds, some dating back to the early 20th Century. This week, we weeded, edged, and mulched three of the beds. Unfortunately, hot weather…
Mission Street Parks Conservancy is once again holding the annual Summer Plant Sale in conjunction with the Salem Art Fair at Bush’s Pasture Park! • Friday, July 15th: 10am – 7pm • Saturday, July 16th: 10am – 7pm • Sunday, July 17th: 10am – 3pm Located next to the Art Barn at Bush’s Pasture Park,…
If you’ve ever asked Gary a question, chances are you know it’s not easy to get a direct answer from him. His life story is no different…circuitous, often looping back to Oregon in his first few decades. My first question to Gary got an easy answer. How long have you lived in Salem? 5 decades…