What is the Oak Creek Center for Urban Horticulture (OCCUH)?

The Oak Creek Center for Urban Horticulture is located on a 6-acre plot on Oregon State Campus, on the banks of Oak Creek, on the corner of 35^th and Western Ave.  The center serves as an excellent resource for students to learn about and become involved in sustainable horticultural practices. 

Soils surrounding the OCCUH

...what did we do there?


 Upon arriving bright and early at the center, we met up with one of the facility’s head coordinators, Cody Buckman.  Cody gave us a tour of current projects happening at Oak Creek, such as new composting facilities, cover-crop experimentation, organic vegetable gardens, green house gardening, and vertical gardens.  After touring the facility, we began harvesting a variety of peppers, composting excess vegetation, and trimming perennial bushes for over-wintering. First, we harvested poblano pepper plants and hung them in a greenhouse to dry.  In order to do so, we removed the entire plant, while leaving the roots in the soil to add organic matter. We trimmed any excess leaves or stems off of the plants to prevent the fruits from rotting. When dried, poblano peppers will become ancho chiles. Next, we planted seeds for salad greens and radishes, which will grow in the greenhouse during the winter.  We then continued to harvest over 150lbs of bell and jalapeno peppers, which will be donated to the Linn-Benton Food Share.  Overall, the day served as a learning experience about organic farming practices and soil management techniques.  This gave us a unique opportunity to see the knowledge and effort required to produce the food we often consume with little thought to it’s origin. 

OCCUH's vertical garden