Leslie Pohl-Kosbau stands at the entrance of Fulton Community Gardens. She breathes in the scent of ripe tomato plants while watching a hummingbird dart around a bed of flowers. She's been coming to this grid of garden plots for 50 years. It is quiet in the way gardens are quiet. Not silent, but settled. Leslie doesn't describe what started here as something she built. She describes it as something that grew naturally, something neighbors nurtured and the land welcomed.
In 1974, Portland Parks & Recreation hired Leslie as one of its first female gardeners. About a year into the role, her supervisor asked if she could turn a loose collection of garden plots into something real. People were planting vegetables in unused corners and along empty park edges with informal permission.
Leslie got to work.
There was no budget. No staff. No irrigation in most places. Still, in 1975, the first three official Portland community gardens opened: Fulton, Sewallcrest, and Johns.
Leslie tilled the soil herself those first few seasons. She borrowed irrigation parts from the maintenance yard, ran waterlines and hauled tools from site to site. Neighborhood associations spread the word. Volunteers showed up with rakes, shovels, hoses, buckets, and lots of enthusiasm.
"People wanted this," she said. "They were already there. We just listened."
Through the late 1970s and into the 80s, demand grew. More gardens took shape in parks, vacant lots, and even on land cleared for the freeway that was never built. Portland was changing.
At Johns Community Garden in North Portland's Cathedral Park, families settled into the rhythm of growing their own food. Hmong refugees from Laos arrived in the city, many with years of farming experience. Leslie connected them with plots at Johns. Some of those first gardeners' children and grandchildren still plant seeds in those same rows.
In the early years, sites closed each fall and reopened in spring. But gardeners eventually asked to continue through winter. They wanted to tend perennials, restore the soil and stay connected to their plots and community. Gardens shifted to year-round access. Most sites still operate that way today.
Portland Community Gardens was never guaranteed to last. More than once, the program appeared on budget cut lists. Each time, Leslie told city leaders the same thing: Communities were invested. The gardens were part of daily life in neighborhoods across the city.
What she remembers most are the people. A prickly Italian volunteer garden manager at Sewallcrest who had farming in his bones. African families at Fulton planting crops they knew from home. Russian gardeners growing dill and cabbage in straight, careful rows. Laotian herbs climbing handmade trellises in summer heat. Peter, a teacher from China, more observer than gardener, showing how raised beds lift plants out of rain-soaked ground. Each site grew into its own mix of languages, laughter, and late afternoons.
Not every garden started on Parks property. Churches offered space. A restaurant owner in the Eliot neighborhood shared land for nearly 30 years. Madison High School, Leslie's alma mater, hosted a garden on school grounds until the space was needed for expansion. The school is now McDaniel High School.
As the program reached more neighborhoods, shared leadership followed. Volunteer garden managers helped organize work parties and welcome new growers. Leslie taught pruning, composting, and soil care. But she learned as much as she led.
When Leslie retired in 2011, Portland Community Gardens had grown to around 35 sites. The program had lasted almost four decades of seasons and city change. What started as three sites, each divided into individual plots, became a community of gardens people could count on to learn from each other and care for shared ground.
"It's healthy to be able to touch earth. To be able to grow our own food. To have space to do that is incredibly important."
These days, Leslie serves as co-chair of Friends of Portland Community Gardens, an advocacy group she helped create. The all-volunteer organization raises money each year for garden managers to buy supplies for volunteer work parties.
She sees the program stretching across the city with 61 community gardens and more being planned. A lot has changed over the years. But a lot has not.
Her hope is still the same. A community garden within walking distance of every person in Portland, no matter where they live.
When asked what it means to see so many gardens and gardeners thriving after all these years, Leslie smiles. "It was never my program," she says. "It's always belonged to the people."