Berry Creek Garden, a place to visit in McMinnville, OR

It's thanks to Social Media (the thing everyone loves to hate) that know Lee McCollins. I met Lee back in 2022 when he invited me down to Durant at Red Ridge Farms for a book signing. 

Because of Instagram, I knew Lee had opened a shop in McMinnville, Oregon; Berry Creek Garden. I am a sucker for a well designed space and I could tell this small shop had it dialed in.

Squeezed in between two tall buildings Lee has made the most of what he has to work with.

Inspiration is off the charts here.

There are four little me reflected in those gazing balls.

Isn't this a perfectly dreamy location?

Agaves do belong in Oregon! I would add this; plant your agave higher than the surrounding soil (not so much in a hole, but at the top of it) and work away the potting mix that the plant came planted in, so the roots are in contact with the native soil.

Wow...

Mangave 'Spotted Porcupine' 

The plants on offer at Berry Creek are not your regular garden center perennials, not even close. Like this Billbergia nutans...

Great labels too...

Artemesia versicolor 'Seafoam'

I'd be a regular visitor, if Berry Creek Garden wasn't over an hour away from my home.

That upcoming talk on growing your own Backyard Cut Flower Garden? That's a class taught by my friend Hayden Smith of Big Oak Flower Farm (it's a small world when you're a plant person in Western Oregon, and I wouldn't want it any other way), I visited Hayden on her farm back in 2024.

At the back of the long narrow space (I think it was once an alley?) is a charming building with books and gifts and other accoutrements.

To the right is an entrance to Mac Market, just the kind of space I'd love to have in my neighborhood.

Inside the shop...

Lee mentioned these windows came from an old family restaurant in Portland, and he'd had them in storage for years waiting for the right place to use them. This is definitely it.

If you find yourself in McMinnville, Oregon—maybe on a wine tasting adventure?—look for this rusty metal tiara at the entrance and check out Berry Creek!

Oh ya, and I left with this fern, Cheilanthes argentea (aka silver cloak fern).... so good!

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