Prior to 2019, for a few years, I lived in a condo overlooking the Columbia river. The view was great, but I was in an odd situation as a landscape designer without a landscape. My wife and I started looking for a property with more space for our boys and my parents- and we ended up out near Glendoveer Golf Course. Our new home had a huge yard- yay! The huge yard was covered in ivy, blackberry, and dead trees- boo!

We have now had over 3 years to work with the garden and it is starting to feel like I want it to. It isn’t finished (gardens are never finished) and it is not yet mature. But I am happy with where it is at and the pace of changes and additions has slowed.

Below are some pictures taken recently. The garden was not prepped for the photos, but the lighting was fantastic. If you want to know more about my design process for the garden keep reading below, and check back for (hopefully) regular updates. Have a question about my landscape? Leave a comment below!

About My Garden

This garden has to meet a lot of demands and is, in some ways, challenging. Here are some of the considerations that have gone into the design:

• It has to fit my style along with my wife’s. We are drawn to many of the same things, especially gardens that are a bit wild, but also have some areas where we differ. For example, I bought a flowering plum with dark purple foliage. We then discovered that she doesn’t like most purple foliage (or at least not on that tree in this yard). It was moved to a sloping area outside the main yard, where it is less conspicuous.

• This is a test garden. It isn’t just my garden or even my family’s garden. Really, it belongs to all my future clients who will benefit from what I am learning here. This spring I seeded microclover in a bunch of the front yard planting beds. I have been thrilled to see how it keeps weeds away, shades the dirt so I need less water, and (to my eyes) is cool looking. I can’t wait to recommend it to my clients if their situation calls for it.

• The garden needs to be playable for my (4) boys and dog. I have found out through trial and error what plants are tough, and which ones just look tough. A beautiful swath of New Zealand sedge became a favorite lounging spot for our dog, Luka. I thought the sedge would be fine, but it was quickly rendered flat, broken, and dead. I am not experimenting with Blue Star Creeper in that area.

• Maintenance needs to decrease over time. I am a pragmatic designer and gardener and know that new plants require care. But over time, as the garden matures I want it to take less and give more. The key to this is lots of plants. When your garden is covered thickly with plants you can’t see the weeds (plus they get crowded out) or leaves as much. Instead of needing your plants to be surrounded by pristine bark dust you surround them by layers and layers of other plants. This is working really well, and I’ll write more about it later.

• Water needs should be reasonable. Many of the plants I have chosen are considered “drought tolerant” and most of the rest are ones I can train (by less frequent, but deep, watering) to be drought tolerant. And if have chosen something that needs more water it has to deliver something aesthetically that I consider “worth it”. I hand water, so these decisions are not made lightly!

• Birds should love my garden as much as I do. We love sitting on the back patio watching the birds and squirrels. The small water feature (a tsukubai, or bamboo spout and basin), bird feeders, and bird friendly plants ensure we get tons of birds. Sometimes it feels like the whole yard is flitting and moving and various flocks take turns at the water spout.

• My lawn should thrive on neglect. I do not, in most use cases, believe in traditional lawns. I have kids and a dog so I want some lawn. But I don’t want a golf course or monoculture. So my lawns have been overseeeded several times with eco lawn mixes from the great people at Portland’s Protime Lawn Seed. My lawn is not “perfect”, in fact it is full of mole hills, dog bombs, and stuff that is technically not grass. But, it is covered in white blooms in spring, gets mowed less than 10 times a year, only gets watered by accident, and is full of happy bees.

• Our style is eclectic. I love Japanese gardens. And modern gardens. And “Dutch Wave” landscape design. I also have some favorite plants, such as Manzanita, Natchez Crepe Myrtle (the bark!), and Spaan’s Dwarf Pine. My wife wanted (and got) a grove of Quaking Aspen. And when I visit Portland area nurseries, especially great ones like Cistus, I come home with plants and have no idea where they are going to go….

• The site has some challenges. Our soil is fantastic. It is sandy and drains very well, which is awesome in the winter. The garden was neglected for over a decade before we moved in, so planting beds were filled with ivy. Ivy is essentially a giant compositing machine- debris falls into the ivy, gets covered with leaves and shade, and goes back to the dirt. When you clear the ivy you get the benefit of all that. However, I my property is ringed by tall trees, mostly firs. So I contend with a lot of needle drop and, worse, some big areas of “dry shade”. And I have just one small bed (the one full of pots in the pictures above) that is full sun. Many of my flowering plants bloom later than expected or less than expected.

If you read this far, thanks! I intend to start profiling specific plants and elements (like my water feature, corten fire pits and planters) in separate posts, so you (and I) can see what has worked, what hasn’t, and what needs some more work. Stay tuned!