Archive for Courtyard style

Modern Entry Landscape for Portland Hillside Home

Modern style fencing creates courtyard style landscape design for West Hills home in Portland Oregon . Dyed concrete walls and wood fence

A modern fence creates a stylish entry and enclosure for the dog.

Modern Entry for Portland Hillside Home

Unique Front Entry Needed a Creative Solution

My client has a good design eye and she loves modern architectural style and modern style landscapes. However, her new home in Portland’s West Hills had a boatload of difficulties and she wanted a collaborative garden designer who would value her vision and strive to enhance it.

The first view of the house as you approach from the street is the roof.  It’s a classic landscape problem for hillside homes.  This is as far from welcoming as you can get.  You can’t see the front door at all.   The amazing view is in the back and the front yard is small, shallow and often below the road.

Basset Hound with Echinacea flower in his teeth Portland Oregon

Basset Hounds are adorable, but not made for multiple flights of stairs! Source

Courtyard for Curb Appeal

An modern styled entry courtyard would solve curb appeal, make a private sunny sitting area and give us an architecturally interesting entry appeal.  I was prepared for hours of preliminary design to create the perfect enclosure for the courtyard. Instead my client found a photo that was the perfect inspiration and the design came to life.

Courtyard is Dog Friendly

My client loves her dog.  We needed to accommodate the family Basset hound.  The entry area is the only easily accessible outdoor place for the dog.  The idea of a Basset hound with such short legs going down three sets of stairs, so he can potty in the backyard is torturous and potentially harmful for his back and hips. The enclosed courtyard is perfect for keeping the dog safe from cars and predators.

Designer’s Solutions

The fence would cut off  views of the entry from the street even if it was a short fence.  We accepted this and made the fence an attractive, visually strong presence on its own.  We went taller with the fence to block the view of any parked cars and headlights.

Client's choice of modern fencing inspired landscape design in Portland hillside home.The courtyard fence needed to be subordinate to the house. This meant it could not be too visually powerful.

  1. Using the concrete wall at the base of the wood fence gave us two materials which adds interest and lessened the feeling of height from the street view. The height also steps down to follow the slope which makes softens the effect of it’s length.
  2. The fence line also steps back (or bumps out) to break up what would otherwise be a long straight line. Each section that steps back is the length of the 10 foot long entry windows. By repeating the 10 foot length in the fence sections, we easily integrate the house and courtyard fence.
  3. Repeating a line that is prominent in the architecture of the house in the landscape is a classic way to integrate the two together. The step back also creates valuable planting space along the inside of the courtyard walls.
  4. We removed the 1970’s  brick facade on the house entry and replaced the tired aggregate and brick concrete walk with mortar set square  paving stone.

Before photo of entry landscape in West Hills neighborhood of Portland, Oregon

Plantings for the Courtyard Walls.

The plantings for the exterior of the courtyard walls (out on the street side) are tricky. The first section has crushed rock. It’s designed for guest parking. The other step back sections create room for a mass planting of  evergreen ornamental grass.  Carex Morrowi ‘Ice Dance’ was the most low maintenance option.

The entry gate area plantings are very simple and rely on two pots, one larger, one smaller and a very low bright lime colored evergreen ground cover to go around the pots such as cushion bolax, Azorella trifurcata ‘Nana’ . The  charcoal colored dyed concrete base of the fence needs the relief of  bright and light colored plants.

We created the planting plan for the courtyard interior, and designed an echo chamber water feature to enhance the entry experience and to enjoy while sitting outside on sunny days.

overgrown entry landscape in west hills neighborhood of Portland, OregonThe existing rockery style walls inside the courtyard were built with stone that was too small.  It doesn’t look great with the new modern style. Our design replaces 1/3rd of the retaining wall with large boulders. It is surprising to see that large boulders look and feel so good even in small spaces.  Small rock jumbled together to make a wall is rarely attractive and is far from a modern style landscape.

The final touches of the design are still in progress and I am looking forward to seeing the plantings completed.

If your hillside home is in need of a remodel, make an appointment today!Contact

 

Landscape Design in a Day

It's amazing how much food you can grow in a 4x8 raised bed.

Carol Lindsay loves to create unique, practical and affordable landscape designs using her collaborative Landscape Design in a Day process.

Three years into my career as an independent landscape designer I wanted to create a simpler and more accessible process of affordable landscape design for smaller properties.  The result is Landscape Design in a Day, which works like this:

Step 1:  Using the Design in a Day kit, you answer a few questions and measure your site, saving time and money.

Step 2:  Your designer looks over your work and studies your landscape drawing and photos.

Step 3:  Your designer then interviews you over the phone, using email to further prepare for the design day.

Step 4:  Together, you and the designer create a design tailored to your needs.  Usually the design is created at your kitchen table.  At the end of the design day, you have your design and can start working on your dream landscape right away.  And you helped make it possible.

Landscape Design in a Days are typically $2495, occasionally $1895.  This includes the base drawing kit, flow design, hardscape plan and planting plan for the front or the back of a smaller property.  Most of my clients will install or have the new landscape installed in phases so designing just a front or back works well.

When I created Landscape Design In A Day, LDIAD, I expected to be working with people who wanted to keep it all hands-on. It turns out only about 50% of my clients are DIYers. DIYers like LDIAD because they are ready to roll up their sleeves and do the prep for their design process.  They save money and become more aware of their properties possibilities and they fine tune their wish list by completing the LDIAD kit.  Best of all the design is finished within 10-14 days so our clients are ready to get started.

Not a DIYer?  This process works for clients who want a collaborative design process,  want to save time and money but want the new landscape installed by professionals. These clients typically do their measuring and pre-design work but once the design is completed, they hire one of my fully vetted and talented landscape professionals to handle the installation.

Don’t want to measure and draw your base map? A few clients hire us to do this step as well.  That is an option. The price for preparing the base map ranges from $500 – $1000 for a typical LDIAD property.

LDIAD will provide a to scale landscape design drawing with hardscape materials and plantings.  A plant list with plant name, quantity and size to purchase is included.

First we focus on creating the perfect property flow and layout.  Clients and designer work together and finalize the preferred layout.  Next we focus on creating a planting plan.

Once you have your design you can DIY, use my referred professionals or some other professional that you prefer. That is a benefit to using an independent designer rather than a designer who works solely for an installation company where you are stuck in house only. I’m always available to consult, or refer you to services you need if I don’t have the answer myself.

Post design services are flexible:  Some clients hire me to handle all the details, some work completely on their own and some bring me in to guide plant placement and coach them on planting techniques so they can be more successful as DIY.

Here’s a link to my contact form.  Once I have your contact form I’ll look up your property and be better able to tell you about costs and the benefits of my design service.

Ultimate Courtyard Garden

Blog pic Knight in her new courtyard garden Photo Oct 18, 10 30 35 AMCondominium owner Katherine Knight had a tiny disaster back yard.  She went on Angie’s List and found Carol Lindsay Landscape Design in a Day and on the phone we hit it off instantly.  She told me “It all sucks, what I want is a beautiful low maintenance place to chill out with my friends.”  After talking we decided that a Landscape Design in a Day would fit her needs perfectly.

On our design day I found plenty of difficulties, horrible surface roots from the condominium common area trees, deep shade, an avalanche of tree debris and some tricky rules and regulations from the condominium association.

On the plus side, her small back yard looked out on a park like setting of grass and mature trees.  She had a hydrangea gifted from her daughter and a structurally attractive Japanese Maple that we could reuse beautifully.

My client says “it all sucks” referring to her tiny back yard

Katherine also wanted a garden that she could care for into her golden years.  On our design day it became clear that a courtyard would be perfect for her.  I suggested stone walls to create two large planters that would frame the new courtyard.  The surface was “last forever” 2″ thick, dyed concrete slabs that fit over a pressure treated wood deck frame.  This technique was a big money saver.  I added full season, easy care plantings into her planters  and utilized her daughter’s hydrangea in a prominent location.  We saved her Japanese Maple and made it the focal point of the garden by selecting a sparkling copper toned pot and placing it where it could be seen from the dining room table.  She was excited about the design and hired me to help her be her own general contractor for the installation.

“I got everything I wanted and then was shocked at how beautiful it all is.”

I brought in specialty contractors to include my husband, Bob Lindsay, Urban Renaissance, and two other contractors that I have worked with previously. In addition to installing the new design, the irrigation was updated to fit the new landscape.

Kathy said “I got everything I wanted and then was shocked at how beautiful it all is.  My neighbor says I now have the ultimate courtyard garden and I added a $20,000 value to my condominium.”

Kathy and I will work together to design her gate and install her lighting plan in the Spring.