Archive for Drought Tolerant Garden – Page 2

Low Maintenance Ornamental Grasses for Your Portland Garden: Part 1 of 3

Posted by Carol

· November 2, 2024

Creating Stunning Landscapes with Ornamental Grasses: Expert Tips from a Landscape Designer

Low maintenance ornamental grass, Fescue Elijah Blue in Portland front yard with colorful low water sedum groundcovers.

Drought tolerant and colorful N.E. Portland front yard boasts ornamental grasses like Blue Fescue.

As a landscape designer, one of my favorite elements to incorporate into a garden is ornamental grasses. Not only do they provide year-round interest, but they are also incredibly low maintenance and many are drought-tolerant. Grasses visually tie the plants in the garden together and add a calming influence.

I’m excited to share some insights and tips on using grasses in Portland landscapes and how to keep them looking their best. The grasses I am talking about today are available at most garden nurseries and are perfect for creating a striking, low-maintenance landscape.

Fescue Grass: Elegance in Blue

Festuca glauca – Blue fescue is a stunning choice for any landscape. It’s soft blue hued blades add a touch of elegance and contrast, especially when paired with vibrant perennials like sedums. (They work with so many low water plantings.) Here are some important tips you need to keep your fescue looking its best:

Planting: Space them further apart than you might think – at least 24 to 30 inches. This allows them to grow and shine without overcrowding. Low ground cover plants (under 5 inches) can be planted close by and creep right up to the grass.
Maintenance: Mostly, you’ll just need to comb out the dead foliage in the spring with the occasional spruce up as needed. When they get too big or start getting floppy, split them (very few people do this anymore), or just replace them entirely. They typically look great for about 3 -5 years assuming you didn’t overwater or over fertilize them which can cause rapid growth. I’ve never fertilized mine.
Water Needs: Once established, fescue has low water needs. Figure out how you will water this area much less than other areas of your landscape. If you can’t cut back the water using your irrigation system without damaging other plantings, try re configuring your overhead spray irrigation or close off the section of drip tube by replacing it with tube that has no holes in it. (The term ‘established’ means the plant has been in one place for a full year or two.)
How to Kill this Plant: Water it every day in the summer, over fertilize it, or plant it in a low place where winter water will puddle which will cause root rot.
Companion Plants: In this garden I used sedums, hens and chicks, and lower water perennials like Rudbeckia (black eyed susan) which are excellent companions. The low sedums and succulents fill in around the grasses and add bursts of color. Other low water perennials such as colorful salvias, penstemons and blanket flower (Gaillardia) work well as do dwarf pines or other low water dwarf conifers.

Low Maintenance Reality

Even though you may need to replace fescue every 3-4 years, I still consider them low maintenance. Sometimes I use fescue as a temporary planting, removing them once long term plantings such as dwarf evergreen shrubs have filled in and reached a more mature size. Other times I deliberately use fescue for the long term vision with the client knowing they will be planning to replace them as needed.

For a new gardener this may seem like a lot of work but most garden centers sell Festuca glauca, Blue Fescue varieties that mature in the 8″ to 12″ tall size. They are very easy to find and buy replacements, and are very easy to plant too.
Here are 3 varieties with different shades of blue:
‘Boulder Blue’
‘Elijah’s Blue’
‘Beyond Blue’ chalky white blue 8″ to 12″

Additionally,

Festuca idahoensis x glauca ‘Siskiyou Blue’ 18″ to 24″ tall lasts longer in the landscape if it receives low to no summer water and no fertilizer, but it has a much more wild appearance than the varieties of blue fescue listed above. Additionally Festuca roemeri var romeri and Festuca californica var californica are more eco-friendly choices but might look too wild for traditionally residential landscapes. They are a perfect fit for planting under our grand native Oregon White Oak, support a variety of beneficial insects and pollinators making native a very eco-friendly choice.

Continue reading about Portland low maintenance ornamental grasses in the garden in our upcoming Part 2.

Contact us

Hilary and I love plants. We love making planting combinations that work well together both from a cultural needs and visual spice point of view. Our knowledge can integrate your landscape plantings and take them to a new level of attractiveness and durability.

Categories : Design Basics, Drought Tolerant Garden, Garden Tips, Landscape Styles, Low Maintenance Landscape Examples, No Lawn Front Yards, Plants I Recommend

Tags : curb appeal, drought tolerant plantings, extend plant life, garden tips, low maintenance plants, low water plantings, No Lawn

Low Maintenance Ornamental Grasses for Your Portland Garden: Part 2 of 3

Posted by Landscape Design in a Day

· October 25, 2024

Low Maintenance Fountain Grass: The Steady Eddie of Ornamental Grasses In Your Portland Garden Design

Portland area residential landscape designer.

Fountain grasses planted with late flowering Italian lavender create great textural contrast and cascade down this dry hot slope showing early fall color.

Fountain Grasses: Versatile, Vibrant and Low Water

Fountain grasses are popular for a reason – their graceful, often arching foliage and feathery plumes add movement and texture to any garden. They work beautifully in both formal and informal settings and look great with a variety of plants:

Commercial Appeal: Fountain grasses are often seen in commercial plantings, but don’t let that deter you. In residential gardens, they pair wonderfully with pollinator friendly naturalistic garden plants like heather, lavender, shrubs and many more pollinator friendly perennials that are stunning with fountain grasses.
Crowded Beds: When your planting composition starts to look crowded, it’s time to split or thin out some of the grasses. Many grasses including fountain grass need to be split every 5 years minimum. If you overwater they may flop and they will need splitting sooner. Splitting or thinning out some grass plants keeps the planting composition looking the way we designed it and avoids having the plantings grow into each other. Crowding spoils the beauty of the different plants shapes and how their distinct shapes contrast with each other. I praise the faster growth of grasses over shrubs. Using grasses means we don’t have to wait 5 years or more for the planting scheme to come together.
Versatility: Fountain grasses can fit into various garden styles, from modern to cottage. They’re also a great choice for adding height and interest. Last of all they can be used as temporary plantings while waiting for trees and shrubs to mature.
Modern front walk with grasses, heathers and lavanders in low water landscape.

Drought Tolerant Planting: This plant handles lots of sun, and heat in Portland. Once established most fountain grasses will take plenty of heat with a minimal amount of water. These past two summers we have had high temps for longer periods than usual so the grasses next to concrete may need occasional deep watering to prevent scorched leaves.

Low maintenance Fountain grass in dry Portland garden.

Dry garden in N.E. Portland with Fountain Grass (Pennisetum alocuroides)

Remember, even commonly used plants can create stunning effects when thoughtfully paired and integrated into your landscape. Commercial plantings typically use one kind of plant en masse which is often kind of boring and doesn’t provide the diversity our pollinators need. Pairing fountain grass with dark red hens and chicks and drought tolerant heather (like Calluna vulgaris ‘Mrs Ron Gray’) is an eye catching combination.

Problems with Fountain grass are similar to fescue, overwater, fertilize, or plant in a heavy clay soil that is soaking wet in winter. Dog pee can brown out sections of fountain grass. This urine damaged section often dies out and it doesn’t recover. I never set them close to the public sidewalk in city front yards with lots of dog walkers. Some neighborhoods have a lot more dog traffic than others.

Continue reading about Portland low maintenance ornamental grasses in the garden in our upcoming Part 3.

Contact me today for a custom landscape design that brings your vision to life. Together, we can create a beautiful, sustainable garden that you’ll enjoy for years to come.

Categories : Design Basics, Drought Tolerant Garden, Garden Tips, Low Maintenance Landscape Examples, Plants I Recommend

Tags : drought tolerant plantings, garden tips, low water plantings, modern style landscape, Ornamental Grasses Tips

Add Hen & Chicks to Your Pollinator Friendly Garden: Part 2

Posted by Landscape Design in a Day

· August 15, 2024

Care and Maintenance of Pollinator Friendly Sempervivum

Important Tips for Establishing Sempervivum in Portland, Oregon

Sempervivum shine in this succulent rock garden.

Sempervivum (hens and chicks) in N Portland front yard

Plant them in a well draining soil. They will tolerate our clay top soil as long as it is not in a low spot where water collects. I find adding a half inch of a tiny gravel on top of the soil between the plants every year is very beneficial and may speed getting the plants to multiply into a colony. Don’t bother planting them in heavy compacted clay. They will rot. Don’t put the tiny gravel at the bottom of the hole. They will rot.

Water them once a week the first summer until they are established and a little extra water during very hot weather is a good idea. Be sure to reach down, press and feel the soil, don’t guess, so you don’t over water and rot them. Their 2nd summer you can water them less. After several years they typically survive without much or any irrigation.

Prevent Flowering Until Plants Mature and Have Lots of Chicks

Sempervivum with the center hen and many offsets called Chicks fill a nursery pot in Portland Oregon

It’s better to buy with chicks already in the pot but they are rarely available like this.

It is important to cut the flowering stalk off the first year or two. The hen will send up a flowering shoot and then produce seeds. This exhausts the hen (the center rosette) and it will die, which you cannot afford until the plant has created offshoots e.g. the chicks! This problem is made worse because what you buy is typically a 4” pot with a single hen in it and no chicks.

Hens and Chicks add an interesting texture to contrast with the Portland, Oregon concrete sidewalk

Hens and chicks can be planted next to concrete in sun but there is a limit to how much sun and reflected heat.

Prevent flowering by cutting the flower shoot down low in the leaf rosettes until you have lots of offsets to carry on the work of spreading to create a ground cover. This takes two to three years before you have enough offsets or chicks to carry on. The shoots can be quite insistent so you may have to cut that flowering stalk off more than once in a summer.

If the hen flowers without giving you any chicks you will not have a plant at all come the next spring. In other words…you will not have any plant there come spring if you lost the hen. You may remove the center plant, also called the hen, if it is declining. Once the chicks are actually rooted you can gently cut out the (hens) center plant. I do this primarily for looks. The colony looks better without the dead foliage of a declining hen. Here’s a fun link for propagating hens and chicks.

Lavander, Sempervivum, and Spirea feed the bees in this Portland pollinator friendly planting

Pink flower clusters are what you get when a sempervivum flowers. (NE Portland parking strip)

Support Pollinators

Once your colony is established you can let your hens and chicks flower to support pollinators. You will have to tidy up by removing the dead center rosette so the chicks can grow over the hole the next year. I used to cut all of my flowering stalks out of the rosette (or hen) but now once I have enough of them… I let them flower to feed bees.

Low Maintenance Plant for Portland

Here is your takeaway – Sempervivum Hens and Chicks is an easy low maintenance plant that takes lots of sun and little water is needed for it to thrive. It looks great in the winter because it is evergreen and has fantastic texture to contrast with other low non aggressive plantings. If you are new….It’s more fun to play with plants when they don’t die. If you already love plants you will love playing around with Sempervivum so it’s a great plant for everyone.

Contact Us

Sempervivum is an easy and pollinator friendly plant for our Portland climate. We love to create landscape plans that are pollinator friendly and can support any of our bees, butterflies or birds. Contact us if you want a pollinator friendly landscape design that is interesting, colorful and can be an asset to your home and neighborhood.

Categories : Drought Tolerant Garden, Garden Tips, Low Maintenance Landscape Examples, Plants I Recommend

Tags : pollinator friendly plants

Adding Curb Appeal With No Lawn Landscaping to Portland 1960s Home: Part Two

Posted by Landscape Design in a Day

· May 30, 2024

Pacific Northwest Native Garden Design Updates Portland Home Curb Appeal

We continue to transform the front yard of the windowless ranch house in the Reed neighborhood of SE Portland. The homeowners wanted curb appeal with pacific northwest plantings to give a welcoming feel to their new home. We chose lighter foliage plants to brighten up the dark front of the home and removed the lawn for lower maintenance.

Adding pacific northwest garden plants to this Portland ranch home.

NW Natural landscape style with a new curved pathway works well for 1960’s ranch house.

Plant Selection for Brightness

Since the front of the house was dark, we focused on using gold and light green foliage to add brightness to the space. We also included a large planting of variegated Carex morrow ‘Ice Dance’, an ornamental grass that added a lot of light to the front yard berm. While we initially chose gold needled yews for the courtyard to add brightness, we encountered some setbacks and had to replace them with a dark green variety. Despite this, the replacement plants are still beautiful and will mature nicely with proper care. To cater to Jeff and Lyn’s preferences, we selected late spring to early fall bloomers and included evergreens to maintain neighborhood decorum. We also separated lower water and maintenance plants from higher water needs plants to ensure all plants received proper care.

Muskogee crape myrtle added to pacific northwest garden design update.

Lagerstroemia Indica ‘Muskogee’ crape myrtle adds so much color with attractive form, bark, flowers and fall color.

Lyn initially asked me for a Dogwood tree for our focal point plant but with my guidance ultimately chose a Crepe Myrtle variety called Muskogee. This small tree was multi-stemmed and will showcase beautiful cinnamon colored bark, summer flowers, and stunning fall color. It will handle our hotter Portland summers better than the Dogwood.

Maintenance of Plantings Versus Lawn

Dwarf Yeddo Hawthorne shrub included in pacific northwest garden design for Portland 1960s ranch home.

Rhapheolopsis (dwarf yeddo hawthorne shrub) takes heat and looks great year round. Late spring flowers and good looking evergreen foliage add to its appeal.

Though our aim was for a lower maintenance landscape, some pruning and maintenance will still be necessary. Weeding, especially in the first two years, will be critical. However, Jeff and Lyn are happy to trade mowing for a landscape that requires less watering and no chemicals or harsh fertilizers associated with a lawn. Our landscape design created a welcoming entry for their home, enhancing the curb appeal of their front yard and the overall appearance of the house. No remodel required.

Client Testimonial

“We’re very pleased with how things turned out and appreciate all the work that you’ve done.

Thanks again for everything.”

Jeff and Lyn

Reed Neighborhood in SE Portland

Contact Us

I loved the challenge of updating this 1960s ranch home curb appeal with pacific northwest garden plantings. We enjoy taking our 30 years of experience and applying it to your existing landscape no matter the level of difficulty. We can look at your landscape and see what is possible. Difficult sites are fun but not required. Contact me today, and let’s create a front yard you love to come home to.

Categories : Before and Afters, Customer Testimonials, Drought Tolerant Garden, Garden Tips, Low Maintenance Landscape Examples, No Lawn Front Yards, Plants I Recommend

Tags : curb appeal, drought tolerant plantings, low maintenance planting, low water plantings, No Lawn, nw native plant, NW Natural Garden Style

Adding Curb Appeal With No Lawn Landscaping to Portland 1960s Home: Part One

Posted by Carol

· May 13, 2024

Portland 1960s Ranch House Transformed With No Lawn Landscape

Portland no lawn landscaping helps this 1960s home curb appeal!

This Reed Neighborhood house has a welcoming landscape and entry after working with Landscape Design in a Day

Updating Curb Appeal for Windowless 1960s Ranch Home

As a landscape designer, I recently had the opportunity to transform the front of a windowless ranch house in the Reed neighborhood of SE Portland. The homeowners, Jeff and Lyn fell in love with the house for its great floor plan and proximity to their grandkids. They did not love the front of the house. The front entry courtyard was dark, windowless, and in need of updating. The old front walkway, likely installed in the 50s or 60s, was too narrow, and was damaged.

Portland 1960s home in need of a landscaping update to enhance curb appeal.

The front entry courtyard was dark, windowless and in need of updating. The old front walkway, likely installed in the 50s or 60s was too narrow and was damaged.

They needed solutions to make their front yard more welcoming and aesthetically pleasing. They needed a complete re-haul with creative solutions for a tough situation.

I have used a landscape design process to fix a house before but I was looking forward to this design in particular since the difference in the before and after would be so dramatic and satisfying.

Using my Landscape Design in a Day kit they supplied me with the information I needed to create a customized solution. Happily they were open to removing everything; the front steps, old concrete walk and the lawn. Armed with their preferences, I worked with them to design a landscape that would greatly enhance the curb appeal of their home, create a warm and inviting entry, add functional walkways and good flow to the front door of their home.

A new porch helped with curb appeal of this Portland 1960s ranch home.

New porch and planters soften tunnel effect of narrow courtyard entry.

Creating a Welcoming Entry

The front entry of the house was dark and windowless, which made it feel unfriendly. To address this issue, we implemented four key solutions. First, we designed and built a real porch (not a deck) and incorporated different shapes and sizes of planters and steps to break up the tunnel effect and add interest to the entry.

Additionally, we designed a large well-planted berm, which served as an attractive focal point and helped diminish the tunnel effect of the entry. We added a multi-stemmed, vase-shaped tree to the berm to integrate the house with the land. Lastly, we created a curved path from the street to a center landing point, which complemented the Northwest natural landscape style that Jeff and Lyn desired. Landscape installer was D and J Landscape Contractors, Donna Burdick.

Look for our upcoming Part Two article!

Contact Us

Transforming the front of the windowless ranch house in SE Portland was a rewarding project. I loved the challenge of transforming this difficult front yard and entry without the need for a remodel. We enjoy taking our 30 years of experience and applying it to your existing landscape no matter the level of difficulty. We can look at your landscape and see what is possible. Difficult sites are fun but not required. Contact me today, and let’s create a front yard you love to come home to.

Categories : Before and Afters, Customer Testimonials, Drought Tolerant Garden, Garden Tips, Low Maintenance Landscape Examples, No Lawn Front Yards, Plants I Recommend

Tags : curb appeal, drought tolerant plantings, flagstone path, low maintenance landscape, low maintenance plants, low water plantings, No Lawn, NW Natural Garden Style

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