Portland Backyard Landscape Design Renovation
Before Landscape Design
Making a backyard heaven the DIY way started with Peter and Lynn contacting me for a landscape design in the Foster Powell neighborhood. While they are solid DIYers, they also believe in getting professional help where it is needed. They wanted a designer who prefers collaboration with clients. Landscape Design in a Day creates the heart of the design with the clients at their home. This idea was appealing to them and so we found ourselves working together at the kitchen table.
Client desires
This home, built in 1917, had existing plantings and my clients had furnishings they wanted to work into the design.
We kept:
The back property line laurel hedge
The revered and large western red cedar
The old lilac trees for privacy in the summer
Their small apple tree
2 red Adirondack chairs
A picnic table
Free standing stumps to use for fire pit seating
We removed
All of the rough lawn, trees of heaven and other invasive weeds.
They wanted
Design usable areas with good flow and good integration
A deck/back porch seating area, dining area for their
an improved fire pit area
Low water plants, raised beds for edibles
Designers take
I wanted easy inviting access into the backyard. I designed a porch that serves 4 purposes: a threshold level for BBQ with a step down to seating (where we used the red Adirondacks) and built in their raised beds. I love that our BBQ area is large enough to comfortably pass the person doing the BBQing and to access the backyard.
We kept the existing apple tree and it is thriving next to red umbrella.
At ground level I created 2 more outdoor rooms: a dining area big enough for the extra-large picnic table and a fire pit.
Honor the old native cedar tree
I placed drought tolerant plants near the old cedar tree as that would be the best compatible planting companions for the tree.
My first peek at the finished landscape design
The first time I saw the installation of the design was winter. I was so happy to see how the planters around the deck, which make the deck seem more like a porch to me and eliminate the need for railing…………were full of tall overwintering kale still being harvested in early February. Even in winter I could see what an excellent installation they had done. Peter’s only regret with his DIY work was that he did not get the exact crushed rock he requested from the local rock yard. The delivered product would not compact.
I loved how before the design, with the landscape more than a bit rough, Peter and Lynn would still sit out in the backyard even though they had no stairs from the house yet. We are all different but when you love being outdoors, having a fabulous backyard is very important. This garden calls them to come be outdoors. Time spent in this gardenly backyard and memories made are relished.
Clients comment and link to their front yard landscape design
Peter says , “We’re very happy with the design and how everything came together.” Please see the front yard design we created together a few years after the back yard was installed. Sloped front yard landscape design for foster powell neighborhood home.
If you like to do it yourself but need a plan, contact me to make an appointment and start the landscape design process!
We reworked some basic details for the existing front porch. I had her paint the downspout the body color of the house. Such a simple but very effective thing. She also replaced a white wood post with a period metal filigree post. It looks really smart now!
When we prune the euphorbia flowers stems all the way at the base, the remaining young foliage gets sun (because the billow of flowers and flowering shoots are gone) and will grow thick evergreen shoots and leaves. It will become very attractive again in just a few weeks. These leaves will carry all the way through the rest of summer, into winter until the next early summer flowering. Next early summer (early to mid June) the flowering shoots will be cut all the way to the ground again. If you don’t want to 
Wire Vine – Friend or Foe?
Here is a photo showing a hot tub surrounded by a rock wall. It’s just a rubble style rock wall so no one painstakingly picked which rock to go where for the art form. It’s good looking with wire vine planted at the top of the wall. The results are a cascading curtain of delicate looking foliage. The burgundy black stems add color to the winter view from the hot tub and softens the view of the wall. Another benefit, they don’t have to pull weeds out of the rock crevices because the wire vine does not share well with other plants. No weeding sounds like low maintenance to me. (Muehlenbeckia axillaris ‘Nana’ in photo)
Muehlenbeckia complexa ‘Big Leaf’. This plant is less cold hardy than the smaller leafed type so could die in a bad winter but I’ve had it last for years in some client’s gardens.
One of the common mistakes with Manzanita is to underestimate the width of the shrubs and small trees. Most cannot be pruned heavily and can be rendered so unattractive by pruning that tries to contain them, they will be removed. If you have no pruning skills (and most people don’t) be sure to place these plants where they have room to mature with yearly tip pruning only.
