Archive for pollinator plants – Page 3

Front Yard Cottage Garden Make Over in North Tabor Neighborhood

Posted by Alana Chau

· November 19, 2021

Instant Gratification for Cottage-Style Front Garden Design

Front yard boasts colorful naturalistic landscape plantings with bird friendly water feature in Portland

Front garden plant bonanza! Foxglove (Digitalis) and lamb’s ears (Stachys byzantina ‘Big Ears’) surround a peaceful water feature on a busy street in Portland.

Marian recently moved into her Southeast Portland home and knew how much love and care the previous owner took in the garden. The backyard is beautiful and oversized for the neighborhood but the front yard just looked tired and dull. She hired me to do a complete planting design overhaul.

Hardscape Landscaping makes a great improvement in this residential North Tabor front entry.

Sometimes a path just needs a refresh – in this case the homeowner removed the square pavers, refined the shape, then topped it up with new stone.

Landscape Design To Installation Timeline

Getting from design day to finished garden can take anywhere from 1 month to several years! It depends on the size of the project, the skill of the people doing the work and the budget. This is a great example of a quick timeline for a landscape project. I collaborated with Marian in April to turn her goal (“I want to smile when I walk up the driveway”) into a full garden design and planting plan.

In about a month, Marian DIY’d the entire plan- ripping out plants and the old path, and installing a new path, adding a fountain and putting her new plants in their places. As she will say, she met all of the neighbors finally because she was out front so much. Check out the before photo!

Before photo shows a path that subtracts beauty from a landscape in this Portland residential neighborhood.

BEFORE: the front garden was always well loved, but the planting was tired and dull and the path was not an asset.

Blooms Backed by Evergreens

Even a cottage-style garden needs to have winter structure in order to work. The design’s winter structure includes Carex (Grass), Erysimum (Wallflower), and Calluna (Heather). There are also a few larger structural plants that will take time to make an impact, including Abies procera ‘Glauca Prostrata’ (Dwarf Noble Fir) and Trachelospermum jasminoides (Star Jasmine vine)

Water feature bowl with wildflowers in bloom in Portland Oregon front yard landscape design.

Water fountain with Foxglove (Digitalis). The design incorporates instant gratification plants for the first year to look good while some of the more structured plants grow in. This can be achieved in many ways including annuals, wildflowers and bulbs.

Instant Gratification Gardening in Portland

Most gardens take 2-3 years to fill in. You’ve seen photos on this blog or perhaps watched a neighbors yard take a few years to really grow in. For many people this is part of the joy and seeing fresh mulch without weeds is a beautiful thing. But, if you are the sort that wants the garden to look fantastic in year one, I can share a few tricks.

Hardscape landscaping matters so pay attention to the paths and hardscape. Even the most beautiful plants can’t make up for a path that doesn’t work. All we did was change the line of the path to a simple clean curve and ditch the existing paver materials. The client installed the new path line without a single wobble and now her path sets off her new plants beautifully.
Add lots of bulbs, biennials and annuals: These are easy to buy in bulk or even seed. They add that wow factor that gives the feeling that you’ve really transformed the space. This is the main trick used in this garden.
Plant densely: yes, it costs more to buy twice as many plants and yes, you will have to remove some plants after 5 years. But for the most part, their foliage will knit together quickly and look nice and lush years earlier. Take care that your long term trees and shrubs are properly spaced and planted in their long term location. Do the fun overplanting with bi-annuals, trust worthy perennials, bulbs and annuals too.
Buy big: this one is obvious. Focal point plants or front and center beds that will make the most visual impact and are the best places to splurge. Get a bigger size (aka older plant) to start out with and plant it correctly. This is especially true for trees and it’s as important with boulders and garden art because dinky doesn’t do it.

Echinacea, (Coneflower) Salvia, and Erysimum (Wallflower) provide spring through midsummer color in this Portland front entry garden design.

Echinacea provides a long season of beautiful blooms in the growing season but dies back in the winter. The wallflower (Erysimum) in the background and carex grass in the foreground will provide evergreen structure.

Client Testimonial:

“I truly couldn’t be happier with how everything turned out. It’s even better than I imagined…” Marian in North Tabor Neighborhood of Portland Oregon

Contact Us

Are you ready to transform your garden and smile every time you come up the driveway? Contact us today to get started.

Categories : Before and Afters, Customer Testimonials, Dramatic Flowers, Garden Tips, Plants I Recommend, Water features

Tags : cottage garden, evergreen structure, instant gratification garden, pollinator plants, simple water feature

Wild Style Portland Entry Garden with Curb Appeal

Posted by Alana Chau

· July 17, 2021

Wildlife Friendly Front Yard Landscape Design

Wildlife friendly Portland front yard landscape design with pollinator loving plants.

Abundant Front Garden: this fun and full garden is a pollinator paradise.

The front of Erin’s home is a very wonderful spot to sit. It has a high roof and deep overhangs- perfect for an outdoor loveseat. What the front yard did not have was any reason to sit out there at all. In fact, when Erin bought this home, the large front yard was completely overgrown with weedy grasses. Erin knew she wanted an abundance of plants for beauty as well as wildlife. She wanted her plants to be useful as food for wildlife and for herself. And she wanted something a bit fun and very different from a traditional curb appeal treatment.

Before

Creating a Welcoming Front Walk

Some houses can get by without a walkway from the street, but we knew right away that this wasn’t one of them. This front yard is large and flat and would be filled with an abundance of interesting plants. Creating an inviting walkway through the garden to the front door was on the top of our list. Design is always first about how we walk.

Portland front yard transformation for outdoor living with wild life friendly landscape.

During construction, Carol taking measurements

I mentioned that great spot under the front eve. Before the design, that was actually the walkway to the front door, so it could not comfortably have furniture. We created a new path from the driveway, so that the couch could fit undercover with a comfortable path directly to the front door. Win-win!

Portland front yard new hardscape paths for wild life friendly landscaping.

During: most of the hardscape is complete, including gravel paths and planting beds.

Special Raised Bed for Herbs-Herb Spiral

The house is facing south which means the full sun is in the front. Most vegetables and herbs need full sun so we knew the front garden design would include the edibles. Erin grows medicinal herbs, but a traditional rectangular raised bed didn’t feel right in the middle of this fun, curvy design. So I suggested an herb spiral, a circular raised bed with many different microclimates for different herbs to thrive. Check out this article to see why it is both fun and practical.

Portland front yard landscape has whimsical herb garden.

A raised bed called an herb spiral, nicely protected behind the front yard fence.

Front Yard Fencing Improves Proportion

As Portlanders are using their front yards more and more, front yard fences have become very popular. They create interest and definition, while also creating a separation from the public street. Check out a couple examples from previous blogs: Modern Landscape Design for Kenton Neighborhood Front Yard and St. Johns Front Yard with Rain Garden.

The decorative fence for this yard is made from cedar wood and rigid metal grids. It is often called Cattle Panel Fencing or Hog Wire Fencing. I find it to be very attractive but most important it keeps the family dog safe and confined while Erin snips herbs to bring inside. A fence also keeps other people’s pets out of her edibles garden. Also, because the front yard was quite deep, the fence placement, how it is stepping forward and back instead of a straight line keeps the entry to the home the most powerful feature.

Portland front yard uses cedar fencing with metal panels, often called Cattle Panel or Hog wire Fence

Front Yard Fence: Cedar wood with rigid metal grids

The Power of a Privacy Fence

Which bring me to the power of a privacy fence. This before and after picture is worth a thousand words, as they say:

Portland front yard landscape makeover for wild life friendly garden.

The neighbor fixes old cars, which was highly visible from Erin’s front yard. A picture-frame style privacy fence in just the right spot creates an instant screen. Over time the fence will be softened with the plantings, but sometimes a nice clean fence solution feels great.

Professional Landscape Installation

D&J Landscape Contractors installed both the front and back yards of this home. Mossy Rock boulders were used to berm up different areas for interest as well as good drainage. Compacted crushed rock is the main path material with bluestone accents for highly used or highly visible areas.

Pollinator Plants for the Front Yard

In the front yard, we wanted to focus on great plants for pollinators, fun color, and year-round interest. For our client feeding bumblebees and providing for wild life is very important. To create the naturalistic wild style that our homeowners love, a 5′ wide eco lawn creates the transition between garden and the street instead of bark dust. The elegant curve of the path helps tame the wildness of the eco lawn plants and sets off the plantings beautifully. Here are a few examples: Ceanothus ‘Julia Phelps’, Clethra alnifolia ‘Hummingbird’ and Baptisia ‘Purple Smoke’. Our native small tree a Black Hawthorne, Crataegus douglasii does double duty as it is an important medicinal and food for native birds.