Gallery

Hillary’s Garden Makeover

When your client asks for “cottage-core-traditional-hippie”

From weedy Euphorbia and a single raised bed to a prolific edible garden – complete with drip irrigation for hot & dry Portland summers. Hillary’s backyard had 4 zones for planting, one on each side of her lovely patio, and this back area had the least structure and most sun, a perfect spot for her raised beds and trellises.

On the opposite side, the bed against her house, tall and gangly red roses and sprawling junipers. She didn’t particularly like any of the plants in this bed, so we decided together to start fresh! I brought in a mixture of native plants & hardy drought-tolerant beauties with dark purple & white flowers. Taller shrubs in the back, graduating to smaller perennials, and finally smaller ground cover plants to spill out over the rocks in the front.

In her front yard a few plants she loved were kept (small Japanese maple, California poppies & hydrangeas) and I created a colorful sunset palette of drought-tolerant, pollinator attractors to match the poppies which were blooming in the middle of the bed at the time. I kept the front bed mostly native plants with lots of bright colors from ice plants, apricot agastache, pink yarrow, and fuchsias.

Amy’s Blank Slate

Feathery grasses, silvery green foliage, white flowers, and lots of native plants!

Two empty beds & a client with a vision! Amy had a full Pinterest board of dream gardens for me to take inspiration from, and even had a starting plant list with some of her favorites!

We consulted back & forth quite a bit to get the layout just right, and I persuaded her to opt for a small tree in the middle of the bed by her driveway to eventually provide a bit of privacy from the neighbors shared drive. We decided on a small olive to fit her Mediterranean theme.

On the opposite bed by the fence I mirrored the palette & theme with lots of textures with heaths, hebes, grasses & artemisias. I popped in some poppies here in the front, and planted a dwarf ninebark in the center.

On the far end I included Amy’s requested hydrangea, but opted for a panicle instead of her requested oak-leaf due to the proximity to the fence and the sheer size of a mature oak leaf in this tight spot.