Four Portland Front Yards Get Landscape Makeover
Pathways are an opportunity to connect your house to the land.
BEFORE: the front yard detracts from the charming Irvington neighborhood bungalow.
AFTER: adding a large concrete landing matches the proportions and value of the home.
Front yard plants are filling in the new design. (2nd year) See Back Yard Design Story
These clients in the Irvington neighborhood had a pretty dinky underwhelming entry path from the sidewalk that did nothing for their home. The 2 huge street trees towering over their home meant the lawn under the trees would never be attractive and besides these clients were retired and the mower needed to be banished.
A new stone landing was installed along with a stone veneer on the porch steps and porch floor. The humpy lawn was removed, gentle grading commenced to include adding boulders and new NW Natural Style plantings. Now the entry of this Irvington home sparkles. The back yard is designed for outdoor living and has a large patio, outdoor dining room and play area for grandkids. Installed by D and J Landscape Contractors.
BEFORE: This Grant Park neighborhood house didn’t have the right path.
The new path is all 90 degree angles and much wider. See more of this project
A New Entry Path Leads the Design for this Historic Georgian Home
Colorful plants in Grant Park includes Little Bunny Fountain Grass
This landscape re-design is an example where changing the entry walk made a dramatic difference to the curb appeal of this historic Georgian style home. This house (in Grant Park of NE Portland) seemed to loom over its land. My clients wanted the landscape design to complement their home. Now the new entry walk (and driveway) has the right proportions and fits with the strong architectural style of the home. The landscape design puts the focus back on the marvelous front porch.
Rain Garden in St Johns – Ranch House
Rain Gardens in St Johns
Before: No front walk leaves ranch house cut off from the neighborhood.
This modern ranch needed a front walk. My clients were done with walking up the narrow driveway. The new front walk from the public sidewalk also improved access from the new wider driveway. Gardeners paths integrate this landscape beautifully instead of lawn. A rain garden works as an accent to the overall NW Natural Style landscape and handles water from a disconnected downspout. We carefully kept the old and lovely vine maple for privacy to the living room window, a mature Fatsia japonica, and several tree like rhododendrons. Some of the new plants in this design are:
Magnolia grandiflora ‘Little Gem’
Erica Carnea-Spring flowering heather
Brunnera m. ‘Jack Frost’-azure blue flowering groundcover with silver and green leaves
Spirea japonica-low maintenance easy care summer flowering shrub
Pinus mugo ‘Sherwoods Compact’ a specialty dwarf pine
This design was installed by D and J Landscape Contracting
Rain Garden Becomes the Focal Point
When my client Amy and I work together I take her design ideas and make them work. This is our 3rd project together in St. Johns Portland, Oregon.
This modern craftsmen style home in St Johns belongs to a serious DIY client of many years. She wanted a working rain garden as the focal point of her front landscape and no lawn.
We worked together on a Landscape Design in a Day to refine her front yard design, rain garden design and add paths and plantings. She acted as her own general contractor and managed the installation. The crew she hired was inexperienced but she was able to guide them. While working with them was quite a bit more work than she expected, she prevailed and the installation finished well with attractive boulder and stone placement. The rain garden handles most of the rain off her front roof. We also made a wide spot in the path for her neighbors to get out of their car into her path. Like many city properties there wasn’t much room between houses. The photo shows her freshly installed plantings fall of 2020.
Some of the key plants for the rain garden are Gold Sweet Flag – Acorus gramiense ‘Ogon’, Inkberry – Ilex glabra ‘Shamrock’ and Juncus ‘ Blue Arrows’ – a cultivated variety of a native rush.
Privacy Landscape Design and Modern Curb Appeal in Kenton Neighborhood
Kenton neighborhood small front entry needs to gather guests from the sidewalk, the driveway and provide a small seating area for homeowners.
This very modern landscape design provides access to the house from both driveway and sidewalk and creates a semi private spot to sit.
This simple modern landscape design gave this Kenton neighborhood home much more than curb appeal. There is a hidden seating area in addition to easy access from the driveway and the public sidewalk. Our clients didn’t need a lot of privacy, but enough to avoid accidental eye contact from walkers by. Clients acted as general contractor and used M and J Landscape from Salem for the install. Alana Chau designed this landscape and placed plants. See more of this project.
The Front Door Entry Was Disappointing
Laurie wanted a fully drought tolerant garden on the south side that could defend itself against neighborhood foot traffic and dogs. Since this was the south side it was a perfect place to explore the more Arid and New Mexico style plantings. It was well over 100’ long and narrow.
Designer contractor collaboration (
“I want to thank you again for your incredible design sense and plant recommendations. We are so happy with our south and front yard – we walk around it every evening, we sit on the new front porch and find so much solace and peace in it. Our neighbors also love it and frequently comment. The world needs more beauty and joy right now!! And how about my beautiful prickly pear (Nopales). It’s grown exponentially from two pads to many!!!”
Victoria had recently purchased a corner property in the city and was ready to transform her back yard into her outdoor living dream garden.
The grade sloped toward the house, toward the side property line and then up to the back fence. The area next to the existing shed didn’t match any of the grades. Solving the different sloping areas was a practical need but the solutions would end up adding spice to the design.
A professional installation meant my conceptual design was approved and improved by an LLC who is licensed to determine and install drainage.
Life can be full of surprises. While installing the rest of the design (DIY with friends) she found a wonderful friend and partner. They added chickens and then started keeping bees and outgrew the garden. After congratulating them on their marriage recently I went to their new property called Hummingbird Hill to design the layout of the new landscape on 5 acres. She says, ” This is my second project with Design in a Day – and likely not the last. I love being included in the design process as it is evolving. I really appreciate how knowledgeable and practical Carol is with a design that is both beautiful and functional. ” – Victoria
Given what they wanted, the key to success was integration. In this case it would involve bringing the walking surface to one grade and repeating hardscape materials. The shapes of the sitting areas, paths and planting beds needed to be one continuous flowing piece.
My clients were very helpful as we worked through the different layout drawings. Due to Covid we also worked over Zoom to finalize our layout. During that process we discover our priorities and so the wish list was winnowed.
It helps to have the design installed by a
CLIENT COMMENTS
