Archive for curb appeal

Attractive front entry with steel riser steps, big pavers and balanced hardscapes

Preparing Your Landscape for Selling Your Portland Home

Posted by Carol 
· January 28, 2025 

Spruce Up Your Yard for Curb Appeal: Expert Tips from a Landscape Designer

Are you planning to downsize in the next few years?  You might be ready for a simpler life, but before you sell your house, giving your yard a touch-up—or a full redesign!—could make a considerable difference in attracting potential buyers and getting the best offers.

Before photo shows our clients in N. Portland started a re-design with newly poured concrete but got stuck, stopped and called us.
Attractive front entry with steel riser steps, big pavers and balanced hardscapes
This front yard landscape in Kenton neighborhood in St. Johns gets an A for curb appeal and feels welcoming.  Nice work by the clients and our designer Alana Chau.

However, the good news is that you may not need to spend a fortune on a total yard makeover! As a landscape designer with extensive experience designing front landscapes to look and feel inviting, I have some friendly tips to share with you.

1. Consult Early with Professionals

Usually, I suggest my clients consult with a realtor (yes, even two or three years early) or a landscape designer like me with experience in preparing home landscapes for resale. Why? A professional will help you determine where to invest your money effectively. We are impartial to all the personal details of your landscape.  There’s no need to fix every little thing; you just want to address what’s truly necessary. Realtors and seasoned landscape designers like myself have the insights needed to pinpoint and address potential buyer’s priority concerns.

2. Curb Appeal: First Impressions Matter

A bad curb appeal photo can be a deal-breaker these days. Plan now to ensure your entry photo is a wow factor or at the very least, has no unattractive views. Take a few photos from different angles and ask a friend for their opinion. Sometimes, a fresh set of eyes can spot things you might overlook.

No front walk to the front door is a curb appeal problem!
No front walk is a curb appeal problem.
After photo shows how the front landscape adds curb appeal.
After design and installation by D and J Landscape Contractors this front landscape feels and looks inviting.

3. Screen Unattractive Views

Looking into a neighbor’s yard or window from key areas of the home can be off-putting for potential buyers. People feel strongly about privacy. I often design for homeowners within one or two years of their moving into a new home, and I’ve noticed that a lot of the initial discomfort due to lack of privacy tends to fade over time.  However, to appeal to a buyer’s initial concerns, providing more privacy or screening than you have needed maybe crucial. Starting now means you can plant something that shows promise of future screening, even if it hasn’t reached its full height by the time you move.

4. Enhance Key Views

Privacy fence for ADU in north Portland, Oregon

Views from picture windows and master bedrooms are key selling points. Block unattractive views, such as a shed, with a well-placed small tree or large shrub. Remember a plant is not always the solution.  Enhancing these views can transform the space into a tranquil retreat that buyers will love.

5. Keep It Simple

Synthetic lawn and colorful plantings give this NE Portland front landscape landscape design welcoming appeal.

An overly manicured landscape or one with lots and lots of cottage garden style plantings can scare off potential buyers. A simple yard with a neatly shaped lawn and well-maintained planting beds is more appealing. If you have a native plant area that looks very natural, consider getting a backyard bird certification sign. The certification sign can give the impression your natural styled outdoor space is deliberate and cared for.

6. Avoid the Appearance of Ongoing Projects

Ensure that nothing in your yard looks like a project for the potential buyer. Buyers want to envision themselves moving in without additional hassles. A clean, well-maintained yard says “move-in ready.”

Wrapping up

Following these tips can spruce up your yard without the expense of a total makeover.

PS: Remember, while Realtors are experts in market trends, don’t underestimate the value a skilled landscape designer can bring to the table. We’re here to help make your yard look its absolute best, ensuring a smooth and successful sale!

Contact Us

Contact us for a landscape design that takes into account the future of your property whether you plan to live there 20 years or three.  We love to draw up our designs inspired by ideas from your dreams but you can count on us to lay the foundation for future resale. 

Categories : Before and Afters, Garden Tips, No Lawn Front Yards
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Low Maintenance Ornamental Grasses for Your Portland Garden: Part 3 of 3

Posted by Landscape Design in a Day 
· November 10, 2024 

 

Switch Grass is a Native, Low Maintenance Addition to Your Portland Garden Design

Panicum virgatum American Switch Grass glowing red in mid summer in Portland Oregon

Panicum virgatum American Switch Grass ‘Ruby Ribbons’ glowing red in mid summer in Portland Oregon

Switch Grass: Colorful grass blades with drought tolerance too

Switch grass is a native American grass that offers dramatic color and form, making it a standout in any garden:

  • Mass Planting: This grass looks fantastic when massed or used as a focal point. It’s particularly effective in modern landscapes but fits well into naturalistic gardens too.
  • Seasonal Interest: With its vibrant mid-summer and fall colors, switch grass provides interest when many other plants are fading. I have noticed many of the newer varieties of switch grass blades color up even by mid June depending on how hot it has been.
  • Water Needs: Once established, switch grass is very low water. However, it’s crucial to plant it in well-drained soil. Avoid areas where water can puddle, as this will cause the roots to rot. If you still have powerful overhead sprinkler spray be aware the water spray can cause these grasses to fall over.  Drip irrigation is better for this reason and that it is easier to water deeply and infrequently which is a perfect fit for this grass.
  • Height Considerations:
  • Stick with grasses under 4′ tall for low maintenance.  I always use shorter cultivars 36 to 44 inches tall to avoid my clients having to add supports.  But, taller varieties (such as 6 or 7′ tall switch grass) can be so stunning if you’re willing to put a ring or other support around the plant in spring.  Piet Ouldalf, a famous garden designer uses heavy metal rings with feet (the ring was about 14” to 18”) around his 6′ tall ornamental grasses.  I found this video link on the web for a grass ring but wow these grasses in the video are huge and much wider than any of the tall grasses that I use.   I was in Piet’s garden back in 2001 and saw the supports he uses.  It made me laugh because I had thought when my tall grasses flopped that I was overwatering or doing something wrong but even the master uses supports for tall grasses.  If you are an adventurous gardener, willing to use supports, go for some of the tall varieties like 8′ foot tall Thundercloud Switch Grass.

Switch grass used as a colorful entry walk plant in S.W. Portland in a drought tolerant garden of grasses, herbs, and succulents.

Switch grass is a versatile and resilient choice, offering beauty and adaptability to various garden styles.  It doesn’t provide well for Willamette Valley native insects but it pairs beautifully with pollinator friendly plants like Blanket Flower, Salvias, Penstemons and more. It makes an orderly but loose effect with native pollinator friendly shrubs like Coyote Bush.

Bringing It All Together

Sedum Autumn Joy contrasts beautifully with Switch Grass (Panicum virgatum background) in Portland garden.

Creating a custom landscape design requires a deep understanding of plant behavior. As a landscape designer, my goal is to select plants that not only look beautiful but also thrive in your specific environment with minimal maintenance. Here’s how I can help:

  • Custom Designs: I tailor designs to fit your space and lifestyle and your eco consciousness.  I won’t proselytize but am happy to create plantings that feed our native insects.  Birds gotta eat too and what they eat are insects.  Or maybe we will only use a few native plants and use more non native plants that help bees and use less water all without cramping your style.  Whether you want a low-maintenance garden or are more interested in plants that require learning how to care for them… I’ll create a plan that works for you.
  • Knowledge and Experience: I understand how different plants grow and perform and what it takes to care for them.    Lets create a thriving and vibrant planting plan for your new landscape.
  • Personalized Advice: We’ll discuss what “low maintenance” actually means to you and design a garden that meets your expectations and provides the stunning visual appeal you expect from a landscape designer.

Get in Touch

Creating a custom landscape design is more than just picking plants – it’s about understanding how they will perform in your unique environment and how much care they will need.  If you’re ready to transform your garden, contact me for a phone consultation. Let’s create a stunning, low-maintenance landscape tailored to your needs and preferences.

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

Additionally,

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
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Custom Landscape Design for Your Portland ADU: Part 2

Posted by Landscape Design in a Day 
· July 2, 2024 

Many Types of Portland ADUs Requires An Experienced Landscape Designer

Finding a design/build contractor with an emphasis on design is necessary to learn what the potential of your property will yield. There may be multiple ways to site the structure. Exploring options with both your contractor and your landscape designer is the path to a great design that fits you and your property. I have worked with multiple clients with different needs and obstacles for their ADU custom landscape design. Here are a few examples.

North Portland ADU Requires Privacy

Privacy fence designed for ADU landscape in north Portland, Oregon

An interesting screen design creates privacy between the original home and the new ADU designed by artisan Doyle Gamble.

One of the challenges of this ADU was having a need for separate privacy with the new ADU build and the owner’s home. In order to separate the ADU’s outdoor living space from the home, a modern privacy fence was constructed. This left the original entry to the home untouched and gave wonderful light to the ADU.  After completion, the house still looks like a single family home, which is what the clients wanted.

North Portland

Portland Oregon Rose City neighborhood ADU has a sitting porch which faces the street and custom landscaping.

This ADU is designed for ADA compliance. and is fully wheelchair accessible.

This ADU was built in the deep backyard of a Portland home which faced the street behind the property. The ADU required wheelchair access and compliance with the American Disabilities Act. And the clients wanted a relaxing and attractive landscape that many people would enjoy, as the ADU was built to be a rental.

Beaumont Wiltshire ADU

This custom landscape incorporated new paths and living spaces around a Portland ADU.

This studio/ADU and landscape were designed together for a perfect fit by Landscape Design in a Day and installed by D and J Landscape Contracting.

An outdoor living area was wanted by clients in Beaumont Wiltshire neighborhood that included an ADU. The landscape design included walking paths and an echo chamber water feature with a drilled boulder for the water feature. Clients used a customized manufactured shed as a studio and guest room, which was quite lovely.  While not an official ADU since it has no plumbing, this family uses the studio every day.

Hillside ADU Willamette Heights

NW Portland hillside custom landscape design includes ADU musicians studio with Timber tech decking, a folding door system and cedar tongue and groove siding for the ADU's exterior.

Timber tech decking has 3 board widths in a repeating pattern adding interest to the decking. The folding door system allows the entire studio to be open to the deck.

Creating a garden design for a hillside ADU in Willamette Heights neighborhood, included taming the hillside by use of decking.  The doors on the ADU accordion open and the studio becomes a stage for the musicians inside. The deck of this musical ADU and a curved block wall provide seating.  My clients selected the modern style of the studio and I selected the location where it would go and how the decking would fit with the hillside garden design.  The clients, landscape designer and the builder worked closely together to bring the practice studio to life.  The clients found the folding door system which adds so much more functional use and integration between the deck and the studio.   I was able to influence this project from beginning to end.

If you are considering an ADU or studio for your property, don’t wait to include me as your custom landscape designer in the process.

Categories : Accessory Dwelling Unit ADU, No lawn back yard, outdoor living, Tree Selection
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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
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