Archive for garden art

Water Features for Dog Friendly Landscapes

Dog friendly water feature in Willamette Heights neighborhood Portland Oregon

Jack and his water bowl

Water Features for Dog Friendly Landscapes

Lots of dogs love water.  It’s just a fact of life.

And sometimes, or maybe all of the time, when I have clients with a furry friend, the dogs “opinions” are part of the equation when designing a new landscape for the whole family.  There are many aspects of  a landscape design to consider when creating a compatible situation for two species.  Water features are one aspect.  People and dogs want to enjoy the water feature but they have different ideas about what is fun.  For people the sound of water can make a landscape feel like a garden and has a way of taking a space and turning it into a place.  Dogs have different ideas.

I started using echo chambers to create water features for my clients some 20 years ago when the echo chamber (designed by local Lew Smith) was a new thing.  They were safe for kids and easier to care for but then I saw how much the dogs loved them and that if I planned well most dogs could interact with the echo chamber water feature without harming it or themselves.

Take Jack Hofmann, a dog who knew a good thing when he saw it.

Jack and his Echo Chamber

I was hired to create a new entry design for a sweet old Portland craftsman home.  Technically the water feature was designed and placed to enhance the  new entry and to see it from inside the dining room.  Now Jack is kind of a one person dog, so he never fawned over me, much as I would have liked that. He would remember me politely when I came to check on his guardians landscape but when the water feature was installed, he claimed it immediately as his own and posed for me. He knows where his new toy came from.

I wasn’t the only one smitten by Jack’s photo. I was interviewed for an article in Houzz (check it out!) and his mug was featured in  “Protecting Your Pet From Your Yard and Your Yard From Your Pet”  a comprehensive article about dog friendly landscapes.

Jack’s “water bowl” is pottery plumbed into an Echo Chamber, which is a steel box under the pottery.  It creates an easy to care for water feature with great sound and because it has a dry return instead of a pond, it’s safer for kids.  There is no pond to worry about or a liner you need to keep safe from dog claws.  Read more about Echo Chambers in this blog post.

Water Feature for dog friendly landscape Portland, Oregon

This black lab thinks the water feature was set up to quench her thirst.

Zoey’s Spitting Frog Fountain

Some dogs specifically like to drink the water and make a game of it.  Does your dog love it when you get out the garden hose?  Your dog would love a water feature.  Zoey, a plump black lab loves water. This frog spitter fountain is an  inexpensive water feature that pleases people and the pups.  It’s safe for kids because no pond. The water pump recirculates the water through the frog and is under the round rock surface safe from doggy attention.

Remember to design access to the water for the dog and for kids too. If you plant all around it, expect those plants to be trampled.

Water Feature hydrant for dog friendly landscapeFireplug Water Feature

My client Patrick is a retired firefighter. He plumbed an old fire hydrant to use with his echo chamber.  The water feature was specifically designed for his dogs to drink out of.  The dogs loved their fire hydrant water feature and their new back yard which had two fences running parallel at the back property line.  This plant-less space between the fences was their  daily race way.

The Big Rock

Standard poodles and the neighbors kids loved the big rock (Montana Mud 8′ across) water feature which was a focal point for a home in Raliegh Hills.   I would find tiny little plastic toys and tennis balls tucked here and there, evidence of neighbor kids and tennis ball obsessed poodles who played in this water feature.  My clients thought this was adorable and loved how this unusual water feature looked with their NW Natural style front yard.

Water feature for dog friendly landscape in Raliegh Hills Portland Oregon

A fun water feature for two poodles.

 

For many people, life is better with a dog and designing a happy outdoor life for two species, not just one, is what makes happiness for this designer too.

 

Landscape Designers Garden Tour 2017

Landscape Designer Carol Lindsay at Designers Garden Tour - M Wynton design

Whimsical Iron gate at Designers Garden Tour 2013

Designers Garden Tour

Save the Date:   June 17, 2017

Saturday from 10 am – 4 pm

This is my favorite event of the year.   It’s not a typical garden tour where the focus is only on attractive plant material.  Each landscape from the paths to patios, plant vignettes with art, unique edible gardens, rain gardens was planned.  Expect to see unique use of space, dramatic layouts, small landscapes with surprisingly useful spaces, privacy screens and plantings, recycled materials used in new ways and much more.  Fusions of modern landscape design, cottage garden and NW natural landscapes will be seen, admired, and shamelessly copied. Each year garden artists compete to have their art installed in the gardens for the tour.  Some art will be available to purchase.

Take some great photos!!  A vignette with the balance of color and proportion has been created for your viewing pleasure.

Love plants?  You will see plants that are new to you or see familiar plants used in new and fun ways.  There is a lot of opportunity for copying great ideas or simply appreciating landscapes that are so well integrated.

Designers Garden Tour 2016

Helena Wagner, 4 Season Gardens – Colorful entry garden.  Designers Garden Tour 2016

 

The tickets are $25.00 and the profits support educational programs for landscape design students at local colleges.

If you like getting a discount for early ticket purchase, here is a link.  Typically discount tickets are available until May 1st.  So hurry and get your discount and have your tickets mailed to your door.

St. John's Wort

New variety of St. John’s Wort is perfect for flower arranging. Hypericum frondosum ‘Sunburst’

 

This years gardens are on Portland’s Westside and are open by the generosity of the homeowners.  Each garden will have the designers standing by to answer any of your questions.

New variety of St. John’s Wort is perfect for flower arranging. Hypericum frondosum ‘Sunburst’

 

Tree Stump Art

Tree Stump Art

When tragedy struck their beloved cedar tree, the clients created a beautiful sculpture from the stump.

I first met Rick Lee and Monique O’Rielly at the Portland Home & Garden Show.  They hired me to create a design for their difficult sloped back yard.  They had a beautiful large native cedar tree and we designed the landscape to fit around the tree.  It was the focal point of the naturalistic style of the design.  Before they could install the design, their cedar tree started dropping needles and turned a sickly color; the arborist recommended removal! 

Rick and Monique were devastated but then they came up with a great idea (I wish it had been my idea).  They contacted a local wood carver named Gavin (sorry folks he moved to Idaho and I don’t have a contact for him), and he created a beautiful, flowing, carved design into the trunk of the tree. 

This required thinking ahead so when the tree was cut down they left a sizable trunk.  This allowed plenty of space for the carved design and made a large art piece for the garden.