Location: Portland, Oregon
Landscape Design: Alana Chau for Landscape Design in a Day
Install: Donna Burdick from D&J Landscape Contractors
Fencing: Cascade Fence and Deck
This wonderful family of 5 wanted a yard to really live in. They wanted to grow some food, play outside, eat dinner alfresco and gather with friends and neighbors. The largest constraint was the tricky lot, which was entirely a front yard.
Corner lots can be challenging to create distinct spaces and privacy. We worked with City of Portland to understand possible locations for the "back" yard. The layout we chose fits better with the neighborhood and creates an outdoor dining area that is closer to the kitchen door.
Food and Family Garden in the Front Yard
The bulk of the space is still in the front yard and we wanted to maximize this garden for the family. We did not want to make it entirely private because there is so much joy living in the city and interacting with all your neighbors. But we did want to make it safe and feel personal, so a low fence is a great solution. This one is wood frame with welded wire panels.
The raised garden bed is made with Restoration Juniper from Sustainable Northwest Wood- really wonderful company, check them out. The family grows a surprising amount of annual veggies in the raised bed while perennial edible plants such as blueberry, huckleberry, strawberry, apple and persimmon create the borders. I won't go so far as to say its a food forest, but there is a lot of food hidden in plain sight!
Courtyard Backyard
While the joy of the front yard is sharing it with the neighborhood, the calming retreat is in the newly formed "backyard", formerly the unusable side yard.
The completely transformed space is now wall-to-fence paver patio for maximum seating area and minimum maintenance. The furniture fits perfectly (by design, of course!) so that the entire family can eat dinner alfresco.
And it's also the perfect place for the adults to relax after kids have gone to bed.
Stormwater Management
One of my favorite challenges with downtown Portland projects is stormwater management. I would love all the downspouts in the city to be properly hooked up to rain gardens and soakage trenches and dry wells instead of creating combined sewage overflows, polluting the Willamette River. (Key word there is "properly" hooked up, not creating basement water issues or just draining to the street.)
Often there will be more than one stormwater solution on a property, but this site made more sense to point all 4 downspouts to one oversized rain garden. The first spring, the rain garden filled up to the brim but did not overflow. Since then, plants have grown in and the concave rock has been used periodically as the dinosaur watering hole.
These clients have been so gracious to invite me visit every once in a while and even let the community college tour the garden as a demonstration on how to use space efficiently.
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