A Family Garden {Completely Transformed City Landscape}

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.

Before: The property was all front yard and sloping grass.

During: D&J crew creating the spaces.

After: a distinct front yard and back 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.

Low front yard fence creates separation from sidewalks without blocking out the neighbors.

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!

Tree stumps form a fun seating area for kids and neighbor friends... surrounded by edible plants to pick and eat right there.

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.

Before: sloping side yard. Does this look like backyard potential to you?

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.

A skinny side yard becomes the most used space in the landscape with the right hardscaping and a privacy fence.

And it's also the perfect place for the adults to relax after kids have gone to bed.

Perfectly designed for a couch set and outdoor dining table.

View from the new Courtyard looking toward the Front Yard. Mutual Material pavers and Castohn stepping stones.

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.

Front yard rain garden manages 4 downspouts! Plants include Redtwig dogwood, Douglad Iris and Orange Sedge.

Rain Garden from other angle. Wide paver path directs most visitors to the front door while skinny flagstone path leads to backyard. When creating front and back yards out of a side yard, the hardscape is very important to direct traffic.

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.