Condo Garden Renovation

This is the latest landscape design to be finished for a small garden condo in the Ballard neighborhood of Seattle. This was a complete renovation of a 50-year old garden that needed a new look and lots of soil amendments to get the plants that were going to stay back to what they could be. I decided to keep the gardenias, the three different kinds of Choisya, filled out the Nandina, and added blues and blacks (Idaho Blue Fescue & Black Mondo Grass) to enhance the existing plants. One color section and one cool section were highlighted to be seen from the dining and living rooms. A corner Zen Garden was revived to be seen from the den, with panels put on the fenced area to contain the view; new stone edging was added to visually hold the white sand. A moss garden was created for yet more serenity. And, a cobblestone area under an existing Magnolia finished it all off nicely. I pruned a lot of the plants, including two very old and weary fatsias, down to just above the ground, so that they could come up with all new foliage. This was a very rewarding project that took about a month and a half to design and implement.

Apartment Courtyard Renovation

Here is a before and after of another relatively quick project. This client was renovating the front of this apartment to bring it into the 21st century (or the 50s depending on how you look at it) and needed a quick fix for the front court area which had previously been grasses and periwinkle. This site faces east but gets plenty of sun part of the day so we decided on a mid-century, Palm Springsesque planting scheme of a Washingtonia palm, river rocks (nicely provided by the client from their own home), ajuga and a hedge of heavenly bamboo. The owner found the palm on Craig's List! They rented the one unit that was available immediately after this renovation was finished.

Container Plants Fundraiser and A Newfound Yard

MARCH in Seattle!

...started out pretty warm and now it's roaring through like a lion! We've had two days of nights in the thirties. It actually snowed two days ago. I know the plants can take it but I'm not sure I can. I'm preparing containers for a fundraiser on March 20th for the Interfaith Family Shelter in Everett, WA. It's at 2820 Oakes Avenue from 1-5PM if you'd like to come. Lot's of gorgeous native and perennial plants in pots for sale! Check out www.interfaithwa.org for more information about the shelter.

And, I continue to work on a pretty significant renovation of a garden on Mercer Island. We are pulling 10 years worth of blackberry and ivy out of an area that also has a beautiful old dogwood tree, lots of forsythia, a couple of rhodies and lots of narcissus. We will find the inner garden shortly (about 14 hours of work so far) and make it into a beauty! The photo of last week's work shows the old tires and and old riding lawn mower we also found under all the undergrowth. Treasures for sure! The bottom photo shows the 'before' and the top photo shows the 'after' of this renovation. It took me about 30 hours of work by myself to clear this area out enough to hire someone to come in with heavy equipment to take out a dangerous oak tree (over 50' tall!) and then push the soil around to smooth it all out and get out about 60 blackberry bushes. Now it gets sun! We are going to plant native plants only in this area.

Renovated Parking Strip: Ballard Neighborhood of Seattle

There was asphalt under the junipers and rock garden along the sidewalk of this property in Ballard so we pulled that out and put in crocosmia, more catmint, various sedums and some annuals for color.

The plants I chose for the parking strip were barberry (to keep the dogs out) and some pretty tough drought tolerant catnip and some smaller, golden barberry along with sedums and wooley thyme. We put river rock along the curb and one path going perpendicular to the strip so those getting out of a car parked alongside would have a place to step. We ran a simple soaker hose through the area to get the plants watered the first year. After that they should be fine. Did I mention this whole project had to be done in 2 weeks in order to get ready for a bridal shower?! Yikes!

The whole parking strip was also asphalt so putting in living, growing things made a no brainer for beauty. I suggested to the clients that it would be wise to remove not only the asphalt, but also at least 8" of soil from under the asphalt so that we could get some good soil in there for the success of the future plants. We also decided that they should put a bit of a berm in the parking strip to help with privacy. This worked quite well since we left that area of stone next to the curb. We got a lot of good comments from passersby and neighbors.

Before & After Camillia Pruning

I love to prune. It's such a quick way to improve a landscape and if done correctly is also good for the plant and the surrounding environment. This camillia was creeping higher and higher in front of the living room window and in front of the path of this home. It also was hugging the house much too closely and it was keeping the area under it from accommodating other flora. I spent about an hour pruning it by lifting it up and removing some critical branches that were brushing against the house. As you can see now the clients can plant some colorful annuals or perennials under it. A huge bonus was the light that now comes into the basement window.

Containers: Summer 2009