My Garden's Design

An overview of my garden design (perennials, grasses and bulbs not shown)

Since I'm writing about my garden, I thought it would make sense to give you a sense of its design. We have a one-quarter acre city lot, which is what sold us on the house. The single-story ranch house was built in 1958 and is clad in thick, old-growth cedar siding (in case you wanted to know where all the old growth forests in the Pacific Northwest went). Our sub-development is called Liberty Gardens, and prior to a residential sub-development, it was strawberry fields. Prior to strawberry fields, it was upland prairie managed by the Kalapuya people, who burned it each summer to maintain an open oak savanna. Absent management, upland prairie in the Willamette Valley would become a closed Douglas Fir forest.

The house faces east. The lot is recatangular and the north and south side yards are 6 feet wide. The front, between the house and the sidewalk, is about 24 feet deep. There is an additional 15 feet between the sidewalk and the road, which I've converted into a summer-flowering perennial bed. The back garden is about 86 feet deep and bordered by a 6-foot high cedar fence.

The front garden includes a foundation bed, a small lawn, and the perennial bed between the sidewalk and the road. The back garden consists of an open gravel courtyard (or 'sea" to borrow from Japananse garden design). This space is due to the presence of two mature Norway maples, which provide shade and produce too much root competition for grass. Gravel was a logical alternative and provides space to gather and play. The gravel courtyard is surrounded on the south, west, and north by a large planting bed that varies from six feet deep to over twenty. The bed includes trees, shrubs, perennials, ornamental grasses, and a wide range of spring bulbs. A "beach" and play house are set into the border on the southwest and a stone patio is set into the border on the northwest. A raised border, or peninsula, and a low black fence separate the main garden from the productive garden on the northeast side.

The productive garden has two raised cedar beds, one we use for herbs and the other we use for whatever vegetables we want to try out. (I am not much a vegetable gardener). We have a trellis for raspberries and marionberies, and two prolific blueberry bushes. We have two stone areas (manufactured concrete pavers) that support plants in pots; one supports plants that I'm growing on until I can find a home for them and the other for cut flowers. The chicken coop is also located here.