michael slater
Planning |Design | Arboriculture | Horticulture
Our Home Garden
The Site
Salem, Oregon
Our garden is located in Salem, Oregon. Our 1958 ranch home is situated on a quarter acre lot that used to be strawberry fields before it was developed into housing. Before it was strawberry fields, it was upland oak savanna managed by the native Kalapuya people, who burned it each summer to prevent it from becoming a closed Douglas Fir forest. Our soil is clay loam and slightly acid. We are in USDA Hardiness Zone 8b with cool, wet winters and warm dry summers. Climate change is bringing hotter summer temperatures and a longer period of summer dry weather.
Inspiration
Our home garden is (loosely) inspired by Japanese garden tradition. While I don't have access to the material and skills to create an "authentic" Japanese garden, there are a number of concepts that readily translate to our Pacific Northwest garden.These include designing on a human scale, using evergreen shrubs for structure, designing with attention to planes and volumes, marking seasonal changes, and paying attention to detail. Japanese gardens tend to have a more restrained hand when it comes to flowers and especially summer perennials compared to, for example, English gardens. Japanese-inspired gardens also demand a fair amount of maintenance. Some might argue that intense maintenance is the defining feature of Japanese gardens. The theory and aesthetics of Japanese gardens is far more sophisticated than the few ideas I've adopted. The books below are a good introduction to the topic.
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