Last week I wrote the first part of this post on early flowering plants here in the Pacific Northwest. There were too many for one post though, so I had to break it up. There are some great ideas for trees, shrubs and ground covers that show early signs of spring life. Some are even evergreen! Listed in order of blooming, we begin with Fragrant
Lents Town Center Design
As I mentioned last week, I recently wrapped up another term in my Masters in Landscape Architecture studio. This term we were allowed to choose a site that personally interests us. The site had to originally be focused on a “line” in Oregon somewhere. My “line” was Foster Blvd in Southeast Portland, in the Lents neighborhood. Foster Blvd was originally the route that local farms
Early Flowering Plants: Part I
Another term of tromping around in the rain for my Plants class has passed, and sadly so. The Plants sequence in my landscape architecture program lasts three terms, which is a total of nine months, and it is really fantastic – my favorite class by far. Rain or shine, (mostly rain) we walk all around Eugene looking at different trees, shrubs and ground covers. We
Problem Solver: Evergreen Huckleberry
Planning and planting typically keeps my mind on the garden even in winter. As I have learned, it can take years and years for a garden to really come into it’s own. The process I chose for my home garden was drawing out a planting plan for the trees, large shrubs and structures. As time went on, I have begun to fill in little bare
Final Fall Project
As part of the curriculum in my three year landscape architecture masters program, almost every term includes a design studio where we work on a sometimes-hypothetical and sometimes-real landscape architecture project. We spend long-long-long hours in studio, getting to know each other a little too well, and then “pin up” our final design and drawings at the end of the ten week term. These are
The French Kitchen Garden
This morning I am frantically cramming for a midterm in one of my classes. In this particular class, we have been studying some of the greatest gardens in the world. Although taking tests is always a drag, it is a pretty good excuse to immerse myself in something I am completely obsessed with anyways: gardens. Most especially the history of kitchen gardens. I wanted to
First School Review
My first project as a graduate student in landscape architecture was to redesign a children’s playground. We were not allowed to use structures (swing sets, play structures, etc) but instead needed to use just landform and vegetation. It was an interesting challenge and one I think we can apply to residential design as well. Basically, we are being taught how to create spaces and outdoor
Low Maintenance Garden Design
My mother is a self proclaimed “black thumb” and has a never-ending battle with weeds in her yard. One large section in particular used to house two dwarf cherry trees, which she eventually gave to Jay and I for use in our landscape. The spot has sat bare for a couple years now and the battle with weeds raged on. I finally convinced her that
Vegetable Beds Planted
The raised vegetables beds have been planted periodically since early March. The cold weather spinach and kale went in first and I used thick plastic as row covers to keep them toasty. A few weeks later I added carrots, lettuces, beets and parsnips. The plastic have given all those vegetables a great start and they are flourishing! We’re eating kale chips and salads almost every