The Association of Northwest Landscape Designers (ANLD) hosts an annual tour of Portland area gardens, and I was lucky enough to be invited to the pre-tour event. For your calendar, the actual tour is coming up on Saturday, June 18th this year.
The Designers Garden Tour is a great introduction if you're thinking about hiring a landscape designer. It's also perfect if you're looking for creative ideas for solving your own garden challenges. And if you love to see art perfectly placed in a garden, or if you just enjoy walking through beautiful and intriguing gardens, the ANLD tour is for you.
This year's tour of seven lovely gardens is on Portland's east side. Here's your sneak peak, with a giveaway at the end.
Garden #1. The Wagner garden is a tranquil, Asian-inspired retreat, with year-round interest and a lush plant palette.
A sitting area away from the house is a little oasis in the garden setting.
A gentle water feature adds to the quiet, meditative feel.
In what was the driveway, the designer has added raised beds and structures to further separate the quiet back garden.
Garden #2. The Langeliers garden is that rare thing: a plantswoman's garden that is cohesively designed. You approach the Sears catalog bungalow through a defining front gate
Simple plantings enhance the bungalow's wrap-around front porch.
Halfway along the side, a summer house invites you to enjoy the garden and the diverse sun-loving plants.
The main part of the back garden continues the sun-kissed theme.
A burbling rock fountain adds the perfect water note between grasses and other xeric plants.
Garden #3. The Hannan garden is a designer's own indulgence. She freely admits this is not a garden she'd design for a client, but it's delightfully personal and compelling.
A traditional shade garden in the front yard...
... gives way to a colorful and precise yet softened back garden and patio.
"Granny" plants and fun are unabashedly featured in this garden.
Garden #4. The King garden re-invigorates the spaces around a mid-50s ranch house.
The parking strip is full of colorful, water-saving plants.
The seeded back yard "Dog Park Eco-Lawn" caters to the owner's sweet elderly Lab.
Custom fencing and metalwork provide interesting transitions.
Great containers holding choice selections punctuate the plant narrative in this garden.
Garden #5. The Ohlson garden is designed to support pollinators, wildlife and soil health.
The challenging lot location and Ladds Addition covenants called for sensitive fencing decisions with community input. Plant and flower choices echo the adjacent rose garden.
Paver patios in the front and back gardens allow water to filter back into the soil.
Small plantings are equally as important as the large swaths of foliage and flowers.
Edibles appear in beds alongside ornamentals, and also have a designated place on the west side of the house.
Azara microphylla makes a fine privacy screen and supports the blooms of a large Abutilon megapotamicum that languishes along one side.
Garden #6. The Bebernes-Gawf garden is an open, welcoming front garden with a hidden refuge in the back yard.
The newly-created sitting space in the front allows for neighborly conversations.
Down the driveway and into the back lies the quiet, cool alternative.
The stunning glass pieces came from Garden Art by James, some made specifically for this garden.
A porch built off the garage has become the perfect place from which to enjoy the back garden.
A small moss garden leads to a tiny tea house finished in reclaimed wood.
Garden #7, the Mauch garden, was designed to adapt with its owner and to accommodate an anticipated addition to the house, now completed.
The curving veggie bed echoes the shape of the sun-room addition and allows the owner to garden sitting down on the end benches if she wishes.
Even a narrow side yard adds beauty and sound in this garden.
In the front garden, gentle pillows of a prostrate Lonicera front the sidewalk and separate it from the path seating and plants.
Sculpture by Katie McFadden is placed throughout the garden; here it's sheltered by a magnificent old Rhododendron.
The Designers Garden Tour is Saturday, June 18th from 10am to 4pm. Tickets can be ordered online from ANLD here, or bought directly from Garden Fever, Portland Nursery, Al's Garden Center (Sherwood only) and Cornell Farms. Proceeds benefit the ANLD scholarship program for aspiring landscape designers attending local community colleges.
I'm giving away one $25 ticket for the tour free: Just leave a comment on this post and say you'd like to have the ticket. I'll draw a random name on Saturday, June 11 and let the winner know.
Good luck!
Garden #1. The Wagner garden is a tranquil, Asian-inspired retreat, with year-round interest and a lush plant palette.
A sitting area away from the house is a little oasis in the garden setting.
In what was the driveway, the designer has added raised beds and structures to further separate the quiet back garden.
Garden #2. The Langeliers garden is that rare thing: a plantswoman's garden that is cohesively designed. You approach the Sears catalog bungalow through a defining front gate
The main part of the back garden continues the sun-kissed theme.
A burbling rock fountain adds the perfect water note between grasses and other xeric plants.
Garden #3. The Hannan garden is a designer's own indulgence. She freely admits this is not a garden she'd design for a client, but it's delightfully personal and compelling.
"Granny" plants and fun are unabashedly featured in this garden.
Garden #4. The King garden re-invigorates the spaces around a mid-50s ranch house.
The seeded back yard "Dog Park Eco-Lawn" caters to the owner's sweet elderly Lab.
Custom fencing and metalwork provide interesting transitions.
Garden #5. The Ohlson garden is designed to support pollinators, wildlife and soil health.
The challenging lot location and Ladds Addition covenants called for sensitive fencing decisions with community input. Plant and flower choices echo the adjacent rose garden.
Paver patios in the front and back gardens allow water to filter back into the soil.
Small plantings are equally as important as the large swaths of foliage and flowers.
Edibles appear in beds alongside ornamentals, and also have a designated place on the west side of the house.
Garden #6. The Bebernes-Gawf garden is an open, welcoming front garden with a hidden refuge in the back yard.
The newly-created sitting space in the front allows for neighborly conversations.
A porch built off the garage has become the perfect place from which to enjoy the back garden.
Garden #7, the Mauch garden, was designed to adapt with its owner and to accommodate an anticipated addition to the house, now completed.
Even a narrow side yard adds beauty and sound in this garden.
The Designers Garden Tour is Saturday, June 18th from 10am to 4pm. Tickets can be ordered online from ANLD here, or bought directly from Garden Fever, Portland Nursery, Al's Garden Center (Sherwood only) and Cornell Farms. Proceeds benefit the ANLD scholarship program for aspiring landscape designers attending local community colleges.
I'm giving away one $25 ticket for the tour free: Just leave a comment on this post and say you'd like to have the ticket. I'll draw a random name on Saturday, June 11 and let the winner know.
What a fun and interesting tour it must have been. All of the gardens are fantastic but the first one, The Wagner Garden really inspires me.
ReplyDeleteSuper. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteI'd love that ticket, Jane! Landscape designer guest coming from North Carolina.
ReplyDeleteWe zeroed in on many of the same things but I still learned more from reading your post. Always fun to get to spend time with you.
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for sharing this!
ReplyDeleteThis is so cool! I'm looking forward to checking these out on the tour. I think I could even convince my husband to join me.
ReplyDeleteTerrific photos and comments of the gardens. Looking forward to the tour next Saturday 6/18/16. Have Fun in the Garden!
ReplyDeleteJane--Fantastic post! I am amazed that you caught all that info AND this many great photos. I know its hard to do in such a tight time frame at each garden! Anyway, I'm your follower now. Big fan!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the walk-through, Jane! Sorry to miss it this year again, but plan to spend the day at Rare Plant Research, so I will no doubt get my garden wiggles out! :)
ReplyDelete