I bought this house on April 26th, 2013 when I was still working for Apple. While I wanted a home that I could make my own, I knew that I would not have the time, or the patience, for any sort of renovation and I lucked out and found this beautifully restored 1945 Craftsman in Hillsdale in SW Portland. Clearly, as you can see from this picture, there was still a way for me to make this place MY home and that was through the garden. While I had only a tiny bit of experience with any sort of gardening, I was excited for an opportunity to express my creativity in a way I’ve never done before.

April 2013
The “palette” I had to work with consisted mostly of dead shrubs of varying nature, MOUNDS of overgrown thyme, strawberry ground cover, cotoneaster, day lilies, bluebells and more bluebells, and some bamboo thrown in for fun! I still shudder when I see Dusty Miller.

Thyme anyone?

Sickly Japanese maple that eventually had to go and one of many poorly placed rhododendrons throughout the property

Did I forget to mention the sloping beds?
The back yard was a completely different beast. While the front was all deep, sloping beds with existing plants the needed to be be ripped out, it was mostly a barren and flat wasteland. One thing it did have in common with the front was more poorly placed plants/trees!

Seriously? Who does this? Notice the poor dogwood suffocated in the corner with the two plum trees so close together! Who needs two plums trees? As you will see later, who needs any, actually?

Day lilies and carex were repeated throughout the back yard

What you can’t see is the hydrangea planted 6 inches from the back doorstep. Most of it blocked the door.

And I cannot forget the hell strip from hell! This is one of the last areas of my garden that I worked on. This time, it was St. John’s Wort that had to be removed. The entire area is about 15ft deep and about 60ft long! And the incline gets worse as you go further back! And the kicker – it faces south!
I love me some before and after! This is wonderful, to see where you started. Welcome to the blogosphere!
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Thanks for the encouragement! I never thought I’d figure out how to do it!
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So happy to see you here. Can’t wait to see more. Cheers.
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Welcome to our merry band of bloggers! Looking forward to the continuing saga. 🙂
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Wow! You’re so official now! Happy blogging journey babe.
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You are very good at this! Fun to read. Keep up the good work.
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Love me some before and afters. Welcome to the cool kid club. 😉
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I’m so excited to see you here! Such fun to see where you started since I’ve had the pleasure of seeing the “now” garden and it’s an amazing accomplishment for just three years. Blog on, mardigrasgardener! Jane (AKA Elvis, on WordPress.)
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Thanks Jane! That means a lot! Thanks for your support and encouragement!
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