POSTED BY CELILO / NEWSIt may seem ill-timed to think about designing a garden project this time of year but if you have a project that you want to tackle the next growing season NOW is the time to do your planning NOT in March or April when the sun comes out.
Why Fall and Winter?  The landscape trade has seasonal highs and lows – Take advantage of it!
Designers’ availability:  Fall and Winter tends to be the slow season for Designers.  They will typically have time available to work with you.  As Spring hits they get busy and may not be able to address your design needs for several months.
Get Bids when times are slow:  If you have a landscape design ready to go by January or February it is likely you will first in line to talk with Landscape Contractors.  And you will not only get bids back faster but you will you may very well get a less expensive bid in late winter or very early spring than in June when everyone in the landscape trade is swamped with work.
More Plant Material is available in the spring: Being ready with a finished design and contactor on board in the early spring means plant material will be more available and will be easier to find. This ultimately means there is less of a risk that substitutions will be necessary and you will get the design you want.
Allow Time to Design: 
Every design takes time but rarely do folks consider that in the scheme of things.  Whether you are doing the landscape planning or you hire a professional to design with you.
Expect to spend a minimum of 2 perhaps 3 months perhaps longer to produce a completed design start to finish – not including the installation.
Typical Design Steps if you are working with a professional designer:  

• Initial meeting on site
• Creating the Fee Proposal/ time for the client to review it and accept it.
• Scheduling the project into the designer’s work schedule (which may vary depending upon the current client load)
• Site Measuring, photographing the site, creating a base plan (+/- ½ a day)

ALL the steps just mentioned are BEFORE ANY DESIGN TAKES PLACE

• It will take time for a designer to Create a Preliminary Design
• Then you meet to discuss the Preliminary design – which would include both overall landscape layout and plant suggestions –sometimes that takes a couple of meetings
• Then there’s Revisions to the Preliminary Design — this might take 1-2 rounds of revisions and meetings
• Once the Prelim. Design is approved the Final Design documents are begun – depending upon the size and complexity of the project Documentation can take a 40 hrs or more of time on the designer’s end.
• A Final meeting with the designer to deliver and explain the documents.

THEN CONTRACTORS  ARE CONTACTED AND THE BIDDING BEGINS – The bidding process can take to 2-4 weeks.  
 THIS IS ALL BEFORE ANY DEMOLITION IS DONE OR ANY HOLE IS DUG.
 Show a set of completed documents:  Explain each piece.
Not all designers produce documents alike and the final product will vary in what it looks like but the information should be the same.

• General Notes
• Demo Plan (sometimes this not needed)
• Hardscape Plan (if the design is simple sometimes this can be combined with the Planting Plan)
• Plant Plan
• Plant List
• Lighting Plan
• Irrigation Plan or sometimes this is handled as a description.
• Conceptual structural Elevations of any structures (fences, gates, decks, trellises)
• Plant images for the client

My clients get:
4 hardcopies of the drawings –1 for their records, 3 to give to bidders.
1 color copy of plant images for their records
And Electronic copy of the plant images and if they request it a pdf of the drawings too.
>>Talk about Negotiating with one contractor early in the design process rather than bidding. Explain the difference


Bidding vs. Negotiating

• Bidding takes time —  Negotiating takes interviewing contractors for the best “fit”
• Bidding doesn’t always mean you get the lowest price & sometimes the lowest price is not the best price — Bringing a contractor in early develops a relationship and a team so they have your best interests in mind.
• Negotiating with a contractor means you and your designer can use their expertise during the design process (the best material for a rock wall// keeping the design in line with the budget)

If you use a landscape designer you should expect that professional to not only be available to answer questions from you and the contractor as the job is installed but ALSO be on site a minimum of once for a meeting with the contractor or project manager as the job begins.
I typically include 1-2 PERHAPS 3 site meetings during the installation in my proposals.  A meeting as the job begins// Another as the plants are installed and IF there is a lot of hardscape (patios, decks, paths) one more visit during that process too.
When you are doing your own design the process and steps are just about the same ESPECIALLY IF YOU PLANNING TO USE A LANDSCAPE CONTRACTOR. 

• Measure the site locating existing property lines, buildings, paths and driveways, and existing plants to remain. Use this information to create a site plan drawn to scale for yourself so you have a base to sketch over.
• Decide which functions you want in your garden.
  • A place to entertain?
  • A spot for the dog?
  • A play area for the kids?
  • A hot tub or fire pit?
  • A pea patch for veggies?
  • A place to meditate?

What is important to you?       Most urban properties are not large enough to incorporate everything we all dream of in our gardens soooo CHOOSE 3 FUNCTIONS AND PLAN FOR THOSE.

• Create some preliminary ideas and discuss them with your family.
• Once you have narrowed down your options and expectations, draw up a final plan and a list of the plants you want to use.
• Include images of elements you like such as the
  • style of fencing,
  • gates and arbors,
  • lighting ideas,
  • water features etc.

To share with a contractor.
 THE BIDDING PROCESS WILL BE ABOUT THE SAME AS IF YOU USED A DESIGNER but YOU WILL BE THE ONE ANSWERING QUESTIONS FROM THE BIDDERS.
Warnings and Caveats:
If you ask contractors to bid on your project the only way to get accurate numbers from each bidder is to have drawings so nothing is forgotten and each contractor has the same information.
If you use a contractor remember BIG changes in the middle of the job will cost you money.  So take time to think through your design.
If you are doing the installation yourself design drawings will keep you on track and focused.
If you are doing the installation yourself, carefully think through what needs to be installed first, second, third etc. so you will not take 3 steps forward only to realize you have to back up a step and undo what you have already done!
DO NOT BUY PLANTS BEFORE YOUR DESIGN IS FINALIZED.  You may be limiting your ultimate design and regret it later
A good primer on garden design is Understanding Garden Design (Timber Press) by Vanessa Gardner Nagel.  She takes you through the process step by step.     QUESTIONS???

POSTED BY CELILO / NEWS

POSTED BY CELILO / NEWS

Intro: (First slide) Welcome!
Who am I? Many yrs. experience as a commercial interior designer, a gardener and plant nerd.
8 years ago stepped over the threshold and now designing on the other side.
I find I can apply all the design principals I used in architecture to the landscape and also use the skills I developed as a gardener. I am a Master Gardener, a prof. member of APLD (Asso. of Professional Landscape Designers) and there are a few other letters behind my name. But basically I am a plant-aholic and design is part of my DNA.
I have always admired the restraint and deliberateness of Japanese Gardens AND last summer I participated in a training that took me to another level of understanding of Japanese design.
(1 slide)
The Waza to Kokoro (Hands and Heart) experience --
Put on by the Portland Japanese Garden
12 days total, 6 lecture days, 5 days hands on work and a tea ceremony nearly every morning.
Participants were from all trades and all over the US. Landscape contractors, designers, curators of other Japanese gardens and even a college student.
We came from Illinois, N. Carolina, Washington state, California, Oregon
Teachers were staff from the Japanese Garden, 3 Professional gardeners came from Japan with their translators and others were scholars in the community.
The training contributed volumes to my basic knowledge of designing through the lens of Asian influence.
This is an annual program. There are still spaces available for this year’s training sessions at both the Beginner and the Intermediate levels. Contact the Portland Japanese Garden to find out more.
Before I start — if you are interested my talking notes they will be posted on my website about a week from now. Beware they are somewhat abbreviated. Look for them under the NEWS tab.
Let’s begin….When we think of Japanese landscapes we often use words like:
(1 slide)
 Minimal, rectilinear, clean, deliberate, calm & contemplative, green, retreat. Etc.
There are 9 recognized design principals in Japanese Gardens but for the sake of time we will talk about 4 of the major design principals here today:
Enclosure & Entry, The Path, using Void as an accent and Balance.
If you have been to our Japanese Garden in since June, you know there is a new entrance – a meandering path that takes you up the hill to the garden itself.
This is premeditated.
It is a devise to help the visitor transition from daily life and the rush of the city to the tranquility of the garden. It takes time and effort to climb the path and as you rise you metaphorically leave the busy world behind. In Japan gardens are designed to do the same.
1. Enclosure & Entry – In Japan the urban environment is very densely populated therefore gardens are framed for privacy and to control the view and treated as a work of art.
(2 slides – traditional and contemporary)
Garden Gates are significant because each gate represents a transition point where increasingly you leave more of the everyday world behind…. Distancing yourself from the noise and stress of the city and preparing yourself psychologically to experience garden. Usually there are 3 gates – an outer gate, a middle gate and an inner gate.
Gates are also used to control views and movement. The outer gate is typically the most imposing and densely built, often roofed.
The middle gate is lighter, lower and made of bamboo. The inner gate is the lightest and most welcoming and sometimes is just a suggestion of a gate – in some cases it is a gate which you could walk around rather than through. But of course no one would do that!
(4 slides – traditional and contemporary)
2. The Path – paths are not just for wayfinding and traffic control in a garden. They also control the cadence of motion and views of vignettes and specific garden elements.
Traditionally there are two types of paths.
Stepping stone paths which are informal are made with irregular stones and meander.
And more formal, rectangular, wider, elongated paths called Nobedans.
Small stepping stone paths force the visitor to look down, pay attention to where you place your feet and slow the rate of travel. When a large stepping stone is placed in the middle of a path of smaller stones it offers a spot to pause and view a plant or object. OR a large stepping stone placed strategically at the intersection of 2-3 stone paths will cause the visitor to look up, pause and decide which direction to take.
(3 slides – traditional and contemporary)
Nobedan paths often look like a tatami mat. The stone used in Nobedan is cut and fit and sometimes mortared together. They are straight and level which lets the walker forget about foot placement and look at the surroundings and walk more quickly.
(2 slides – traditional and contemporary)
And when a path is closed to visitors a Barrier Stone = sekimori-ishi is placed in the middle of the path. A very civilized way to signal “no entry” …
(1slide – traditional and contemporary)
3. Void As Accent – Japanese use the term “ma” to describe a defined open space or void. It is used as punctuation, as in a pause in a dance movement or moments of silence in music or the space in a painting intentionally left empty.
It is a place for the eye to rest in a garden in the midst of a jumble of plants, textures and color. That is “ma”.
Traditional gardens use dry gardens to create void– Raked sand or gravel gardens …these are open landscapes perhaps punctuated with boulders or dense plants. Or pools of water create “ma” Or “ma” can be created with a carpet of moss
In a contemporary garden this could be a stone patio with plantings at the edge OR a large pond OR the ubiquitous lawn.
(2 slides – traditional and contemporary)
4. Balance – Balance in combination with “ma” are the two most important design principals which give a garden Japanese character.
In Japanese gardens Balance is asymmetrical – no matching columns placed on either side of a gate. Garden elements are weighted differently — a tall narrow plant might be balanced by a low dense boulder nearby.
Straight paths are used sparingly and paths tend to wander.
Groups of elements are used in uneven numbers – 3 boulders, 5 pines.
(2 slides – traditional and contemporary)
So to review 4 important design principals are
1. Enclosure and Entry
2. The Path
3. The use of Void or “ma”
4. Asymmetrical Balance
Thoughtfully incorporating these 4 principals and a few other minor principals will help your Portland gardens to be truer to the Japanese style rather than “Japaneseque”.
It is more than images of a laughing Buddha and stone lanterns….
2 books which I find very valuable ….both by the same writer, Marc Peter Keane
Japanese Garden Design goes into detail about design and how it originated culturally, historically and politically. And more about design principals, techniques and design elements
Japanese Garden Notes is a more visual display of Japanese garden design – being a very visual person this book is my first “go to” as a reference.
Order them on Amazon for best pricing.

POSTED BY CELILO / NEWS

POSTED BY CELILO / NEWS2017;
Alternatives for Greenspaces
2016, 2017;
Plan Now, Plant Later
Article in Oregon Home Fall issue (October 2015) “Great Plants for Tiny Gardens”
Featured in Oregon Home Spring issue (March 2016)
2015;
Climate Change is Coming, Is your Garden Ready?
2013, 2014;
Perfect Bedfellows – Interplanting Edibles
The Real Dirt on Dirt
Get your Feet Wet – Rain Gardens and Swales
Lawn, What a Yawn – Alternatives to Green Spaces

POSTED BY CELILO / NEWSSome of you may have noticed a new kind of tomato began to appear on the shelves of
Nurseries in the spring of 2010.  These are grafted varieties.  Grafting is a method of growing the top of a plant (the scion) onto the rootstock of another plant.  It is done to achieve hardiness, manage the size of a plant, increase production and disease resistance.  In the 19th century the wine industry in France was saved from devastation by phylloxera by grafting grapes on to disease resistant rootstock.  Dwarf fruit trees are often grafted onto different rootstock to ensure their size will be small.
With those successes in mind, a local grower, Log House Plants, began introducing grafted tomatoes into the retail market.  This year, they hit pay dirt.  The plants flew off the retailers’ shelves even though they carried a hefty price tag — three times the cost of a regular tomato.
After a year of standing by, watching the action, fielding questions from clients and talking to people in the nursery business, I have to admit I was as curious as I was skeptical.  So, I set up my own less than clinical but credible experiment.  I bought two tomato plants of the same variety, an heirloom tomato named “Brandywine”, one grafted and the other non-grafted.  I planted them side by side in an amended bed with the same exposure to sun and the same watering patterns and stood back and waited…
A bit of background would be handy here:  Heirloom tomatoes typically bare fewer tomatoes than their other contemporary hybridized cousins.  So grafting heirloom varieties could be a really fine idea if one of the outcomes was more luscious fruit.  The other point of interest was the claim by the grower that this method can extend growing time because the wild rootstock the plant is grafted to is significantly more robust and cold hardy.  Well, that got my attention since we live in the Pacific Northwest where we are starting to count our summers in days instead of months!
The harvest mostly in, the votes counted and the findings are:

• When I finally did harvest a ripe tomato, it came from the un-grafted plant.  The grafted plant had significantly more fruit but the FIRST tomato, the one we all wait for, came from the “Plain Jane”.
• The grafted plant was about (remember this is not a clinical study) 20% bigger and fuller than the non-grafted tomato which is both a blessing and a curse because current grooming protocol calls for pruning the side shoots (the unproductive greenery) from tomatoes to focus the plants on fruit not leaf production.  This meant I spent at least 20% more time pruning the grafted plant and frankly in early September, I gave up keeping up.
• The sizes of fruit from the grafted tomato were all approximately 30% bigger than those from the regular Brandywine with thinner skin.  The color of the fruit was pinker and lighter, not the red/orange of the “regular” Brandywine.
• But, here’s the most important outcome…taste.  Taste testing the fruit with a few brave gourmands, picked simultaneously and hauled into the kitchen and eaten without accompaniment, the non-grafted Brandywine tomato won hands down.  TA DA!  The grafted Brandywine’s taste was diluted and watery in comparison.  It lacked that wee bit of acidity we all crave in a fresh, sun warmed tomato and the texture in contrast, was mushy.

There you have it.  Grafted Tomatoes are larger and more robust but the crop they produce pales in comparison to the non-grafted tomato in the taste test and will cost you three times more.
So…Why bother?  Next year save your money or spend it on a few more regular, old, non-grafted, tried and true tomatoes with exotic names like Green Zebra or Black Krim.  Take a bite out of a tomato, not your wallet.  ​

POSTED BY CELILO / NEWSThere are always “problem children” in every garden.  You know where yours are…those locations that never are quiet right, the areas that try as you might, just don’t support plants well.  They may be too boggy and wet or have poor soil or be bakey and hot.
Typically the parking strip—that area between the sidewalk and the curb is one place that is a challenge for gardeners.  These spots are referred to as “Hell Strips”, they are so called for a reason.  More often than not Hell Strips are hot spots, filled with compacted soil and subjected to pollutants because of the proximity to the street.  They are often forgotten and neglected, left to default to a boring strip of lawn or a swatch of river rock collecting weeds.

There are alternatives to the default approach.
With lot size growing ever smaller as urban density increases capturing the “Hell Strip” and making something of it is becoming more attractive to gardeners.  Hell Strips are being planted with everything from drought tolerant plant material to evergreens and edibles (although I question if it is smart to plant things you want to eat within inches of traffic and pollutants).
The first step in re-claiming a Hell Strip is amending the soil properly.  There is no point of investing in plants if the soil is so poor that it won’t support plants well.  Most soils in the Portland area are clay which means compaction is rampant, you won’t find an earthworm for miles and water runs off without penetration.  Digging in a mixture of topsoil, compost and gravel or course sand will give you a good start (at a ratio of 40:40:20).  I recommend digging the amendments in by hand but if you must rototill, show restraint and do not over till the plot.  The goal is to separate the clay and combine the amendments NOT powder the soil into a fine dust the consistency of cake flour. Whatever method you choose, hand or machine, wait to dig until the soil is not muddy or you will do more harm than good to the soil structure.
Irrigation is the next consideration.  It is not always necessary to have permanent irrigation in the Hell Strip but consider where your nearest water source is and how easy is it to access.  ALL plants (even the most drought tolerant species) need water for two to three summers until they become established.  If the source of water is difficult or complicated to use, you will find yourself inadvertently avoiding watering the new plantings. It only takes one hot day to lose your investment of time and dollars.
Now, make your design decisions about this new bed.
How should it function?  Remember this will be a very public planting.  It is at the edge of the street.  People will tend to treat it for what it is…a public place.  They may feel free to pick the blooms, eat the fruit, and walk through the plantings on the way to the street or the car.  Be prepared for all these events because they will happen.  So choose plants that are tough and not fussy.  Choose plants that will look good for at least three seasons of the year because this will create the “curb appeal”.  Choose plants that are just fine if they are walked near (or on).  And lastly choose plants that are not rare or expensive so if one disappears you will not be heartbroken.
What’s the character?  Will this be mostly edible landscape?  A Mediterranean look—lean and spikey?  An ode to Northwest Natives?  An English cottage garden?  What is your vision?
These are questions and issues to answer BEFORE you take a trip to any nursery, not AFTER you return home with a car load of “must have” plants and no plan.
Happy planting!
Bonnie Bruce is owner of Celilo Gardens, a Portland landscape design studio.  For more information: www.celilogardens.com

POSTED BY CELILO / NEWS

Black Hungarian Chilies with Echinacea ‘Harvest Moon’
Almost everyone thinks when raising vegetables they need their very own spot in the yard.  A Pea Patch, a raised bed, a piece of ground where nothing else is planted except edibles.  Why?  Is this practice something we all were raised with?  Did our grandparents practice this technique?  Was it written in our 5th grade science books?  I don’t think so, but somebody sold us that idea and we have embraced it.
Let me introduce another alternative for those of us who have city sized lots and precious little room to devote a patch of the garden for only vegetables.  What about planting edible plants in between and along with our ornamental plantings? Picture it…tomatoes as a background planting to Dianthus (Pinks) or red leafed lettuce edging the deep green of a lawn or even more bold, scarlet red peppers planted beside sunny yellow Echinacea (Cone Flower)?  A veritable riot of color, texture with good eats sprinkled in.  It makes a person swoon, doesn’t it?
For years now I have interplanted food with flowers and it has brought me the best of all worlds.  Vegetables planted in the right places for their sun and water requirements–not just in the spot where the vegetable patch happens to be.  Vegetables companion planted with plants that attract bees, birds and other insects creates a richer environment for pollination which gives bigger yields. Companion planting can also attract beneficial insects which can cut down on pests. AND when the harvest is done there are no bare, muddy, unsightly “parking lots” in the yard for the duration of the winter.
The tricks are few but important to pay attention to:
Pick your vegetables as much for the tastiness of the harvest as for the beauty of the plant.  For example, I happen to love eggplant.  There are many, many varieties out there on the market.  Some are large, heavy bearers of the traditional purple bulbous, egg-shaped fruit, some have furry leaves, some are tall or short.  But my choice is a variety named “Ichiban”, a Japanese eggplant which is the most lovely plant with nearly black-purple stems, bright green leaves and star shaped purple-blue flowers with yellow centers.  You (almost) don’t care that the fruit is long, narrow, delicate and does not require weeping when cooked.  THIS is what I plant in my garden because the plant is as valuable for its contribution to the garden as the fruit.
Give equal consideration to a plant’s habit as you do to its cultural requirements when locating a vegetable in the garden.  That is, the height and spread of a veggie is as important in the placement as is its the sun (or shade) and water needs.  For instance, tomatoes will grow 3′ to 5′ tall and should be located towards the back or midpoint of your beds NOT front and center, while small and fluffy radishes can be used as edging material at the very front of a bed.  Leaf vegetables (spinach, lettuce, chard) cannot take a hot, bakey location, they will bolt, so choose a spot with dappled sun or very little afternoon sun.  When planting also consider the water requirements a particular vegetable has and plant it near perennials with the same needs.
Treat vegetables as annuals in your garden and you won’t be disappointed.  Let them fill in the holes and give fullness to your existing beds. At the end of the growing season, when the harvest is done and you clean out the vegetables, the loss will be nearly unnoticeable.
This spring, don’t let the fact that you have not created raised beds or cannot devote the space to a Pea Patch stop you from growing your own food.  It’s all about being bold and using your garden to its fullest potential.

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