Before & After
Backyard in SE Portland’s Richmond neighborhood. New cedar fence, deck arbor, and Holland pavers. Raised beds for vegetable garden with adjoining hammock...
Sheet mulching
How-To’s of Sheet Mulching 1. First things first, clear the way. You will want to cut all grass and weeds to the ground in your sheet mulch area. Leave these trimmings on the ground — this material will decay and provide food for decomposers. Also transplant any plants you would like to save. 2. Lay down cardboard. Cardboard is always the first layer of sheet mulch. You can also use newspaper, though you will want to thickly layer multiple sheets. In either case, make sure the material overlaps, so no weeds crawl through. You will also want to remove a shovel’s width of grass and weeds from the curb, sidewalk, or edge of your bed. This will prevent weeds from growing out beneath the cardboard. We also recommend covering the cardboard with jute net if you are sheet mulching on a slope. This will help the cardboard and net stay in place, preventing sliding or erosion. Use landscaping staples to fix the jute net and cardboard into the ground. 3. Moisten the ground. This is like a wake-up call to existing decomposers and will help the cardboard break down faster. 4. Compost, Manure, Compost, Manure, Mulch! Like we said, there are many different sheet mulch recipes out there. The good news is that all of them add to your garden! OSU Extension has a great resource that breaks down the basic elements of sheet mulch and what they add to your garden. Some of your decisions will be based on the materials you have access to. Have a lot of compost? Use it! Is there a big, beautiful...
Before & After
This backyard in SE Portland’s Sellwood community went from non-functioning to having multiple functioning “rooms,” including a raised composite deck, new patio for better dining experiences, and drainage...
Gardening with Children
Gardening with children is a magical process. It provides the chance to be open to all types of possibilities for creation, whether it is letting go of order and watching the organic process happen or listening to the sweet chatter that develops between children and adults. Recently, I spent some brilliant time at my daughters fabulous preschool Cuddletime Preschool in Milwaukie, Oregon building fabulous fairy gardens. I was a bit curious how to build fairy gardens with 12 kids under the age of 5. Here are some key things to know: 1) Have families collect items for the fairy gardens and talking about fairies and their home prior to the day of construction so that material is on hand and the kids are invested prior to actually building the Fairy gardens. 2) Have your sites picked out and clear prior to engaging the kids. This is because as soon as kids are ready to garden, they are ready! 3) Layout and organize all the fun construction material in an area that is close to the garden sites, but also in a flat area so kids can access the material in a safe and easy manner. 4) Bring the children into the area and give them a “pre-construction” tour of where the areas are, what materials are going to be used, and who is working where. 5) Have 3-4 children helping in each Fairy Garden area. Too many children in one area can be too congested. REMEMBER: children have a limited attention span. They are good for 15-20 minute when gardening (and that is optimistic). 6) The leaders of the construction areas...
Before & After
This family home in SE Portland went from drab to fab with super fun features: a covered gazebo, greenhouse, and a deck with hot tub....
Before & After
New outdoor living spaces for relaxation and entertaining took this luxury home from great to incredible. Take a peek at some of the before & after...
Before & After
We did a complete overhaul on this wonderful little NE Portland home and it turned out fantastic. Check out these before & after photos…...
Edible Gardening
Lasagna Gardening could be called lazy-man’s gardening or super-efficient gardening. The benefits of this style of gardening is to enhance and continue good soil tilth, feed the soil, protect the soil from erosion and provide a low cost way of dealing with debris. This is a great way to build new beds or put beds to sleep for the winter. Any fleshy green manure will work . For example, any veggie plants that are no longer producing. This picture demonstrates lasagna gardening at its best. Here are the layers: 1) Ground layer 2) Cut pieces 3”-8” long lay on top 3) Then apply a straw layer 2”-3” thick 4) Soil or compost 1” thick 5) Repeat step 2-4 one more time 6) Then apply coffee bean bags, weed fabric or straw to protect the soil. 7) Or plant winter crops right on it. Notes: If applying winter crop sprinkle the seed as even as possible on top of soil and layer straw as the erosion control If planting starts plant right into the layers. DO NOT put blackberry cuttings or ivy in lasagna gardening. Zucchini will have a core piece of the stalk that you can just put into the compost bin Voilà, you are lasagna gardening! ENJOY!!! IMPORTANT: If you are using this method on a bed with existing plants make sure you stay about 3” to 6” away from the base of the plant. This is to prevent the plant from being smothered....
