Gallery – Indigo Gardens

Install, Maintenance – Reno, NV

I am actively working in at least 20 or so gardens in the Reno-Sparks area. Many are in various states of upkeep and planting. I upgraded many of the gardens in the Spring and Summer of 2022, which involved late Winter cleanups, pruning, vine renewals, bed shaping, rock work, perennial trimming, pottery and annuals, as well as new planting areas altogether. I have planted a lot of cold-hardy hydrangeas, red-osier and variegated dogwood, snowball viburnum, rose of sharon/hibiscus, ninebark, honeysuckle, raspberry, salvia, iris, daylily, astilbe, anemone, delphinium, russian sage, hellebore, hosta, grasses, pollinator perennials, bulbs, and more.

Pottery, Patios and Terraces – Oregon and Nevada

My experience with potted plants is extensive, and this gallery represents but a small fraction of my work. It is undoubtedly my absolute favorite way to spend my time and it truly brings me absolute joy. My work at Ecotrust at the Natural Capital Center building in the Pearl district of downtown Portland, OR spurred a lot of work through networking and other contracts. I took care of all the plants outside on the facility grounds and most of the plants inside the entire building. I met so many people out on the streets when I was working. It was a very influential time in my life. I was also co-owner of my sustainable landscape business (Living Gardens) at the time, so kept very busy. In all, this time in my career was pivotal in teaching me how to create the most impact each season. I feel most creative in this realm. Anyone can have a small potted plant garden whether inside or out, and wherever you live. It really lifts the spirits.

Home Garden – Indoor and Outdoor – Reno, NV

I am absolutely blessed beyond belief to have this home and garden. I moved to Reno in December of 2019. There was essentially not much out there. As of now there are raspberries, (struggling) blueberries, strawberry, peach, nectarine, Italian plum, apricot, elderberry, currant, gooseberry, and neighbors with grapes they let me prune and harvest. I am a big edible garden grower and have tried out a select sampling of annual veggies: lettuce mix, kale mix, beets, carrots, tomato, squash, corn, sunflowers, garlic, onion, green beans, peas, basil, rosemary, parsley, chives, and other odd balls. Moisture is everything here. Once I put misters over the raised bed the greens thrived as opposed to withered. I also planted many ornamental shrubs and pollinator-friendly perennials: cold-hardy hydrangea, lilac, snowball viburnum, roses, day lily, salvia, aster, yarrow, iris, bee balm, agastache, coreopsis, dianthus, peony, honeysuckle, clematis, porcelain vine, along with daffodils, tulips, gladiolas, hyacinth, snowdrops and so much more. My annual flower pots are borderline neurotic in quantity, but bring me tremendous peace and joy. I constantly re-arrange the pots to create nooks and areas. The easement up the hillside is a wonder for wildlife and birds. The Last Chance/Steamboat ditch fills with water up there during the Summer, and my cat Sadie and I like to perch with the view for the sunset and the birds.

Rock Work – Oregon

This is another type of work I love immensely. Typically it is hard to capture rock work when it is fixing existing issues, but the result is obvious. In this case these were from scratch projects. It takes a tremendous amount of creativity, vision, patience, and physical labor to do rock work. That includes materials hauling, digging out the substrate, grading/leveling, drainage, and setting the stone so it will withstand shifting weight. I have created many dry-like creek beds and rain gardens.

Composting Systems – Oregon and Nevada

There are innumerable ways to create a compost. This gallery is a sample of some of the systems I have devised. The smallest system is the tumbler and “darth-vader helmut” free-standing units. They are also the most critter free. The loose piles are easy to turn, but attract rodents. The windrow piles are for farms and larger-scale operations. I have as of yet had to use machinery. Turning a compost is not only good for your physical well-being but a very fruitful enterprise for the garden beds and crops. What you are most after is “black gold” – the crumbly, nutrient rich compost that will provide both bio-mass and water-retention to your beds.

Permaculture Project – Ubud, Bali

I lived in Bali for three months in 2017. I was on sabbatical from life and work. I did a fantastic job reading, relaxing, exploring and learning about the local culture. The last month I was a bit stir crazy. Thanks to a treasured client in Portland, Linda referred me to her friend and long-time ex-pat from the USA, Rucina, who lived on the North side of the island. After meeting up for lunch, she put me in touch with her friend Sue who too was a long-established ex-pat living in Ubud. Sue let me do work-trade at her Air BnB in Ubud. For a month I lived and worked on reworking and revitalizing her garden where there were two units. She trusted me to do whatever I creatively wanted. We drove across the island to the local Ace Hardware and got some hand tools and seeds. Besides that, everything else I scavenged off the property. I was over-joyed when Sue invited the local Ubud Garden Society over for lunch and a tour! I did some work in the ornamental beds as well, and gave instructions to the gardener, so credit to him for helping out as well.

Home Garden – Portland, OR

I lived at this house for 13 years, with countless housemates and ridiculously fun times. The entire property was essentially grass. Everything you see is a result of my experimenting. I was heavily involved in my master’s program, and other community-based work ventures. This put me in the thick of resources and connections. That included being in the right place at the right time non-stop, which afforded me a lot of free plants and supplies from very generous and lovely people. I learned more in this 13 years than I can possibly explain. Many, many memories, and a lot of hard work. Shout out to all my former housemates (many of which are still dear to me) for all their help and enthusiasm.

Home Garden, Parking Strip – Portland, OR

This too used to be all grass. Portland has a lot of these wider parking strips – 8″, which allows for a lot of plantings. I borrowed a sod cotter from a job site project, and proceeded to roll it all up to create berms for raised beds. The sod eventually decomposed and left a raised mound. It was back-breaking work. I did it all in one day. I don’t know how. I later proceeded to amend the soil with compost, and planted the three sisters companion planting: corn, beans and squash. I did this every year until the Quacking Aspens got tall and generated too much shade. I switched to beans only, as you can see by the trellis. I met so many people walking by while I was tending. There was an alley that was a neighborhood thorough-fair to the elementary school and large park across the street. I can’t count how many neighbors, kids, and dogs I met when I was out there. I planted garlic and onions in the Fall, as well as an assortment of greens in the early Summer (in the smaller adjacent bed). The fruit trees were peach, plum, elderberry, and Indian plum.

Project Before, During and After – Eugene, OR

I completed a master plan for this garden (see portfolio design page) and had a contractor do the decon, earth-working, and rock-work. I did all the planting and mulching. I continued to work on this garden for a few more years so was on top of all the growth and health of the plants. Thank goodness for my client taking and sending me photos over the years, as I sadly lost mostly all of the proceeding garden growth photos on a kaput laptop. This garden wraps around the side of the house and I took care of the back as well. This was a mixture of PNW natives and ornamentals. We worked together to plant a lot more bulbs, and replace a lot of the Mexican Feather Grass which while great when it was more bare, that plant can takeover a bit. My client did not like all the pokey plants (mahonia) so those got removed. She is working wonders with a new gardener now.

Decon, Install, Maintenance – Portland, OR

This was a full scope project encompassing the whole gamut: design, decon, installation, and maintenance, as well as replanting and remulching. The installation featured complete grass removal, enriching the soil with compost, building a berm, paver walk and patio, boulder highlights and a vast assortment of PNW native plants with ornamental inter-plantings. The images in this gallery highlight the shifting nature of the garden over a course of 5 years or so. The explosion of growth after the 3rd year was staggering. Both the client and myself agreed there was something special about the garden that kept it so vigorously robust. I had a lot of prior experience with all of the plants, so was able to prune precisely when needed to keep everything to shape and in its area. Nevertheless there were perennials and shrubs that had to be removed in the under-story to accommodate neighboring plants. This is part of the staging of vegetation to give way to a more shady under-story.

Installation and Maintenance : Before, During and After – Portland, OR

This garden had it all. From decon, to replant and installation, rock work and grading, and ongoing maintenance that included dividing, transplanting, more plant removals, pruning/trimming, and non-stop weeding. The finality of it is represented when the full weed was completed with a top-dress of fresh dark fir mulch and pathway chips. This is a very nice selection of images that capture a sense of what happens over the course of 5 years. Lots of upgrades and downgrades along the way. This was a neighbor to an ongoing project I had in North Portland. It is a common occurrence to meet new prospective clients by being friendly and chatty while working.

Decon, Install, Maintenance – Portland, OR

This site had a massive amount of shrub overgrowth and weedy tendencies, a lot like the neighbor’s place above. The decon was fairly extensive, as was the earth-working and re-grading to accommodate the downward slope. It is quite normal in Portland to have these rocky outcrop gardens with terribly designed or more like haphazard and piecemeal rock-work. I had a fun time sculpting and digging new rock outcropping lines. The landscaping actually ended up looking very complimentary to the neighbor’s place. I did maintenance on this place for a number of years. It was fantastic to see it grow into maturity. The organic biomass and heavy mulching kept the weeds down and boosted all the plants for years.

Decon, Install, Maintenance – Portland, OR

This is another garden that had decon, install, and ongoing maintenance of additional plantings. This area in North Portland had a tremendous amount of foot traffic, but for some reason a bit less friendly people, plus a lot of litter and careless attitudes. It was a bit closer in with high-density apartment complexes. The majority of new vegetation was primarily PNW natives which are ideal for low to no watering once established. The first year I hand-watered in the Summer, but after that I stopped. The plants selected were suited to drought tolerance in the Summer months, and performed very well, providing color and interest. The mulching helped with the weeds, and the cedar chips in the parking strip were the only medium that would work since cars parked there used that strip for access to the sidewalk. I refreshed it every other year.