Tag Archives | Sango Kaku

Lake Oswego – Fall 2015

This was a large residential project that we finished in Lake Oswego on a new construction home last fall.

Elements of this project included:

  • An expansive Tall Fescue lawn:  This tough yet beautiful turfgrass will require less water and maintenance once established, and will stand up to regular use with ease.
  • Stone walkways:  We used a lot of stone walkways in this project to access various parts of the landscape.
  • A drainage system:  The back yard had some leveling issues and a major drainage problem when we arrived.  We leveled the rear lawn and installed a generous amount of drainage to create the level, rolling expanse of grass that you see in the images.
  • A rain garden:  We constructed a rain garden that is not only gorgeous, but also allows the landscape to manage some of its runoff onsite.  Water that would normally end up in a storm drain is instead kept on the property and allowed to soak back into the soil.
  • Numerous grasses and perennials:  We really enjoyed the colors and textures of this project.  The fall colors were beautiful, and the selection was designed to provide interest in all seasons.
  • Boulders:  A well placed boulder makes a strong statement.  We strategically placed a number of large boulders throughout the project to provide structure and contrast.
  • An extensive Rain Bird irrigation system:  We love our Rain Bird irrigation products, and really put them to good use here.  This landscape incorporated a number of irrigation zones, most of them with high-efficiency drip irrigation.  Our drip systems will keep the water low to the ground and near to the plants that need them, only using the water that is necessary and keeping it in the landscape instead of running into a drain.
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Lake Oswego – October 2013

This project involved lots of gorgeous new plants, an irrigation system upgrade, a lawn facelift, boulders, beautiful containers, flagstone walkways, and an impressive amount of drainage work.  The original landscape at this home was fairly basic and lackluster, and had been left unfinished in some places.  Coupled with drainage problems that were causing erosion and an inefficient irrigation system that liked to spray water everywhere, it was definitely time for a change!

The first thing we did was to fix the drainage issue.  We installed a few hundred feet of river rock drain to collect and channel the water, which quickly fixed the erosion problem and made the yard quite a bit easier to work with.  We removed an existing back lawn and replaced it with new sod, which was reshaped to better fit the yard.  Then we brought in a truckload of incredible plants to fill in the blank canvas and give the new landscape substance.  Be sure to take a look at the picture of the Coral Bark Maple (Acer palmatum ‘Sango kaku’), which is in full fall color right now and is absolutely stunning!

The new landscape was finished off with some strategically placed boulders and a pair of flagstone walkways.  We installed two birdbath column rocks, which look awesome in their new home.  To top it all off, we retrofitted the inefficient planting bed spray irrigation with super efficient pressure-regulated Rain Bird Xeribug™ emitters that use only a fraction of the water as the old system.

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