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Garden decorator Lauren Hall - Behrens found herself in the quandary that catches up with most industrial plant lover . After nearly a decade , her 6,500 - straight - metrical unit property in northeast Portland had grown dense and overcrowded . “ It lacked cohesion , and the plant had grow up to block the light , ” says Hall - Behrens , proprietor of the garden and landscape design studio Lilyvilla Gardens . “ So much was going on that it made me unquiet . ” So she stepped back , take care at the garden as if she was her own customer , and launched a major renovation .
The garden ’s off-white were good — a web of gravel nerve tract , maturing trees like Italian cypress and ‘ Natchez’crape Vinca minor , and a hefty sales booth of Japanese banana tree ( genus Musa basjoo ) . But Hall - Behrens had lose track of her original estimate of create a present-day , Pan - Asian - tropic - style garden . “ I like to apply more plant than most New garden designer do , ” she explain of her dilemma .
Hall - Behrens put to work cleaning out the deep , mid - level of the garden . Then she planted sweeps of grain and gloss to create a visual link between various planting areas . The repeat of grim and green mondo grass , with masses of ‘ All Au ’ Japanese woodland grass ( Hakonechloa macra ) , unifies the planting and melt off care . To keep the garden looking soaker for much of the year , she emphasized foliage grain over prime . And to keep thing kempt , she confined annuals to container , abut paths and bed in blade to keep gravel and stain in place , used plenty of hardscape , and chose small evergreens that do n’t need much pruning . She also produce definition with flock and computer architecture as well as plants .
layer of hedge , some in unexpected materials like bristly wire nett bush ( Corokia cotoneaster ) , define the garden in all seasons , create astuteness and texture as well as delineation . Hall - Behrens punctuates beds with pots , encircling the container with hedging two or three layers deep . Hedging of various heights encloses both the patio and a hut for garden viewing . The upshot is lush , sinuous , and powerfully architectural .
With the restoration , Hall - Behrens come back to her garden ’s Pan - Asiatic - tropic - style roots . This meant stick more closely to a pallet of Asiatic plant life , along with plants from Chile and New Zealand , all well suitable to Portland ’s mild climate . Her enthusiasm for tropic - looking works ( “ I have it away big foliage , just love it ” ) and the work of Brazilian landscape architectRoberto Burle Marxinspired the garden ’s layout , normal , and bold foliage , like windmill palm ( Trachycarpus fortunei ) , cannas , bear ’s breeches ( Acanthus mollis ) , and groves of brave Japanese bananas . The look is proportionate without being formal , comfortably eclectic , and modernist without the hard sharpness . Also following a limited pallet , the structural elements of the garden are black , rusty metal , or peacock butterfly blue , similar to the arbor - like structure paint to match the home ’s trimming semblance . “ I ’ve always been enchant by blade , ” says Hall - Behrens , who uses out of practice and perforated variation for edging , fences , and projection screen .
Hall - Behrens was exonerated about both her emotional and practical goals for the redevelopment . “ I want to sense a sense of calm in the garden , and I require to see green when I looked out my windowpane in the winter . ” Now there are plenty of evergreens — boxwood , yew , euonymous , fern , and mondo grass — to both tranquillise the garden visually , and hold the lushness of summer through all seasons .
