Landscape before and afters, client installation update

We build gardens. Call us and get your dream garden to stay outside in.

Garden installation by Ginkgo Landscape Design, serving Seattle northward to Edmonds and select Eastside locations.

As we go along in a landscape it comes along slowly but eventually prompts a lot of reaction from the homeowners as well as neighbors who are familiar with the before and after as they pass it regularly. I always like to make a comment regarding the progress... today's was: "Remember when this was a driveway?" Cause... before we got our hands on it, it was. See what we did to the driveway here.

We do all this the hard way, by hand with shovels, wheelbarrows and a little muscle and lots of construction and overall garden knowledge. It takes a while from start to finish (and there is more to come on the front yard) because it's just the two of us from initial design consultation all the way thru ongoing care and maintenance of a completed design.

Following are a few before and afters. (Befores were taken in Summer, afters in early Spring, leaves soon.)
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^Before: The clients had that typical crammed in feeling at the back door and no place to set groceries, store trash cans or just enjoy their welcome home...

After: The new deck gives them a large landing to the back door and creates a huge back living space. It's placed to get morning sun, and have portions of sun and shade throughout the rest of the day. Added bonuses include the seat height railings and trellis above wired for pendant lighting. There is also deck lighting at shin height that comes on at dusk, off at dawn or adjustable to the clients wishes.
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^Before: That bushy looking thing obscuring the garage is a very old pear tree. It takes a while to get a fruit tree back to the point where it produces well, but this one well on it's way and even produced quite a few pears last season.

After: It's such a bonus to be able to get around from garage to house to garden barefoot if you want to. The new paver hardscape in this garden offers exactly that as well as a great entertaining space or just lounging in your outside.

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^Before: It's a little hard to see, but the fence that is crowding the house in the above photo was entirely removed and pushed back about 15 feet to reclaim the useable space from an unused circular asphault driveway. I'm all for reclaiming space for plants.

After: The new fence incorporates a trellis for the homeowners climbers as well as a defined entry, and a space for the recycle and trash cans to hide them from view. They are on the far left in their own little cubby next to the garage, invisible from all sides but overhead. Having easily accessible yet hidden space for the trashcans is often overlooked, it shouldn't be.
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^Before: Grass... mow weekly, accept weeds or spend your precious time weeding.

After: No grass, no need to mow. How about planting veggies and herbs in the raised hand stucco'd planters instead. Ultimately there will be a door into the garage to contain an indoor potting area. Since this is a large garden with lots of deciduous trees we built several compost bins. You can see one at the back fence-line with a red wheelbarrow leaning on it.
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Following are some more afters:
A view of the raised planters, elegantly curved to reflect both circular patios. Note: this is not easy, but very worth it! Everything is prepped with irrigation because it's just not possible to water this entire garden daily by hand. It's electronic and takes care of everything for you, it has a rain sensor and will not waste your water if it has rained recently. This garden has several zones since the veggie planters need different care than the landscape plants.


This is the new view that never existed before. From the back window of the house one can overlook the entire back garden. Look closely and you can see the little deck lights on either side of the entrance.

That's it for a little while in this garden, but it finally looks like the drawings. Stay tuned for the following phases though because it's not over yet!

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It's a good one too:
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I am on my way to a gem show tomorrow and the sale will include the new finds as well so get in on those sparkly beads while they are fresh! I also just restocked on a bunch of pearls, perfect for those June bridal designs and brightly dyed for those offbeat brides who like things a little less traditional.

Don't tell me you didn't already know the Spring Sale was happening! If you want the best deals and advanced notice of the sales, you really should subscribe to my newsletter!

Spring has sprung!

We are back at it, purchasing the plants for clients as required by the design drawings. This inevitably means we end up coming home with extra for ourselves. We have been doing better about that though.
It's still a little early to get that colorful nursery photo, but a few of the plants are getting ready to burst forth with their spring color.

We are actually very close to done with the next phase of the garden we are installing so photos will be forthcoming.