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!

Winter coloring

Part of my blog focuses on including readers as we install gardens for our clients. We are Ginkgo Landscape Design, a Pacific Northwest based landscape design and installation company that strives to create more natural, manageable, and sustainable spaces. The designer himself installs the gardens to meet high standards of quality, see more about us at our website.

It's wintertime at our house and while the cold and very wet weather surrounds us, the task of garden design continues. What starts as a blank sheet of paper evolves into a well thought out plan to enhance outdoor spaces and the lives that they touch. Who doesn't love being surrounded by natures beauty?

The current design drawings are complete and will soon be ready to present. It's a big garden, and I will be there to follow along with the progress of this next installation and give you a glimpse into the details and extreme planning, skills and knowledge involved in crafting a garden from start to finish. Feel free to just follow along for the pretty pictures :)

Other landscape design blog posts with pictures:
2008 Wallingford Garden Tour entry

Same Wallingford Garden years later with mature plants during fall color

Redmond Garden design installation
Completion and final photos of Redmond Garden

2009 Broadview Garden demolition of a driveway
Raised garden planter prep
Raised garden planter structure
Raised garden planter completion and stucco coating
Exterior garden entry trellis and privacy fence with storage prelim construction
Garden fence and trellis completion and demo of old fence
Start of deck construction
Construction of brick garden path to connect spaces
How far have we come, a collection of before and construction shots
Irrigation testing
Completion of Broadview Garden installation

Okay Houdini, get outta this!

So the fence part is done, next up is the gate. This is not your average fence.
There is no under.

Fall color in a maturing garden install.

More in the life of a landscaper. It's been very wet these days as fall is coming on strong in the Northwest.

We are back at a clients garden we installed a few years ago to add a short doggie/baby fence. All of the gardens are carefully thought out to give great color year round and plenty of interest. This garden is one of my favorites. Someday hopefully, I want as much color in my own as yet unfinished garden.

Red door, yes please!

Another great thing about this one is the sweet smell it has. There are some great Daphne bushes in full blossom that smell wonderfully sweet, as well as a Katsura tree that smells like carmelizing sugar as the leaves turn and drop for the season. This garden has year round color that just brightens up the whole area!

I would sit out on the porch with the morning paper (laptop version) and a latte. As a bonus, they have a great local coffee shop just a few blocks away. What a lovely view to enjoy.
And for the full effect, above shows the after, and below is where we started...

Completion of a Landscape Design Installation by Ginkgo Landscape Design

Thanks to all who have been following the landscape design installation. I'll update the photos of the growth progress next year when we do our spring maintenance. For the time being, here are photos of where we started, and where we ended up.

Above: This photo shows the before of the garden when it was an unused circular driveway (the following photo reveals the after shot from the same location). The garage door was on the outside of the fence line. What could be much more usable space has been reclaimed for the homeowners as a deck, pathway, several trellises and irrigated garden space. In addition they have a circular patio and raised planter and a vegetable trellis behind the garage.

A little perspective before completion:

Afters: below




for more progress photos and other landscape installation photos click here
For the time being, this garden is to be continued as this was the first stage (25% completed) in a full garden renovation. More next year ;)

Irrigation testing

Tomorrow is likely the last day for the landscape we have been installing. (We are landscape designers and installers for a living.) Today was the irrigation test. It works. We flushed out the system which results in several "fountains" about the garden before the hoses are plugged and the water is routed to the drippers (or sprayers in the veg/herb planters).It's fun to watch the water after sooo much dusty dry dirt. Of course tomorrow there will be another pile for us in the staging area. This time the final mulch application and then it's all for the clients to enjoy. And, we get a rest.

Grading, and a before and after shot

It's coming on the fun part. The part when all the structures come together and start looking like a well thought out plan. The ginormous (not really as big as we can get) dirt pile is slowly being placed in specific locations to get the grade just right for plants. Ultimately, the semicircle that you see in the far left center of the following photo will be a large circular patio for entertaining with a pathway up to the herb planters.
Another view with the pear tree on the left. Facing the new entertaining deck from the raised garden planters and circular patio.

This is where we began....

This is where we are as of today. Way better than the asphalt that it was not too long ago. The birds and squirrels adore the chestnut tree, and the pear tree.

Another before....
After below : We didn't remove the tree, no worries. That is an ancient stump that will remain in the garden, surrounded by awesome plants :)

There is still more dirt to move and grading to be done, but next week should become quite colorful. Keep watching!

Welcome home clients...

As the landscape installs go along plenty of things get unloaded into the "staging area". The most impressive of them is always the soil pile. If only I had RC toy trucks!

Do not step, walkway in progress

More progress photos from the current installation for our clients. Even more photos and info at the Ginkgo Landscape Design website here.

Someone has been walking on my sand! It's okay, friends come along as they are interested as well. In fact, it's kind of fun to check out who it may have been. We know there is a local black kitty who likes to check in from time to time. I appreciate the kitty breaks too.

This evidence was left by raccoons. They stepped in several of our other sand piles too. I think it's cute.

So we have gotten the actual path done, but are working on the landing and small area that steps down to the basement. Now, this is unfinished, so keep that in mind. It still needs a final machine compaction and some polymer sand to fill the gaps and set everything in place. In the mean time no one is allowed to walk on it. Okay, we walk on it with flat feet a special way (which kinda looks odd). High heels would make a mess of it though, tapdancing would not be good.In the mean time, here is another bit of the puzzle that has been completed. It's a little vine arbor for the veggie garden. Again, post on pipe set with a notched trellis that matches the rest of the garden. This one has stainless tension wires running thru the posts for whatever climbing goodies want to ramble up. We expect to complete the pathway on Monday (weather permitting). Then it's on to more dirt! Then plants, irrigation and top dressing... :)

Entertaining deck gets it's structure

More progress photos from our landscape design installation. It's what we do, see more at the Ginkgo Landscape Design website!

One of the major elements missing in many gardens is the same that makes it appealing. I don't know about you but when I enter a garden space, I want to feel surrounded by it. Having tall structures (be it plants or built elements) really helps create this effect. Soon it will be wired for lighting to enable the clients to entertain easily in the evenings and get around safely after the sun has gone down.

For the time being the deck platform is being left open to allow for the electricity to be wired easily. Ultimately it will be topped off with Trex, a composite material created from wood and plastic fibers. I actually quite like it since it lasts longer than any wood surface ever could, doesn't splinter, has a nice feel on the feet (I love barefoot gardens!) and is easy to work with. As a bonus it is made with recovered material that used to be tossed into landfills. It's a little heavy and bendy (think 20 foot long 50 lb wet noodle) before it's set where it needs to be, but that helps in the long run anyway. Plus, it saves us from using long lengths of trees when we can.

I cannot wait to get the decking down and see the pool of light created from the deck lights and the pendant lights hanging from the arbor!

We have yet to add the seating surround beneath the arbor as well. It's in the works!

Beams and Joists, the making of a deck

Continuing on with the tour of a landscape design installation by Ginkgo Landscape Design (that's us). The first photo shows a midway view. The driveway has been partially removed as well as the existing deck and patio space that was so small having a trash can was crowding the space. (We built in a hidden place for those too). So this is the "before the deck" photo.

It's a nice big deck with plenty of space for a dance party. And it's plenty strong for that too.
A ton of details go into building a deck properly. This deck sets entirely on concreted piers and metal brackets. It is independent from the house. Also requested was a large landing to the back door.I am delighted as well that this deck is going to have fancy lighting! We are installing a seat rail along the outer perimiter and pergolas (similar to the fence) above. There will be downlights for the landing and stairs as well as pendants in each "window" framed by the pergola.

It's gonna be great! Keep watching and I will keep you posted!
Wanna know more about this thing we do? www.GinkgoLandscapeDesign.com

A proper entry

A proper entry for a beautiful private garden. Constructed post on pipe so that over time if the posts need to be replaced, they can be easily. The full 3/4 inch cedar boards were sustainably caught... quite literally. They were washed up from storm felled trees along the Stillaguamish River and naturally wind felled. It's a very limited supply for such special materials, but makes a great quality fence.

A large main gate provides entry from the drive, and two adjacent gates hide the trash and recycle from view on both sides. A must to keep a garden looking tidy is keeping unsightly cans hidden.

Wanna see a before and after? There will be more of these at the end, but this one is pretty fun to see. After we constructed the new fence, we were able to tear down the old one which added a ton of new space to the garden.

Here is the before, with the old fence surrounding what used to be a gigantic unused circular driveway. It also has a precious Clematis Montana that is being saved for relocation, so that is still visible in the after photos...

Tada! Now that is a good sized garden. We will build a large entertaining deck next, so stay tuned for more fun photos :)

Connecting the ... posts.

Making sense of the "mess of posts". It takes a while to get all the custom pieces in place. My primary job was to finish notches with a chisel so that the rails set just right on the cross braces.

It's still got some more smaller cross pieces for the tops and the actual "fence" part, but you get the idea now.

Fresh herbs for the garden and post alley

It's so cute with plants in it! The client wasted no time planting her herbs and flowers and had them planted on the first day after it was ready. There is still plenty of work to do as the entire area is set for a design, but this one bit is complete.

The next step is building the new fence that will incorporate more of the garden. Previously the focus was a large circular drive that was not even used. If you ask me, a garden is much better than a driveway could ever be. The photo may not make any sense at all but trust me, we have a grand plan. Where all the dirt is that you see used to be asphalt. It was removed with a pry bar and a sledgehammer (the old fashioned way) and is actually beneath the area where you saw the planter reused to get the proper grade level for the planter area and the circular patio.

So here is the next step... post alley. The garden will have a "proper entrance" as all spaces should. What looks like a mess of posts (post on pipe construction) will make perfect sense when the fence is up and has its hand made pergolas and trellises.

The fence boards are special because they are milled from fallen cedar trees from a family farmland rather than clearcut wood. I like to call it free range organic sustainably harvested just to be a show off. (I am. :)

Thanks for your interest, I will have more for you soon!