Details

I’m volunteering with a group of people on developing a plan for the South Downtown area of Milwaukie. I recently visited one of Portland’s newest parks, Director Park, to help familiarize myself with the concept of public plazas.

In my Landscape Design business, I always stress the importance of paying attention to the details, especially in smaller gardens where every little spot counts. WOW, the architects and designers who worked on the Director Park project certainly paid attention to the details! The space is not only gorgeous, it is also flexible. The adjoining roads are festival streets with no curbs; they can be blocked off with bollards to expand the park all the way to the building edges for big events, while allowing vehicle access to the buildings on non-event days. The use of one paving material, granite bricks, makes the space look larger. These design elements could be used in a home landscape…a driveway or RV parking pad could be located adjacent to a patio, with movable planters or screens to hide the vehicles when parked, and moved away when the whole area is needed for entertaining.

While there are a lot of “green” elements in the design…I question the use of the Gobi granite pavers…44,000 square feet of them. They are beautiful and should be durable and long lasting, but the fuel used to transport them from CHINA…was that worth it?

The glass roof drains via rain cables into a storm water planter.

Lots of handwork went into creating the finishing details.

The tree grates are made of granite too! I would have specified renting porta potties in brown or tan only...the blue just doesn't do it for me.

Another storm water planter...with granite curbs.

Seating area with iron wood benches and movable tables.

There are some interesting photos of the plaza, and the under ground parking structure, being built in this document (page 29 to 39) http://ocapa.net/uploads/Parking__2010.pdf

Portland’s website has a FAQ page about Director Park: http://www.portlandonline.com/parks/index.cfm?c=52460 

I don't think the style of Director Park would work in Downtown Milwaukie; I think Milwaukie needs something softer and more organic. I do hope the planers for our new plaza, pay close attention to the details.

Camping with the Min Pins

The Man of the House had a week of vacation, so we decided to spend a few days camping at McIver Park. In spite of checking out the weather forecast, we ended up camping in the rain; the poor dogs didn't get to take their coats off until a few hours before we came home!

The park has a lot of very nice native plants, a lot of them were in bloom. There are many right in the campsites...pretty neat for such a heavily used campground.

Checker Lily (Fritillaria lanceolata)


Grass Iris (Iris tenax)

Geranium

Pacific Dogwood (Cornus nuttallii)

Morel Mushroom

The Park has a lot of poison oak. We make sure the dogs don't wander off the trails. Dogs don't generally react to poison oak, however, people can transfer the oils from the dogs fur onto their skin when petting them! Poison Oak changes it's appearance depending on the time of year, the conditions its growing in, and just because it is EVIL...remember: leaflets three, let it be! The UC Davis, has information about controlling Poison Oak on their website. For those who are not bothered by Poison Oak, and enjoy flower shows, consider a road trip to the 26th annual Poison Oak Show!

Poison Oak at McIver Park, 18" tall on May 14th

Poison Oak in a client's garden, at least 6 feet tall on May 18th

McIver Park has a very nice (but unfenced) off-leash dog area; the space is over 4 acres, with a few trees for shade, water, a dog bag dispenser and garbage can. We let Berry and Basil run around on long lines (they can't be trusted completely off-leash in rabbit country!)...they thought they were just out having fun, but really, we were practicing recalls with distractions. Berry did great, a solid recall was one of the first things we taught him as a puppy; Basil needs some work, but he didn't do too poorly...especially once he figured out that when he came to us he'd get a bite of chicken and then be released to go explore.

Berry! Come!

Good Boy!

A Chicken Reward!

Relax, go out and sniff.

Basil needs to work on both his recall, and his reading skills!

Thanks to the Man of the Houses fire building skills, we stayed warm despite the damp weather. Overall, it was a great trip, and the dogs came home EXHAUSTED!

Winter Vegetable Gardening is Warming Up!

Berry asks "How long till they grow close enough to the edge for me to help myself?"

We have had almost two weeks worth of mild weather. The winter greens that had just been sitting doing nothing have started to grow! We picked a nice bunch of Bok Choy for our dinner a few nights ago and have been using lettuce thinnings for salads. Our Peas have sprouted and we planted turnip, swiss chard, parsley, and fennel seeds yesterday.

Our vegetable garden is quite small, however we do produce enough to stock our small freezer for the winter, supplementing with finds from the farmers market. This year will be a little different...my sister and I rented a 10 foot by 20 foot vegetable garden plot from Portland Community Gardens for our Father.

I try to keep my Fathers kitchen stocked with homemade soup, fruit, breads, and jam...he doesn't seem to mind the mostly vegetarian food I prepare. This year he will be growing lots of veggies for me to cook with. I am looking forward to preserving on a larger scale. So far we are planning on lots of tomatoes for drying and for sauce; cucumbers for pickles, green beans for soup, freezing, and pickling; and assorted greens and herbs. I also want to try melons. My father is really excited about starting his garden; it is nice to have the community garden space available for people living in apartments.

Gardens at Emanuel Hospital

I noticed the Therapy garden at Legacy Emanuel Hospital on my third visit to the Trauma and Acute Care Unit...I wish I would have noticed it on the first visit, when I really needed a garden break! But, better late than never. The feel of the garden is very different than the feel of the OHSU Kohler Pavilion garden. The OHSU garden is very urban/big city feeling with a gorgeous view of the city; while the Emanuel garden is a courtyard between the Trauma Unit and the Children's Hospital, it feels warm and cheerful.

This part of the garden is fairly Serene, it has a "grown up" feel.

The Topiary is supposed to be a deer...it looks more like a rabbit to me!

Children's Garden Path

The Children's garden is very playful...on the sunny days I saw many children enjoying exploring the paths...it must be a relief to the parents to have a place where kids can be kids amidst the serious hospital environment.

This Garden has Two Turtles

A Tin Man

And a Cow!

Garden at OHSU

Polished Stone Bench & Fountain on the Kohler Pavilion 9th Floor Garden

Over the past two years I've had the opportunity to visit a patient in the hospital many times, most of those visits have been to the VA hospital on the OHSU campus. The VA hospital is exactly what I would expect from a place for sick people...clean but not comfortable...watch out this is a place for SICK people! More recently I have visited someone at OHSU, but in the Kohler Pavilion. what a difference from the VA hospital...it is bright, cheerful, it has a feeling of HEALING! And, it has a garden! At first I noticed the Garden on the 9th floor, a long narrow walkway outside the hallway windows...there are pretty polished stone benches and some very cool drinking fountains that after half a dozen visits drew me out to take a closer look...very nice up-close, but then I looked down a floor...there was a larger "garden"area below!

Curving Boardwalk with Sculpture and Benches

I walked down a long flight of stairs to the 7th floor garden. Along the stairs I noticed a smooth trough-like area that looked like it was meant for something to roll on...it is a bike gutter for bikes that ride the tram to the hospital.

The garden features a children's play area and a wood "boardwalk" with a long tiled seating wall, fountains and sculptures.

Mother & Child, Mary Lewis Sculptor

The Children's play area was enclosed in a low glass wall and featured a turtle to climb on.

9th Floor Drinking Fountain

This drinking fountain was the only "water feature" that was turned on...dry fountains are disappointing; I visited several times and never saw them running. Maybe once the tram is paid for, some of the revenue from the tram ride tickets could be put into a fund to pay for the electricity to run the pumps!

I found an interesting blog about Portland Public Art, the blog has a section devoted to art at OHSU.

Native Plants at McIver Park

Striped Coralroot, Corallorrhiza striata

We didn't have the time for a long hike on our short trip, but we took the dogs on numerous walks through the campground. McIver Park has some very nice native plants. I was really impressed with the fruit on the Indian Plum, it glowed yellow-orange in the sun. The Man of the house spotted a very cool flower that I haven't seen before, we snapped photos (not very good ones) and emailed them off to our friend Donald who helped me to quickly identify it as Striped Coralroot!

Indian Plum, Oemleria cerasiformis

A Weekend with the Dogs at the Beach

Rose Hips

A three day weekend! We drove to the Oregon Coast and rented a Cabin at the Shamrock Lodgettes, a dog friendly spot in Yachts. We stopped into Newport on the way to the cabin and bought some fish for dinner at Local Ocean Seafoods. The cabin has a very tiny kitchen, a living room with a fireplace, bath, and a bedroom; nice and cozy. The ocean view isn't the best, but the grounds of the Shamrock are quite nice, big lawns, shrub beds, and large trees. There is enough space to make it feel private. We arrived after dark, but that didn't deter Berry and Basil from exploring the place from top to bottom.

Juniper, the garden dog at Bramble and Rose made us feel welcome.

We woke up our first morning at the beach to dry weather, very lucky! I arranged a tour of Bramble & Rose Nursery for the morning. The nurseries was built on land that was clear cut in 1996, now it is a lush garden teaming with wildlife. This is not a formal rose garden, these roses are allowed to grow to their full size, climbing up into trees and over fences. The brambles are shelter to many critters, we saw chipmunks, birds, and Chickens. Donald Niskanen, one of the owners of the family run nursery, told us that they have been visited by black bears, bob cats, coyotes, and of course deer. The deer are kept out of parts of the garden by tall fences, but they help to prune the rose bushes growing along the driveway. Mid-October is not the usual time to tour a rose garden, there wasn't much in bloom, but there were lovely rose hips on many of the bushes.

Darlingtonia californica
Cobra Lily

Later that day we went to the Darlingtonia State Natural Site, an 18 acre botanical Park devoted to the Cobra Lily, Darlingtonia californica. The Cobra Lily is native to northern California to southern Oregon; the plants need boggy soil, ideally in a sunny site where the water flows and stays cool. The Cobra Lily gets it's nutrients from trapping bugs that fall into water held in its stem; bacteria in the water breaks down the bugs into nitrogen usable by the plant. There is a boardwalk to a bog filled with the Cobra Lilies. The boardwalk is edged with some beautiful native plants, including deer fern, evergreen huckleberry, and myrtle. On the way out we saw some gorgeous mushrooms...Anything that pretty must be poisonous!

The next morning we awoke to rain, our exploring was done, so we headed home. I want more three day weekends!