When we moved here, we couldn’t quite bring ourselves to part with our old house in the industrial NW Portland neighborhood. It was our first house together and where the gardening bug first bit. Over the 13 years we lived there, we transformed an architectural eyesore and a rubble-strewn lot into a cozy nest surrounded by lush gardens.

The southern exposure and surrounding concrete give a boost to temperamental plants like this Cotoneaster corokia. I’ve killed three of them since.

Melianthus major is another of those success stories. There is now (a copse? a grove?). Not sure what to call it, but there’s a heckuva lot of it. I keep digging up pieces to bring here, but so far none of them have taken.

Our first renter was an architect and good friend, who was excited about the garden. I told her to consider it hers, and just give me right of first refusal on anything she wanted to take out. Next thing we knew, she had a major excavation project going and the whole thing is now on an automatic sprinkling system. She also replaced my funky pathways with elegant stone slabs and added lots of roses and boxwoods.

Now that they no longer need worry where their next drink is coming from, the Crocosmias have multiplied at an almost alarming rate. More freebies hit the sidewalk every year. Fortunately, they’re pretty easy to pull up.

Ditto for the goosenecked loosestrife. (try saying that three times in rapid succession)

And the Filipendula rubra.

Our most recent tenants were not so interested in the garden, so we have spent the last few weeks on a weeding and mulching blitz. See how nice it looks?

So, my dear garden blogging friends (or anyone else who happens by), if you know of anyone who might be interested, please send them on over to liveworknw.com for a look-see. If you click in the upper left corner of the photo there, you get a slide show of the interior and more garden photos by a real photographer. I think the virtual tour is way cool, but it takes some time. Some of Richard’s paintings and a couple of his benches are in the photos.