Portland Landscape Ideas That Actually Work in Our Climate

Portland’s climate is backwards compared to most of the country. It rains for months in the winter, and then it barely rains at all from July through September. Add clay soil on the east side, big shade trees, and moss that shows up everywhere, and a lot of landscapes that look great in a catalog fall apart here.

These are the ideas that actually hold up.

1. Plant for dry summers, not just wet winters

The biggest mistake we see is planting for how Portland looks in April. By August, a thirsty landscape means either a huge water bill or crispy plants.

Native and drought-tolerant plants that do well here:

• Oregon grape. Evergreen, yellow flowers in spring, handles sun or shade.
• Red-flowering currant. One of the first things to bloom in spring, and hummingbirds love it.
• Sword fern. Nearly indestructible in shade.
• Salal. Tough evergreen ground cover for shady areas under trees.
• Kinnikinnick. A low ground cover for sunny slopes.
• Lavender, rosemary, and ornamental grasses. Great for hot, sunny beds.

Once established, most of these need little to no summer water.

2. Fix drainage before you plant anything

A lot of yards in Gresham, Troutdale, and east Portland sit on heavy clay that holds water all winter. Plants that hate wet feet will rot in a season.

A few ways to handle it:

• Raised beds or berms to get roots above the soggy layer.
• A rain garden, a planted low spot where your downspouts drain. It handles the winter water and looks good doing it.
• Amending the soil with compost when planting new beds.

3. Shrink the lawn

A big lawn in Portland means months of fighting moss in winter and watering in summer. Reducing lawn area is one of the best long-term moves you can make.

Keep enough grass for the kids, the dog, or the backyard barbecue. Replace the rest with planting beds, gravel paths, or ground cover. Less lawn also means lower maintenance costs. A property with no lawn at all can often move to biweekly maintenance.

4. Work with the shade

Mature trees are one of the best things about living here, but they make grass miserable. Instead of reseeding the same bare patch under a maple every year, turn it into a shade bed with ferns, hostas, hellebores, and salal.

5. Give the yard winter structure

From November to March, your landscape is mostly bare branches and wet ground. Evergreen shrubs, conifers, and plants with interesting bark, like red-twig dogwood, keep the yard from looking dead for five months.

6. Mulch everything

A couple of inches of bark in your beds keeps roots cool and moist in the summer, protects them in the winter, and cuts weeds way down. In Portland it’s one of the cheapest upgrades you can make.

The maintenance side

A good design is only half of it. Even low-maintenance landscapes need regular attention to stay that way: beds weeded, shrubs pruned on schedule, lawns fed at the right times of year, and debris cleared before it turns into a problem.

That’s what we do. Hillside Landscape Maintenance has taken care of Portland-area landscapes since 1997, from Gresham and Happy Valley to Sandy and across the metro. Call (503) 780-3599 or email Sales@hlmaintenance.com.

— The Hillside Team