When we first met our client to discuss their landscape plans, they had an existing deck on the back of their house in Portland facing the Willamette River. Initially, the client wanted the deck,which was 15 feet above ground, to be resurfaced and painted. Additionally, the client wanted a grand staircase built coming off the deck to create a more presentational feeling from the landscape and river's edge. 

As landscape plans developed, our final design on this Portland property incorporated handsome stone retaining walls and slate patios into the landscape. A beautiful pathway to the dock was created, accented ny night lighting. We also addressed landscape drainage on this property and added to the owner's pleasure, a putting green.

The most daunting part of this client's Portland Willamette River project was the 300 foot long, concrete exposed aggregate driveway. In order to access the river side of the home and landscape, it was our challenge to maintain the integrity of the driveway - - a difficult task with lots of heavy equipment traversing it and the drive serving as the only access to the backyard landscape. Literally, we had tens of tons of soil going into the backyard. Ultimately, our landscape crew brought in a "soil shooter" for a most of the earth moving work, minimizing the use of a bobcat.

When we began this landscape project, the backyard was a plain, sloping bank. Our landscape design integrated several garden spot and attractive sitting areas to enjoy. Between the stone terraces, the landscape crew crafted a wide stone staircase for easy access down to the lower level of the landscape to encourage play at the new putting green.

To finish the landscape, we brought in some large decorative pots, including an attractive pot-style water feature. There's something quite relaxing in hearing the gentle flow of the water feature as you gaze out over the river.

The clients behind this Portland landscape design had the resources to allow this project to be completed to its full vision, and plan was executed to a "T".


Learning something new everyday...
When the landscape was 100% done, the geese loved the putting green. In fact, it was such a hit with the geese, you could not even see the green. Since then, the clients have done several things to deter the geese from coming back, including borrowing their daughter's dog to chase them off.

Additionally, while we were installing this landscape, the client kept noticing a couple of feet of their hedge top would be missing from one day to the next. He first thought the neighbor was cutting it down. Then, one morning, the hedge was all but gone. The client decided we must have changed our landscape design for that area. When we got together with the client to discuss the project progress, we witnessed together, a really large beaver coming up that evening, and taking what was left of the hedge. The beaver was bringing it back to the river to finish building his nest. It was probably the biggest beaver I had ever seen. One bite from the beaver and a significant tree could have been removed. This is life on the river!

What ever your challenge, Big Sky has the landscape professionals to do it right. From Portland and Vancouver to Lake Oswego, Clackamas, Happy Valley or West Linn, call us today for a distinct landscape design of your own.