Create A Dog Friendly Garden

If you are dog lovers like we are you'll be interested in the following information  to make your garden more pet friendly:

Pet-Safe Landscaping
Avoid thorny and spiny plants, which can cause serious eye injuries. Be very cautious about growing poisonous plants, like castor bean or hellebore, in readily accessible areas. Visit www.aspca.org/toxicplants for a complete list.

Many wild mushrooms produce afla-toxins, which can be fatal if ingested by dogs; if mushrooms appear, dig and dispose of them immediately. Your compost pile should be off-limits for the same reason. Weeds can be dangerous, especially foxtail grasses with barbed seed heads, which dogs can accidentally inhale with serious consequences

Your dog needs a spot to relieve himself, but it doesn't have to be your lawn or flower bed. Set aside a corner of your yard as a toilet area, and train your pet to eliminate there and nowhere else. This learning process may take a puppy about three weeks and an adult dog longer. Consult a dog-training manual for instructions.

Cover the designated area with material Fido will accept and that you can clean easily. Flagstone, pea gravel, bricks, and cedar chips are all good choices. If you have a male dog, consider adding a marking post so he can define his territory (Stuckey set up a driftwood stump).

You can try to minimize yellow urine stains in the lawn by watering the area directly to dilute the nitrogen that causes the yellowing.

Plant Densely And Wisely

If you plant landscaped areas densely, dogs will stay out, our readers say. Still, most dog owners recommend additional precautions: Plant in raised beds or on mounds, and start with 1-gallon or larger plants. Put up temporary fencing around newly landscaped areas; when you remove it, add a rock border or low fencing as a reminder to stay out.
Plant romp-proof shrubs and perennials like ornamental grasses around the edge of the garden. Put brittle plants like salvias in the center, where they'll be protected


Carol and Jim Bremer

http://www.classicgardencreations.com/

Get on the Ball and Plant for Fall!!!

If the clear crisp air and the vibrant colors make fall your favorite season then the following plants and trees are a must for your garden:

1. Aster novi-belgii (Michaelmas Daisy)
Photo: © Marie Iannotti (2007) licensed to About.com, Inc.

In shades of pink, purple, blue and white, these delicate daisy-like blossoms start popping open in late August and continue on until frost. Pinching in the early summer turns these Asters into mounds with dozens of flower buds. [p]Asters will tend to creep throughout your garden, but their airiness allows them to blend particularly well with other flowers.

Chrysanthemum
Photo: © Marie Iannotti (2007) licensed to About.com, Inc.

There are many varieties of mums, not all particularly hardy. The plants sold in the fall as 'Hardy Mums' should have been sold to us in the spring, to be reliably hardy in the north. However we wouldn't have had the patience to plant them and wait. Mums and pumpkins are the flag bearers of fall. Try and get your potted mums in the ground ASAP. Keep them well watered and mulch once the ground freezes and you'll stand your best chance of having truly hardy mums.


Sedum (Stonecrop)
Photo: © Marie Iannotti (2007) licensed to About.com, Inc.

Sedum 'Autumn Joy' comes as close to perfection as any plant can. It looks good all year, requires minimal attention and attracts few problems. It's only drawback is that it is not deer resistant. 'Autumn Joy' has been joined in the garden by a growing number of fall wonders like: 'Bertram Anderson, 'Brilliant' and 'Matrona'. No fall garden is complete without sedum.

TREES:

Quaking aspen trees (Populus tremuloides), with their golden-yellow fall foliage, are perhaps the dominant fall foliage tree of western North America. It is from this fall foliage standout that the ski resort of Aspen, 
Colorado derives its name. In the Rocky Mountains there are stands of quaking aspen trees that stretch for miles, their autumn gold perhaps punctuated here and there by an evergreen or two, as if for contrast.
Quaking aspens are closely related to poplar trees, such as Lombardy poplar trees.
If their fall foliage weren't enough of a contribution, quaking aspens also have a lovely, whitish bark. Aspens usually reach a height of 20'-50', with a spread of 10'-30'. Plant them in full sun and in rich, well-drained soil. Like their willow-family relative, the pussy willow, quaking aspen trees bear catkins in the spring.


Characteristics of American Sweetgum Trees:

American sweetgum trees bear leaves shaped like stars. The leaves provide excellent fall foliage color: in some cases, at the peak of the fall foliage season, some leaves may be red, others purple, others yellow, others orange -- all on the same sweetgum tree! On some trees, the branches are "winged," as on winged euonymus (burning bush), displaying corky flanges. Most people consider their seed pods (or "fruits," "balls," "gumballs," "capsules") to be messy, so I recommend the fruitless 'Rotundiloba.' Rotundiloba grows 60'-70' tall with a spread not even half that, which helps give it a narrowly pyramidal form.

"Crimson Queen" Japanese Maple

Courtesy Missouri Botanical Garden

Japanese maple trees are prized for their foliage throughout the growing season, including fall foliage season. Click on the picture to your right for a tree leaf identification for three types of Japanese maple trees (a photo gallery will open up, displaying additional pictures).

Japanese maple trees can be classified in various ways. I'll focus on a couple of classification criteria: fall foliage color and leaf type. For while Japanese maples with red fall foliage are better known, some varieties have golden fall foliage (e.g., Acer shirasawanum 'Aureum'). Meanwhile, particular Japanese maple tree varieties are prized for their lacy, or "dissected" leaf type. The taxonomy given for these Japanese maples will often include the term "dissectum

Characteristics of Oakleaf Hydrangeas:
Photo of oakleaf hydrangea blooms.David Beaulieu

In summer, oakleaf hydrangea flowers in clusters, and the white flowers fade to a pinkish-brown in fall; their floral display is extremely long lasting. But the plant's distinguishing characteristic is its oak leaf-shaped foliage. The leathery leaves are large and turn purple, orangey-bronze or red in the fall. Oakleaf hydrangeas routinely achieve a height of 4'-6' and a spread of 4'-6', but can grow to be larger than that. They are multi-stemmed shrubs, and the branches can shoot out from the center in any direction. Exfoliating bark offers winter interest.
Oakleaf hydrangeas are flowering deciduous shrubs.

Carol and Jim Bremer

http://www.classicgardencreations.com/

Choose Pavers For User-Friendly Paths

Lorraine W. in the Claremont developement in NW Portland has called us back for her third project!

This time Lorraine wanted a more user-friendly pathway from the driveway in front over to a side yard.

We removed the split basalt rock which had alot of uneven edges and installed this attractive paver pathway.

Our paver patios and sidewalks all have a solid strong sub-base of 4" of crushed compacted gravel. Not using enough gravel is a common mistake people can make when installing pavers. A strong sub-base will ensure many years of solid use.

Lorraine has been our client for almost four years now. Like alot of our clientle she was referred to us by a family member, Cherry W who also lives in NW Portland. We have done several projects for Cherry, such as a random patterend flagstone patio and a multi-tiered bubbler fountain.

Carol and Jim Bremer

http://www.classicgardencreations.com/

Creative Water Features In Lake Oswego

Rob and Brinda G. of Lake Oswego have been our clients for several years now. They recently decided to down-scale to a smaller home and property.

At their first home in Lake Oswego we built one extraordinary water feature in the back yard. They were so impressed with it that they had us back to build an extension of the water feature!

At their new home, they wanted something smaller yet dramatic. Our creation involved building a block wall for a berm to have one of 2 water falls cascade into a small pond.

After the first feature was built, the homeowners wanted something unique to be done with an existing contemporary feature in the front yard. We created a stream to give off the effect that it was connected to the existing water fall.

Our water features stand out among others due to the variety and choice of rock. You can't create a spectacular feature with ugly rock. We hand select all rock and boulders to be used in our features.

From Forest Grove to Gresham to Vancouver we shop around to several different suppliers and quarries to ensure our customers get the best rock on the market.

That extra touch along with our creativity and prompt professional service are why people choose us for the job and keep coming back to us for additional projects.

Carol and Jim Bremer

http://www.classicgardencreations.com/

Brick Wall Adds Formal Look

Jack S. in the Claremont Development in NW Portland wanted us to create a formal design using the same brick to match his house.

We built this attractive retaining wall using concrete blocks with a brick fascia.

This wall not only adds more character to the yard, but is also functional as it allowed us to level out the lawn area using blended soil and new sod.

As a full service company, we were able to offer additional services to Jack such as adjusting, and adding sprinklers to cover the new lawns, trim trees, and extend a rock wall in the back yard.

Jack was quite pleased with our workmanship on all of these projects that he recently referred us to a neighbor down the street.

We are now working for them in building a European dry stack rock wall and new lawns. Photos on that project to follow shortly.

Carol and Jim Bremer

http://www.classicgardencreations.com/