Ten Years: Before and After

 Happy House-a-versary to us! Ten years it has been since we moved from a small Portland garden to this two-acre piece of land in Saint Helens. Every month or so I receive a Redfin real estate email with our current house value and it always includes a photo from the original 2015 listing. It reminded me of what it used to look like and as it has been a long while since I've done a before-and-after post, I used the actual listing photos to recreate what it looks like now. That is my inspiration for this week's post, ten years in on this place we call home.

The before photos were taken in September 2015 and are therefore much sunnier and more colorful, while the after photos were taken this week on what was a wet, cold day. So, beautiful sunny September vs. gloomy wet December. Still, you get the idea even making such comparisons in different seasons. From fancy pants real estate photos to what it looks like today, here we go:

This was the very first photo that lured us in and made us say "YES, that's the house!" after two years of looking for property in vain. The curious labyrinth was an interesting feature I loved at the time, but of course it turned out to be valuable garden space so while the labyrinth itself is long gone, the rocks are all over the garden. But the very center of it and its stone have remained in place all these years. We wanted to keep the spirit of the labyrinth around.

If you look at the Salix eleagnos subsp. angustifolia on the far left (yellowing foliage), at its base is that original rock in the very center of the then labyrinth. Of course, much of the house is obscured now, but it's basically the same as when we moved in. Another point of reference is in the original photo just about in the center. There is a small Acer palmatum 'Sango Kaku' with buttery yellow foliage. In this photo if you look at the birdbath and go straight up to the left of the Azara microphylla (large dark evergreen shrub obscuring the windows of the house) you will see its framework. It has easily tripled in size.

The real estate photographer used some fancy wide-angle lens that warps the angles and is a little deceptive. Still this was an attractive image and had my brain going into overdrive with ideas.

My terrible but more accurate (from an angle point of view) photo of the same area today.

For fun, what the corner to the right of the front door looks like today all spiced up for Thanksgiving.

There was once a fenced veggie garden which we dismantled to make this the gravel garden area. The first or second spring here, we created a new half-acre veggie garden on what was then the overgrown half of the property. All of these materials were eventually used for other projects.

While it looks dull and wet in this photo, there are a lot of great foundation plants in here. Plus, the deck isn't pink any more.

A rather uninteresting view, but I suppose the purpose is for the listing agent to illustrate there are two acres of land.

The Acer macrophyllum has grown, the Cornus nuttallii on the left has died but we keep it as a snag and are currently planting around it. There are five Cupressus sempervirens 'Swane's Golden' now in the ground for one year, two of which can be seen here. There are thick areas of foundation plantings behind and to the right as we continue to remove grass to expand our planting areas.

Very similar to the first photo, this one shows that sad Acer palmatum 'Sango Kaku' with more detail. This area is now the fire pit area with the maple above the seating area.

Here's a current example of what it looks like these days, though this was taken in summer 2023. If you look towards the house the deck is obscured with ceanothus that have since died and removed.

This is a wet early December view, the maple's red stems can be seen in the center of the photo. The firepit is still there, just out of site as I was a little too far back when I took this.

The deck, again with a fancy pants wide-angle lens.

Here it is today, FM of course rebuilt the deck and painted the railing and added metal cable through the railing to let in more light and look cooler, frankly.

Here it is from September this year. It's fairly large, we can fit an outdoor couch and this small table, though we need to be better about using it more. Additionally, we have an idea to screen off a portion of this to make a catio of sorts for our (now four) indoor cats. I think they would appreciate the outdoor time and we would appreciate less cat hair in the house. Design ideas for making this happen are welcome.

Now moving on to a few photos I took that September day when we visited the property and home for the first time and made an offer. Looking back, my photos are all over the place, not knowing what to photograph but just madly snapping away. This is the top of the berm garden where yes, there are lots of little plants in there but none were thriving and most not really what I was after. Some were dug up and given away, others were moved to more appropriate parts of the garden.

Here it is now, lots of hebes and arctostaphylos and other sun loving evergreen shrubs. I've improved the soil somewhat but it's been a challenge. Everything that is currently planted is pretty happy and well-established.

Standing near the front door looking up towards the shade garden in the back with the berm garden straight ahead.

Now the berm garden is completely full with plants and has a lot of textures, foliage color and varying shapes.

My blue shed pre-blue phase.

Blue, black and a bit of turquoise now. FM built an overhang and a new deck for it as well as a side overhang on the left where some garden tools are kept. It's a lot prettier in sunnier weather with all my colorful pots, which are put away for winter, but I'm keeping it real here.

A side look at the end of the berm garden. The ornamental cherry tree was pretty small at this point, if I had to do it over I would have removed all three ornamental cherries then. As it is, they are huge and frankly, not my favorite. But we keep them pruned to manage their size as best we can.

Here it is today with a gravel path and a lot more plants.

Another berm garden shot.

As it looks today.

As it looks in late summer.

Around the weeping salix lollipop we dug out a path on either side and mounded it up to create a new garden bed.

For fun I thought I'd show the process since I have photos in my archive. This was done April 2017. First we dug out the sod where we knew we wanted gravel paths as it's where we walked all the time.

We piled it up in the triangle in the center and just plugged away at it over the course of a couple of days.

A wider shot showing how much was dug out.

Still wider. The area immediately before me was planted later that spring with Ceanothus gloriosus, under the Quercus garryana, Oregon white oak (which was a mature, beautiful tree already). 

More soil piled up to create changes in soil levels. While I did indeed do a lot of this, full credit must be given to FM, the heavy lifter. He just plugged away at it bit by wheelbarrow full.

Freshly graveled and ready to walk on. A treat in winter, walking on gravel rather than mud. The triangle was planted up straight away.

Here it is three years after its creation.

Which is now this, a sea of Carex comans and three Stipa gigantea and four Miscanthus 'Cabaret' closest to the house. The green spilling down are Limnanthes douglasii seedlings which germinate in autumn. It has mellowed over the years and it looks like the carex are needing a refresh, not as charming as it once was. A project for another day.

Another top of the berm shot from 2015.

December 2025.

Finally the front door area once more from on top of the berm. This was taken November 2015, just after we acquired the keys to our new house.

As it is today, ten years later.

It has been a wild ride these past ten years. I like marking the passage of time and recognizing it, pausing to appreciate all that was before and all that we have done and what it is today. This is, certainly, a small snapshot into the whole garden but it's fun to pinpoint areas and really dive into what has changed and what has remained the same. I love what our garden has become. It has mellowed with age, it has matured in areas and continues to throw challenges our way. Other gardens and gardeners are constant sources of inspiration so changes happen regularly. At this point I'm doing more pruning and removing than planting, unless it's a new garden bed, which will be fewer and fewer in the future as we are, believe it or not, running out of room. Also, I want to mention that my partner in this, my dearest FM, has been the best source of inspiration and encouragement, constantly agreeing to my whackadoodle ideas and helping to implement them. None of this would be possible without him, without our teamwork. Thank you, dear husband, from the bottom of my heart for making our dreams come true.

OK - If before and after posts are your thing, you might wish to check out my "Finding Land" series. I document the same kind of way before and afters. You can find those posts here (the original from our first year), here (one year later), here (two years later), here (three years later) here (five years later) and here (eight years later). I will likely continue the series next year.

That's a wrap for this week at Chickadee Gardens. As always thank you so much for reading and commenting, we do love hearing from you. And, yes, bring on your catio ideas.