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Author Archives: Jaime
Garden Tours with Uncle Alan
My Uncle Alan loves to travel more then anyone I know, even me. This summer and fall he is traveling across the country with my Auntie Karen in their inaugural retirement adventure. They’ll be keeping family posted regularly with a photo of the day. I warned Uncle Alan that if he sent any garden photos, he had better be ready to see them on our Kahoots blog. Here’s there first garden stop and I am officially jealous. Its one of many garden they are planning to visit along their way. I can’t wait to see more. Stay tuned!
“This is at the Ohme Gardens in Wenatchee. The original owners bought one of the many brown, bare hillsides that surround the town, and spent many years transforming it. (You can pick it out from the highway. All the other hills are still brown and bare, but this one has a forest on top.) It’s unusual as gardens go, very few flowers. They used mostly dry-area plants, but put in a bunch of water features and a maze of stone paths winding uphill and down, around them. Well worth a stop if you’re ever nearby.” -Alan Kruetzer
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Garden Tour: A visit to Bishops Close
Close: An enclosed area around a church where people can meditate.
What a beautiful space I visited a few weeks ago. Though not at the height of its flowering show, the wisteria had already dropped its flowers, Bishops Close was an exquisitely formed garden. The framed views and curving garden beds create a space so serene that it is nearly impossible to not stop and sit on a bench and reflect on the beauty of creation. That miracle of which we are each a small delicate part.
Elk Rock Gardens of the Bishop’s Close
11800 SW MILITARY LANE, PORTLAND, OREGON 97219
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Speaking on Camp Master Planning @ The Christian Camp & Conference Association National Confrence
Last week the National Conference for the Christian Camp & Conference Association invited me and Martha Snyder, of Idyllwild Pines Camp and Conference Center, to give a presentation Camp Master Planning. And get this, it’s in San Diego, California from December 3-6th. Yup, that’s right. This Portland girl’s 31st Birthday just might be sunny and warm for the first time in 31 years!
Martha, and I are very excited to share the story of Idyllwild Pines’ master planning makeover. Idyllwild has gone through a huge shift in the past three years and it shows in their mission, in their staff, in their programming, in their facilities, in their fund raising success… It shows all the way down to the reviews from returning campers. We love sharing this story and the lessons we learned along the way about dreaming big, creating a vision and then a plan and then taking action one little step at a time.
I am particularly excited because the National Conference has asked us to make our presentation interactive. There are so many lessons we could help camp leaders apply to their own camps in this session. The question is where to begin. What is the most important skill for managing your camp facilities and natural assets so that they best support your mission?
I think it’s getting a new set of designer eyes. Having the ability to step out of your camp bubble and see it from new angles allows you to understand the big picture of how your camp works by letting go of the daily details of running camp.
How do we teach people to see camp through the eyes of a designer? It may involve a lesson in drawing site assesment diagrams. It definitely involves a campfire skit!
Want to hear our story? Want some new designer eyes?
Come to to San Diego this December! And bring some Birthday Cake.
Posted in Design Process, Jaime's Favorites
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Design By Nature
Let the natural landscape inspire your garden!
Memorial Day Weekend offered many of us time out of the city and in nature. Were you as inspired as I was by the natural beauty of our Oregon Landscape? Here are some wonderful scenes from my hike over the weekend that offer some great ideas for your own landscape project.
8 design lessons I learned exploring the Willamette Valley
1. Use simple plantings with distinct form and a path to create a little garden mystery.
Oak Savanna
2. Plant it! I discovered Oso berry with berries. Somehow I had only seen Oso berry in the early spring with new leaves and blooms, or later in the fall. I was delighted find the berries so beautiful and delicate in color and form. What a gardeners treat.
Oemleria cerasiformis - Oso berry
3. Cow Parsnip: Plant it but don’t eat it. What a fabulous white cloud on earth.
Meadow with Cow Parsnip (Heracleum maximum)
4. Poison Oak: Don’t plant, or touch, these leaves of three!
Poison Oak (Toxicodendron diversilobum)
5. Create layers of color and texture with mass plantings and borrowed landscape views.
Meadows and Fields
6. Lupine is a fabulous native perennial for the garden.
Lupine and Oregon White Oak
7. Natural elements make for beautiful, sculptural, and playful landscape focal points.
Standing inside a hollow snag.
8. Frame an interesting view.
View from inside a the snag.
8. Make your garden explorable, interactive, and delight in its surprises.
There's a tree hugging me!
Posted in Inspiration, Jaime's Favorites, Planting ideas, Retreat
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Multnomah Falls Before & After
Multnomah Falls Highway Sign Before
Multnomah Falls Highway Sign After
Planter – facing highway – Before
Planter – facing highway – After
Planter – looking towards lodge – before
Planter – looking towards lodge – after
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Spring 2012 @ The Zak Residence
Last year at this time we were putting the finishing touches on the Zak Residence’s landscape design. You can see before photos here. Last week I visited to see how its looking a year later. The tulips and the beading heart were certainly doing their jobs!
Posted in Before & After Images, Built Work, Jaime's Favorites, Planting ideas
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Crane Residence 2
Phase One of the Crane Residence was installed last Spring.
Lawn, irrigation, and soil preparations were installed in 2011. The yard looked pretty good that first summer, especially with a few annuals for accenting the patio. See more before & after pics.
This April We Installed Phase Two
Since this is a project for my cousins, we had the whole family helping out! It was great to collaborate with my talented Aunt Connie on the planting layout and have my little brother around for the extra hard labor. We had so much fun! Props to Commercial care for the planting installation too!
Trees & Shrubs Installed Spring 2012
Quaking Aspen, Coral Bark Japanese Maple, Red & Yellow Twig Dogwood, Salal, Creeping Oregon Grape, Lily, & Clumping Rose are just some of the highlights.
March May!
Photos in order are by Jaime English, Rhett Jackson, Greg Heinze and the rest by Connie Heinze
Posted in Before & After Images, Built Work
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Sping Garden Consultations!
Feeling overwhelmed by spring gardening chores? Know your yard needs some help but not exactly what? Consider a 2 hour Kahoots garden consultations to help you get back in the swing of spring gardening!
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The Ever Fashionable Multnomah Falls #1
Dressed for Spring!
Taken Saturday April 29th, 2012.
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The Ever Fashionable & Historic Multnomah Falls #2
Here’s a notable tourist photo taken in front of the falls in 1996, of the then president of Poland, Lech Walesa. In 1996 Lech Walesa stopped in Oregon to vacation with Portland friends. Being good Oregon tour guides they took him straight to Multnomah Falls. How many foreign dignitaries have you taken to Multnomah Falls?
President Lech Walesa of Poland
October 11, 1996
Photograph by: Christopher Gniewosz
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Jaime English is the founder of Kahoots. She has worked with GreenWorks, an award-winning firm in Portland, and The Atelier Dreiseitl in Germany.