Emily's Native Slope Garden

It was painful for these homeowners to come home to a lifeless wall of juniper (dubbed “the death star”) surrounding their front yard, a highly visible corner lot adjacent to a popular park in a well-walked neighborhood. Knowing it would be difficult, expensive, and potentially disastrous to remove the entire root system of the junipers, we had the contractor cut the trunks at the soil base. The soil was surprisingly soft and quite plantable underneath: moist, shaded, and littered with decades of organic juniper duff. The juniper roots held the slope in place, while a plethora of native plants filled in between for a symphony of successive blooms to be enjoyed by pollinators and passerbys. Logs and boulders found by the owners are terraced into the slope for further reinforcement, adding a naturescaped element to the garden, and a small rain garden helps mitigate run-off from the disconnected roof downspout. If you have a massive hedge that has paralyzed you from starting a garden – it can be done!

Mississippi,
NE Portland

- get rid of juniper hedge (aka "The Death Star")

- plant mostly natives for wildlife habitat

- utilize plants that prevent soil erosion and manage water run-off on a steep slope

- year round blooms and interest for passerby's