A beautiful family moved from San Francisco to Portland, into a home with tons of charm. The garden, however, didn’t do the home or the family any favors. The lot was not large but they had a long list of wants and needs: gathering spaces, a koi pond, garden space, a fire pit, etc. The landscape would be low maintenance, water wise, AND Japanese inspired. Sadafumi Uchiyama was brought in to design the garden and then Ross NW Watergardens built it. How did the client feel about it? You can read her own words here and check out this profile in a local paper here.

The koi pond is the focal point and star of this garden. It was challenging to fit into the compact backyard, between an elevated deck and stone patio. The main fall was built into an existing concrete retaining wall and a secondary stream runs through a narrow side yard. The pond had to be deep so that we could include filtration to keep the fish happy. Almost 10 years later I can say this water feature has been almost care free.