I’m currently caught in the “why would anyone live anywhere else” fever dream that is “Oregon in The Summer”, and while I intellectually know there is no perfect place to live, right now, up here, it’s magical (and has been since March – 2025 was a real pretty one). This backyard is certainly serving up some particularly beautiful vibes, and we are in full hosting season. Today I wanted to do a full documentation of the backyard landscaping process, and get into the details for all of us landscape design nerds. Like most things in design – it looks a lot easier than it is, and the more expertise and experience involved, the better product you get. As you know, for this project we hired Dennis’ 7 Dees, a local (and booming) family landscaping company that now manages all our landscaping maintenance as well (besides Charlie mowing the lawn…when we are in town). They designed, planned, executed, and now care for our yard with total seamlessness – not once did I feel like I didn’t know what was happening, when, or that they were too busy with other jobs to take care of us. (Read til the end for some hot tips on working with design professionals.)

January – OOF IT WAS SAD

Of course, there are more “before befores” from 2019 (when we bought the property) and 2021 (aka the year of the mud before phase 1 began). But this was in January 2025, which is always a sad time of year (and before we had proper maintenance because we thought we could handle it, so the leaves were clearly a problem).

As you know, the sports court was way too big – I even mentioned this in the reveal 2 summers ago. And then the area underneath the cherry trees was fine in the summer, but just not working as well as we wanted (that’s the area between the flagstone path and the sports court). So this was the main area we were working to make better, along with the outdoor grill area (which was done by my brother’s company).

The Overall Landscaping Plan

We worked with Eric Hagberg from Dennis’ 7 Dees, whom we loved – he had so much experience, expertise, and was so flexible – listening to us, and editing as things came up. He came up with the first plan and accompanied budget, and presented it to us (I believe this was in November).

Landscaping Plan Number #1

We really loved it, but needed to scale it back for budget purposes. So we reduced the amount of trees, plants, stonework, and lighting (all the pink), and totally nixed the back area near the paddock, seeding for clover instead. One thing we were more sensitive to this time around was planting enough evergreen plants, not just perennials. I love echinacea and all these gorgeous wildflowers, but winter can be really sad here (sadder than my former California lady brain knew), so this time we asked for 70% evergreen plants, 30% perennials.

Plan #2 – Reduced Plants, Lighting And Square Footage

He sent through the edited plan, which reduced the scope by almost in 1/2. Sure, we still had demo, prep soil, irrigate, run lighting lines, but the scope of planting, stonework, irrigation, and lighting helped reduce the cost substantially. I mean, it’s obvious, but the less you do, the less it costs.

The Plant Palette

Here was the palette they had planned, which I was in love with and all came from their garden centers (which have an incredibly robust selection). While in the past I have been picky with plants, needing to love each one and feel like stylistically it was “me,” this time around I shifted my mentality. My goal was to have a cohesive color palette, sure, (no random pops that didn’t make sense), but otherwise all I wanted was for the experts to choose things that really thrived easily here, in Oregon, under our conditions. I didn’t want to make suggestions that would override the expertise. For instance, I never thought that I, Emily Henderson, would choose hydrangeas (I had wrong judgements about them, ok?), but as you can see below – they are all over our yard and so beautiful. I am a full hydrangea girly now!! I really, really trusted Eric that they would plant plants that loved living in Oregon and would be easy to manage/tend to and beautiful year-round. They understood that we like a less manicured look, less structure, lots of levels and layers (I said no to orange, sorry, and nothing oddly tropical or like red roses). I really let them do their job because everything they showed me was so aligned with what we wanted. We were speaking the same language, which is really what you want from any designer.

The Schedule

From Eric: “Originally, we were thinking this would be a 4-week project. But because we’ve doubled the crew size to 6 guys, it’s likely to only take about 2 weeks”. OK!!!! Let go!

• Concrete Demo: Feb 17-20
• Green Demo: Feb 21
• Stone Patios/Paths: Feb 24-25
• Soil/Grading: Feb 26
• Irrigation: Feb 27
• Plants: Feb 28
• Irrigation: March 3
• Lighting: March 3
• Bark/Clover Lawn Seed: March 4 (we’ll come back in April, after freezing to apply the seed) 

They ended up extending it a bit, which worked better for us so that we could be around to capture more of the content. But we were seriously thrilled with the speed and manpower that went into it. Again, this whole “booking in fall and starting in winter” strategy strangely sped things up because it’s the slowest time of year, and a company of 7 Dees’ size has multiple crews they employ – more manpower and time to spend on us!

The Prep Work

This clearly wasn’t a DIY situation, at least not for us. They moved fast, and that chunk of the sports court was gone in a matter of days.

The Hardscape – Flagstone

Next came the laying of the paths and landing pads (which they drew out with water-soluble spray paint). If you think it’s just putting down stones (like we did), it’s clearly not. So much prep work underneath the stones as well as leveling and grading. But still, they were so fast.

The dirt/puddle areas are where the plants would go. Then, we had the landing pads and the stepping stone paths to the sports court.

Now, if you haven’t done flagstone before, know that this is a massive investment (ours cost over $20k). We could have used pea gravel, but it’s a lot messier and we wanted it to be cohesive with the rest of the walkway around the house. In Oregon, due to the rain, you really want solid hardscape to walk – you can’t use DG like you can in CA. So this was a massive investment and something we knew we needed the experts to execute.

The Planting Phase

Eric, our designer, created the plant selection that we tweaked together. Again, it’s a combination of perennials and evergreen plants and in all the tones that I love. One of the perks with working with them is that since they also have three garden centers in Portland (well, one in Vancouver), they call pull from them as well as place the bigger orders. They are also great resources as a home gardener without a designer – their inventory and selection is huge and so well cared for.

The plants went in so fast, I couldn’t believe it. Brian and I were watching from inside like it was a movie – every day there was so much progress. So many people working so hard to make our yard beautiful. We felt so grateful. After planting, they added irrigation and the lighting, as well as a French drain with river rocks along the sports court because it was flooding a lot (remember that disturbed soil doesn’t drain as much as established soil – a fun fact I’m learning over and over).

The June Reveal – 2 Months Ago

We shot the first round of reveals in June because, well, it was done and looked so beautiful. Check out this post to see that full reveal. We needed to shoot the outdoor kitchen, so we did a tour of the landscaping as well. But little did we know that over the next six weeks things would pop and grow in the most beautiful way. It’s honestly so stunning, I can’t even tell you. Magical, enchanted, already so grown-in (thanks to the Monrovia plants that are so healthy and thrive so well). We have been hosting like crazy back here. We had another big 75-person multi-family school fundraiser here last Saturday – I love sharing it (read: showing it off :) so much). P.S. The theme was the pig’s birthday party, i.e., the “Wine and Swine,” which I need to show you photos from – Barb and Alicia were the belles of the ball in party hats!!!

The Newest Update! Mid-July 2025

It’s incredibly beautiful. The panicle hydrangeas are incredible – all from their garden centers (Monrovia has very healthy, high-quality plants that are locally grown, which helps), and the layering, textures, and colors feel so natural but not messy.

Here you can see how the whole yard works – the stone pathways with the picnic tables surrounded by all the greenery (designed to be full but not grow too high) and with the trees that will eventually create shade for the seating areas.

We are hoping that greenery will eventually take over the grout lines in the stone (left just as soil, unplanted for budget reasons). We love how organic it feels and know that once it’s fully grown it we think it will look like it was always here.

They did a great job specifying plants that would be ball barriers from the sport court but not too fragile or thorny. Here you can see the river rock that covers the French drain to keep water from flooding the plants or the new pickleball court.

It’s just incredibly beautiful.

Over the weekend, we put umbrellas over the picnic tables to create shade, which was wonderful (and made me secretly want big comfy upholstered chairs or a sofa + 2 chairs for the middle one to be more comfortable). The entire yard gets used when 80 people come over, and it’s incredibly delightful.

Dennis’ 7 Dees did such a great job of making it look like a park-like area, casual but still elevated and appropriate to the farm vibe.

Jess asked where the umbrellas went, but we just couldn’t get them all straight for the photos and videos at the same time – there is SUCH a hole in the market for long-lasting umbrella stands that actually keep umbrellas perfectly vertical. But I love that you can see the full garden without them.

These hydrangeas keep changing color – first bright white, then blush, and now these sweet pastel pink. I’m here for all of the shades and love seeing the yard change.

The pops of these hotter pinks from the agastache surprised me a bit, and while I love them, I want to add a few more to make the other areas more balanced. All of the echinaceas (perhaps my favorite flowers) are that bright pink, so holistically the yard works together really well.

The lighting is perfect. It’s mostly path lighting for nighttime without it being lit up super bright. I know that most people like more/brighter landscape lighting, but we love the string lights on the fenceline and roofline and don’t mind that the garden area is more subtle. We had some uplights in LA and didn’t really love the vibe and prefer less (as of now).

I love this view – seeing the sunroom through the trees and flowers is just so pretty. I really want to add wisteria to the back porch, to grow up those posts, so stay tuned on that (although I’m not ready for a phase 3 yet, folks).

A huge thanks to Eric for the design and his wonderful crew at Dennis’ 7 Dees for executing it so professionally. This project was so seamless, and caused us zero unnecessary stress, which is saying A LOT. We got all the plants from the 7Dees garden centers (one in Lake Oswego, Vancouver and Cedar Hills/Beaverton). They source a lot from Monrovia for their garden centers, who grow such healthy plants (thank you). And always Kaitlin for all the beautiful photography. The rundown pickleball wall is getting replaced today, so we are about to do a full backyard tour with the kids in a couple of weeks. I can’t wait to show you how it all flows together.

A Special Reader/ Follower Offers From Dennis’ 7 Dees

For all of you in Portland, they are extending some pretty sweet deals. Check these out:

Offer #1: Free Landscape Design with Installation, like ours below

If you mention my name, “Emily Henderson” when requesting a residential landscape consultation, you’ll get a free AutoCAD landscape design (a $2,500 value) when you move forward with an installation contract of $15,000 or more. Essentially, you’ll pay the design fee upfront, but it’s fully credited back on the final invoice if you move forward with the full design (saving $2500). This offer would be good for contracted projects through August 31, 2025 (so act now!).

Additionally, they wanted me to mention that right now they have fast install timelines available, which will change as fall approaches. They also offer flexible financing options to fit your budget

*Reminder to use the landing page link we sent you guys for any website links. 🙂

Offer #2: 20% Off at Our Garden Centers

For any Portland followers that are more into plants + DIY, Dennis’ 7 Dees Garden Centers are such a gem if you’re looking for gorgeous, high-quality plants and fun DIY inspiration. They even have the cutest indoor plant shops—like their Bridgeport Village location that’s all about houseplants. You can get 20% off any in-store purchase with the code EMHENDERSON through August 31st (in-store only at any of their 5 locations). I love the Lake Oswego store (it’s such a lovely shopping experience), but I usually pop into Cedar Hills because it’s closer—plus, their Vancouver location is supposed to be huge and beautiful too!

Thank you, Dennis’ 7 Dees, for your landscape magic. I’m just so grateful and proud to call this ours.

Here Are My Tips For Landscaping:

Be realistic about your budget up front. I still fall into this dumb mental trap – not wanting to say what I can spend for fear that I’ve just played my card and lose leverage. But consistently, it has wasted people’s time. Our first quote for the first design came in so high because they didn’t know what our parameters were, so once we cut it by 1/2 or two-thirds (which was realistic for our budget), they had to edit and essentially redesign it. I should have said at the beginning what we really couldn’t go over on the project as a whole from the beginning.

When it comes to landscaping, while you want your artistic vision to be executed (farm! natural! wildflowers!), what you really want is for an expert in your region to choose plants that they know will thrive in your yard, based on your conditions, sun location, etc. Like I said below, I weighed in on the color palette but wanted them to use their expertise to choose the right plants that would help the yard look pretty year round (crucial, as we use it and stare it at allllllll year long).

Plan early for spring/summer usage. Most landscapers are slow from October/November – February, and then they get SLAMMED. The second that we start fantasizing about using our yard (February/March), they get inundated with new work, so do what we did – reach out in late fall, and then you could be ready by spring!

*Landscaping by Dennis’ 7 Dees
**Plants from Monrovia
***Pretty Photos by Kaitlin Green