Pruning and landscape care at a Rogue Valley landscape aka the BIRD ESTATE

This Bird Estate is a large home and landscape in Rogue River, Oregon, where I started working back in October, 2018. It involves regular pruning but also a lot of hedge shearing which is something I usually don't persue. I am not responsible for the mowing. My work here involves pruning, consulting and fine-tuning parts of the landscaping. I thought this place would be a good addition on the website to explain a few changes and reasons. This is on about 200 acres. The large house here and grounds on top of the hill are available as a wedding and event venue.

 

Lets start with the entry and driveway which has arbors and Wisteria on both sides. There is 360 feet of 4 inch thick Port Orford supports on top of pillars with Wisteria across the entire 360 feet. Keep scrolling down for more.

 

 

A textbook pruning should be like grape vineyards where vines are cut back bare-bones to few spurs, but this homeowner enjoys the arbor with more stem cover. So I heavily thinned to increase air circulation, headroom and mountain views, but kept plenty of "meat on the bone" per request. More can be done in winter after the foliage falls. These large Wisteria vines had sunburn damage on the west side of many trunks. That means somebody pruned them too hard years ago in the summer growing season. To avoid further damage, I prune these incrementally with heavier pruning during winter.

 

 

This is a broad view of the property. The driveway of the first photo is in the top right corner of this image. In landscaping the lines and shapes of the boxwood hedges can make or break the appearance of most any landscape. I will add closer views below.

 

Here is a zoomed photo from the driveway of the amphitheater which can seat 200 to 300 people. The hedge top undulates because previous shearing followed the ground contour. That is not the solution where some grade settled in a few places over time. The hedge top should remain as straight and consistent as possible independent of ground contour. This kind of thing takes 2 to 3 growing seasons to correct. High parts of the hedge can't be taken down much because leaves make food for health of stem and roots. So it's better to skim the low spots and let them catch up.

 

 

The hedge line is close to the view of people sitting on the terraces. The forest's natural irregularity looks fine in the distance. But the hedge needs detail and precision and a straight top goes well with the even looking stage platform.

 

 

I used a laser rangefinder here to learn whether the bent twigs could be reached with a long pole pruner and ladder among these Italian cypress. For reference, the ladder is 10 feet tall. The top of the statue on the right is about 25 feet above the pool deck.

 

 

The other end of the pool area has two Sphinx, one in each corner enclosed by boxwood. This corner also had Wisteria hiding the house windows.

 

This is the same Sphinx after pruning. I dipped the center of the hedge contour lower on the the pool side. Showing more of the Sphinx base from a distance seems to look better. The vine was left a little lower than the entryway to reduce heat fron the sunset to the house windows.

 

This is a brick walkway the owner preserved for nostalgia. It is about the only thing they did not update. For some reason the Italian cypress planted in this area grew more ragged and not because of snow. The owner preferred to keep these Italian cypress rather than remove them. The photo following shows the reconfiguration.

 

This photo was taken 5 days after the one above and shows the change of a single day's work. I used to do a lot more of this stuff, and topiary, back in the 1980s but veered away due to the increased hours needed yearly for shaping. But for this specific group I think it was a reasonalble alternative. With new growth and time these can develop even better.

 

The top and front of this arborvitae hedge are straightforward about what was needed from this side. Shear the top and shear the front.

 

The part that can't be seen was the hedge getting too wide (deep) and the inside loaded with deadwood from heavy topping. I pruned-away the entire back side of this hedge because it faces the forest out of view. The thinner depth simplied future shearing and allows placing a ladder in back for increase safety. Planting new arborvitae to fill gaps is easier with the extra space. The inside became 99% clean of flammable deadwood.

 

 

At a glance, all this soft foliage looks comfortable and inviting, but excess growth causes several difficulties. Vines started growing into the wall tiles, block light light to windows and was starting to bend conduit.

 

 

Same area after moderate trimming. Wisteria is high maintenance, but few plants provide this kind of overhead cover on a large trellis or arbor.

 

 

These large Manzanita are close to the pool area where the natural area meets the landscaping. I did some deadwood removal after this photo was taken, but these still look quite good even without pruning.

 

 

Some other more recent photos ...

 

 

Fountain and patio.

 

 

Night time at the pool side of the house. Raising the Wisteria allows more light to shine out around the pool deck.

 

 

Opposite view in daylight.

 

 

This amphitheater can probably seat up to 300 people and maybe 500 with chairs added. There's plenty of land down below for parking where visitors can park and shuttle back up to the main house.