Nancy’s Hillside Garden in Oregon: Then and Now – Fine Gardening

Happy Friday, GPODers!

I’ve said it several times already this season, but it’s worth repeating: Winter is a wonderful time for reflection. We’ve focused mainly on revisiting last year’s landscape, but this reflection can go further and deeper. Today’s garden rewind is doing a little bit of both. Nancy Sarpola has shared her gorgeous space in Corvallis, Oregon, several times in the past (Nancy’s Oregon Garden in Fall, Nancy’s Hillside Garden in Oregon, Springtime Flowers in Nancy’s Garden, Scenes of October and November in Nancy’s Garden, and more), and today she’s back with some spectacular photos that span the seasons and decades. She has beautiful photos of 2025 garden highlights as well as a couple of shots that show much earlier days in the garden. Our landscapes are ever-evolving, and Nancy demonstrates how we can appreciate and celebrate all of their iterations.

We have been gardening on a steep ¼-acre lot in Corvallis, Oregon (Zone 8), for over 40 years. Originally, we just grew vegetables and a few annuals while raising kids and dogs. We had an aboveground pool (now a seating area), a basketball hoop, and a kid’s fort (now a patio at the top of the hill). When the last child moved out over 20 years ago, we began putting in more ornamentals. About 5 to 10 years after that, I sent the first of several batches of photos to the Fine Gardening Photo of the Day blog.

Here are some shots from 2025 as well as two showing the backyard just a few years after we moved in. The two pine trees are the only plants remaining and are now about 40 feet tall. You can see their trunks in the fifth photo I have included of the woodland path in late September, featuring rosy ‘Mr Goodbud’ sedum (Sedum ‘Mr. Goodbud’, Zones 3–9) and honey bush (Melianthus major, Zones 7–9) on the left. The garden is never the same two years in a row, though the basic outline is pretty well established.

Early days in Nancy’s garden: A mix of shrubs and small trees were certainly better than nothing, but it’s a world away from the lush designs Nancy was able to craft as time went on.

This photo shows the vegetable garden and our son working on installing the aboveground pool, which later became a seating area on our back patio.

This photo from May of 2025 features purple alliums and pink ‘Miss Chambers’ saxifraga (Saxifraga × urbium ‘Miss Chambers’, Zones 6–9) in the foreground. Yellow foliage contrasts include hostas and Japanese forest grass (Hakonechloa macra, Zones 5–9). I love how richly colored purple flowers contrast with chartreuse foliage.

The next photo is from October and features ‘Bedhead’ dahlia (Dahlia ‘Bed Head’, Zones 9–11 or as an annual) in front of ‘Peaches and Dreams’ dahlia (Dahlia ‘Peaches’, Zones 9–11 or as an annual).

I mentioned the fifth photo above as it includes the trunks of the pine trees that were here when we bought the house.

This photo shows a rock staircase that we built 10 or so years ago, when we were younger! At the top are a trellis, a bench, and Sally Holmes and Eden roses (Rosa ‘Sally Holmes’ and R. ‘Meiviolin’, Zones 5–9). On the left at the bottom are lavender thalictrums, purple alliums, and the golden spring foliage of ‘Gold Heart’ bleeding heart (Lamprocapnos spectabilis ‘Gold Heart’, Zones 3–9).

This is a tiny trillium relative native to the Siskiyou Mountains in Southern Oregon. It’s called brook wakerobin (Pseudotrillium rivale, Zones 6–8).

A vignette consisting of a calluna with golden foliage, ‘Medusa’ rhododendron (Rhododendron ‘Medusa’, Zones 7–9), and the dark foliage of ‘Britt Marie Crawford’ ligularia (Ligularia ‘Britt Marie Crawford’, Zones 4–8)

Purple ‘Venosa violacea’ clematis (Clematis viticella ‘Venosa Violacea’, Zones 4–10) surrounded by yellow flowering meadow rue (Thalictrum flavum, Zones 5–8) and with orange glory vine (Eccremocarpus scaber, Zones 8–10) scrambling up into it

This is one of my favorite hellebores, in case you need a little early-flowering eye candy to get you through to spring!

The kids may all be grown up, but we still have a dog. Here is Lizzy as a pup, enjoying hosta shade.

Thank you so much for this update, Nancy, as well as the amazing photos of early days in your garden. As you mentioned, gardens are ever-changing creations, and it’s amazing to see the many forms your space has taken.

Do you have photos of early days in your garden? Whether you’ve been tending and transforming your landscape for decades or just started your gardening journey a few years ago, we would love to see how yours has evolved. Follow the NEW directions below to submit your photos to Garden Photo of the Day!

We want to see YOUR garden!

Have photos to share? We’d love to see your garden, a particular collection of plants you love, or a wonderful garden you had the chance to visit!

To submit, fill out the Garden Photo of the Day Submission Form.

You can also send 5–10 photos to [email protected] along with some information about the plants in the pictures and where you took the photos. We’d love to hear where you are located, how long you’ve been gardening, successes you are proud of, failures you learned from, hopes for the future, favorite plants, or funny stories from your garden.

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