When Emily Henderson, renowned designer and Portland resident, was interested in updating her home landscape, we leapt at the opportunity to co-create a vision for her backyard renovation. Our goal was to create a flowerful outdoor space that the whole Henderson family was excited about and comfortable using all year long.

Emily Henderson is a designer and style influencer with an unmatched ability to make everyday spaces feel special. It made sense that she wanted to bring some of the magic and elevated aesthetic she is known for and extend it to her landscape, outdoor kitchen, and living areas.

To help Emily achieve her goals, we created a fresh design and custom plant and color palette to make her backyard feel intentional no matter the season. The result is an easy-going yet elegant landscape, which was achieved through the use of flagstone pathways, picnic tables, hundreds of flowering and evergreen plants, and a clover lawn. Emily Henderson captured the projects’ initial challenges and goals, and provides a stunning, photo-filled update on how the landscape looked during its first summer on her blog.

We chose plants that are hardy, bloom beautifully in just the right colors, and bring evergreen interest to her whole landscape. We wanted the space to feel easeful and like a retreat in the middle of the city, so we brought in statement trees to help soften the built structures, high-impact perennials for eye-catching seasonal flowers that would come back each year, and bloom-heavy shrubs to reinforce the color palette and make the space feel memorable.

• The essential statement trees in Emily’s landscape design are Evergreen Magnolia and Dogwood.
• The blooming, seasonal shrubs that provide balance and rhythm are Carpet Roses, Panicle Hydrangeas, Summer Daphne, and Lilacs.
• The primary perennials we relied on throughout the landscape are Lavender, Agastache, Peonies, and Hellebores.

How It Began

Backyard Renovation Goals & Challenges

Dennis’ 7 Dees Landscape Designer Eric Hagberg and his team understood that Emily Henderson’s backyard renovation should focus on practicality and budget, while remaining uncompromising on a stylish, design-forward aesthetic. We had the opportunity to collaborate with Emily on containers for the outdoor entertaining space at her stunning River House project, so we knew our talented team was the right fit to renovate her own home garden!

The primary challenges facing the space that the new landscape renovation needed to address were the oversized sport court, lack of evergreen interest, and the need for additional entertaining space for their larger outdoor events. The project also included bringing a brand new outdoor kitchen into the Henderson’s backyard, and we were excited to work in tandem with RTA Outdoor Living to make that new space a reality.

We knew that to meet their needs, we needed a design and supporting elements that would allow the Henderson family to feel at home in their space, whether it was being enjoyed solo or with a large group of family and friends.

Hardscaping Solutions for the Backyard Renovation

Eric chose to connect the home, kitchen, and gardens with a series of flagstone paths that would tie into the existing hardscaping already present in the landscape. Larger landing pads for picnic tables were also created out of flagstone, rather than using a less expensive material like pea gravel, to give the spaces a more intentional, high-end feeling while maintaining the relaxed attitude of the space.

The sport court was much too large to make practical sense for their family, and it visually dominated the space. To bring it to a more reasonable size, we reduced it in volume by cutting out over half of the existing court. To make sure the project remained as sustainable as possible, we recycled all the concrete we removed by taking it to Portland Sand & Gravel where it is processed it into various gravel and ballast sizes, giving it new life as essential material for future roadways and construction projects. The removal of the sport court opened up plenty of room for new planting and entertaining areas.

Emily’s Custom Plant Palette

Emily Henderson’s custom plant collection uses a mix of tried-and-true favorites with phenomenal new introductions in thoughtful colors to create a sense of harmony all year long. The plant palette initially consisted of more basic plantings for budgetary reasons, but we chose to bring in Monrovia as a partner—their stunning catalogue of plant options helped us elevate the planting scheme by using larger plantings with interesting textures in a chic and timeless color palette.

We created the customized plant palette for Emily by incorporating elements from her existing scheme—like the mauvy pink of Echinacea ‘Magnus’ and the cool grey-greens of her grasses. We expanded the palette by softening the pinks into subtler shades and adding peachy blooms and other warmer tones. Deep green foliage rounded out the design, giving the space a more dynamic and engaging look year-round. Carpet Roses were installed throughout the property to provide continuous blooms from Spring through Fall and give it a consistent look throughout the space.

To anchor the plantings, we used evergreen plants like Camellia japonica ‘Magnoliaeflora’ and Sarcococca ruscifolia in shady areas, and Viburnum ‘Spring Bouquet’ in sunnier spots. We brought in repeated plantings of the finely textured Hebe ‘Sutherlandii’ with its olive green coloration along with Lavender to bring rhythm to the sunny planting beds. Evergreen Carex grasses ‘Amazon Mist’ and ‘Everest’ were used to tie in the textures of the new landscape to the existing beds, which feature a variety of herbaceous grasses.

Every garden needs fragrant plants—we chose evergreen Star Jasmine with its heady white Summer blooms to run up trellises near the outdoor kitchen. And both Winter Daphne and Summer Daphne put forth a welcoming scent when you first walk into the garden and entertaining areas. And we included seasonal standouts like Lilac to add classic charm and provide Emily with gorgeous cut flowers!

To combine relaxed, graceful structure with seasonal floral interest, we relied on deciduous shrubs like Panicle Hydrangeas, Weigela, and Lilacs. We used the classic Hydrangea paniculata ‘Limelight’ for its size and stature, along with newer varieties from Monrovia including ‘Strawberry Shake’ and ‘Early Evolution’ to introduce early blooms and our mauvy pink tones on plants that mature at a smaller height.

While evergreen plants were a priority to Emily, we knew that perennials would help make the design come to life. We included a fantastic range of Winter-blooming, evergreen Hellebores to provide some color right away. Then we added some shockingly gorgeous Itoh Peonies along with our favorite Summer-blooming perennials, Magnus Echinacea and Agastache ‘Rosie Posie’ to give the landscape an easy-going, Bohemian quality in the warmer months.

We were thrilled to be a part of Emily Henderson’s landscape transformation. The space went from being heavily used but not aesthetically pleasing, to be a true backyard sanctuary where the family can host friends all year round.

Find out more about how the project began, and see photo-filled project updates over on Emily Henderson’s blog:

• Our Outdoor Project Update – Phase 2 Is So Exciting (AND FAST!)
• Our Built-To-Last Outdoor Kitchen Reveal (My Favorite “Room” To Hang Out In All Summer)
• Our 2025 Summer Landscaping Reveal (With Full Process)

*Photos by Kaitlin Green