This month we’re interviewing newsletter advertiser Ann Rad of Pride + Joy Landscapes. See her ad on this page.
Ann, tell us about your business, Pride + Joy Landscapes.
Pride + Joy Landscapes is a small woman-owned business based in Northeast Portland. I have been the owner/operator for more than 20 years and specialize in creating and maintaining gardens, low-maintenance plantings, and naturalistic garden design. Pride + Joy offers everything from consultation to design to DIY planning for home gardeners. From a food forest to an urban oasis, we can help you build your secret garden sanctuary while promoting biodiversity for humans and wildlife alike. In addition to helping you build your gardens Pride + Joy can also help you maintain them using only organic, non-fuel-based landscape maintenance packages to suit each garden’s needs.
What do you love about being a designer/gardener?
The name of my company expresses it best; doing this work is truly my deepest pride and joy. I LOVE creating gardens! Plants are my passion and my creative canvas. Coordinating a garden often feels to me like composing a symphony. I can visualize the colors and textures changing through the seasons and sun patterns of a given day. I never expected to become a garden designer. I worked for many years doing the physical work of building and tending gardens, and my clients started asking me to formalize my ideas into plans. That prompted me to take my work to a new level of planning and presentation. Working with people is the other great joy I have in my work. Consulting and collaborating to create outdoor spaces that speak to different individuals is a wonderful job to have.
The magic is often in the details—what appeals to someone visually, how specifically will they use the space (no matter how large or small), how can we best plan to create a sustainable environment that will grow and change for many generations to come.
Talk about the community. What has your experience been like so far serving customers in the neighborhood?
Beaumont-Wilshire is a vibrant community that we’ve really enjoyed working with. The architectural interest in the Beaumont-Wilshire neighborhood lends itself to beautiful gardens that accentuate the homes. I’ve found that clients in this neighborhood care a lot about their homes and gardens and are invested in beautifying and tending their spaces. My business is based just next door in the Cully neighborhood, and I love working with my Beaumont-Wilshire neighbors!
Thank you, Ann, for your support of BWNA and the neighborhood!