Category Archives: AGC Garden of the Month

Garden of the Month: June 2013

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When Jan Christenson and Rick Ukena bought their house at 445 Thimbleberry in 2008, it was surrounded by lawn and a few trees.
IMG_0038Today, there’s no lawn, but there are 11 new trees (shantung maples and heritage birch, mugo pine, gingko, eucalyptus, yellowwood, perotia), shrubs (artemesia, lilac, elderberry, thimbleberry, smoke bush, cistus), flowers (helibore, peonies, wallflowers, gaura and gaillardia), many different ground covers, including mock strawberry, wild sunflowers, herbs, a small cactus garden, a small, deer-proof raised bed — even bonsai.
The wrap-around garden is accented by whimsical, custom-madeIMG_0050 pavers and garden goddesses, a delightful water feature, bird bath, rocks from various trips around the West, driftwood sculptures accented by antique metal objects, a mini dry riverbed, and meandering pathways. The lawn was used as a medium for creating berms surrounding the dry creek. All this on a corner lot that’s just .15 acres.
Tucked away from view are two small private gardens, one with a hot tub and 20- foot-tall Nordmann fir IMG_0039trees that doubles as a dog run. The patio garden off the kitchen includes raised vegetable beds, canna lilies, large pots with abelia and jade, a maple tree, and various potted flowering plants.
Jan designed the garden with Zack Williams of Regenesis, who created the hardscape. These days, Rick does most of the heavy digging, while Jan continues with design.
IMG_0043
Jan and Rick moved from Portland, where they had a huge double urban lot. “I must say, we so much enjoy managing a smaller landscape area,” says Jan.
 
You can see this garden any time at the corner of Thimbleberry and Starflower. On Friday, June 14, Jan will be on hand from 10-12 to show you the private gardens and answer any questions.
 
— Julia Sommer
 

Garden of the Month: May 2013

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IMG_0030The first thing you notice upon arriving at 1120 Prospect Street is the natural quality of the garden – simple, elegant plantings that look as if no one has fussed over them at all. But this garden has been 15 years in the making. At first a tangle of ivy and bushes, it has been transformed into one filled with rhododendrons and peonies that carpet the light-filled, woodsy property. A variety of trees, including Japanese maple, oak, blue spruce and deodara cedar, provide the shade that make this garden thrive. TID water is the only irrigation used to maintain the simple beauty.

P1000721Jonathan Warren, the current owner and creator of the garden, moved 15 years ago into the home formerly owned by the Cotton family. Built in 1948, it was the first home on the hill above the university from Siskiyou Boulevard. The garden fills two acres. In addition to the trees and the 245 rhododendrons and peonies, there are numerous cherry trees, lilacs, iris, an enclosed berry garden filled with 100-year-old transplanted raspberry plants, and an abundance of blueberries.

P1000723Looking beyond the garden, you’ll see a home that fits the property. Built in the style of Frank Lloyd Wright, it is constructed of clear red cedar. But the most prominent feature is a large boulder that lives both outside and inside the home, creating a small pond in the living room. Talking with Jonathan, there is an obvious sense that both the home and garden are well loved.

P1000719All are invited to drive by and view this property as the plants begin to bloom throughout the month of May. From Siskiyou Boulevard take S. Mountain Avenue to the top where it intersects Prospect.  Number 1120 will be the garden in front of you.  Don’t miss the street views from S. Mountain and Elkader after they dogleg around the property.

Enjoy!–Kaaren Anderson

Garden of the Month: October 2012

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The home and garden of Helen Jones at 264 Grant Street has been selected as October’s Garden of the Month. Her garden is available for your street-side viewing pleasure.

Helen purchased this property in 2005 and she says it’s still a work in progress. Helen occasionally consulted Alan Miller and Aaron Blasen of Renaissance Landscaping, but it was her idea to have a natural meadow to bring back memories of the meadows she loved at Mt. Lassen.

When Helen bought her house the magnificent rock walls already existed, but she added many of the trees & shrubs which are now showing wonderful fall colors. The plantings around the front of her home includes: dogwoods, white birch, mugo pines, Japanese maples, eastern redbuds, lilacs, and a lovely weeping cedar.   Recently she scattered Asian poppy seeds around her flowerbeds, and Helen stated, “in the spring her purple wisteria is gorgeous.”.

Helen’s large circular drive creates a mounded area where she planted a ginkgo, a madrone, and a slender rather than broad magnolia. Interspersed among the trees are two  manzanita; one native and a cultivar with dark green leaves that loves the granite soil. The under-story plants include a variety of perennials such as Shasta daises, asters, lavenders, dianthus, rudbeckia, coreopsis and many types of ornamental grasses. The evergreen kinnikinnic spilling over the rock walls adds the finishing touches.

Helen has garden help once or twice a month to help keep the garden manageable, but in a natural state. She also has  a drip watering system to keep it all green.

The effect of all her planning is just what she was hoping for, a mountain meadow that we all can enjoy!

Karen O’Rourke
October 2012

Garden of the Month: September 2012

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As we approach autumn, it is such an unexpected pleasure to see the gorgeous display of blooming plants in Ronald Doyle’s garden at 945 Hillview Drive. In addition to more than 150 roses, currently in bloom are coreopsis, petunias, anemones, Jupiter’s beard, gaura, honeysuckle, ice plant, zonal geraniums, and a stunning display of giant phlox. A well-established crepe myrtle tree is just beginning its annual show. Other trees in the front yard include flowering crabapple, tulip tree, Japanese maple, and a giant cedar that anchors the corner at Ross Lane.


Ron has been gardening here since 1985. Much of the property was just gravel when he moved in. Some of the garden design is by his late wife, Eva-Maria vonChamier. He uses TID water for irrigation. Two dump-truck loads of soil and amendments have been brought in. The garden paths are of hazelnut shells, which he first saw at the Oregon Garden in Silverton. Presumably the sharp edges of the shells discourage snails and slugs, but Ron has good reason to believe otherwise. Well, it looks really good! There is a very large and graceful metal arbor in the back yard that Ron designed, based on something he had seen in France. The magnificent display is contained in the relatively small lot of 90’ x 130’.

The fragrant roses are an amazing array of varieties and colors, including a very large Cecile Bruner that has finished blooming. Other plants that are past the bloom stage now but provide color at other times of year are rhododendron, azaleas, lilac, mock orange, oriental poppy, lilac, iris, daphne, bellflower, clematis, and lilies. Ron has tomato plants in a raised bed, grapes, and a recently installed raspberry patch. Both a Granny Smith apple tree and cherry tree grafted to supply five varieties of the fruit are in the back yard. An especially lovely oregano fills in among flowering plants in the front.


If Ashland Garden Club members would like a guided tour during the first half of September, just ring the Westminster chime doorbell and, if Ron is home, he has graciously offered to show you around.


— Ruth Sloan

Garden of the Month: August 2012

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Hidden Springs Wellness Center:
In the dog days of August, the cool, green garden at Hidden Springs Wellness Center can be a blessed relief from the acres of asphalt at Ashland Shopping Center.
Accessed through a sweet gate at the top corner of the shopping center parking lot, the one-acre Hidden Springs garden offers a large pond with blooming water lilies and visits by waterfowl, including a blue heron, plus at least one giant koi (the heron tends to eat the koi).  The pond is fed by springs and a pump powers a recirculating stream meandering up to the Wellness Center designed by Jim Bowne.  Ian Wessler of Wessler Design Associates did some of the initial landscape and pond design.  Cottonwood trees complete the pond’s rural feel.
 
Rod and Brooks Newton bought what is now the thriving Hidden Springs Wellness Center in 1999.  It had been a private home, but thanks to the adjacent shopping center, part of the lot was zoned commercial.  Now the center is home to 14 wellness practitioners, including therapists, coaches, massage therapists, naturopathic doctors, and a fitness center.  It also hosts classes and workshops.  You would never know that the Tidings building and the shopping center are right outside, so well have the plantings grown, including Japanese maples, Mugo pines, a Kwanzan cherry tree, and beeches.
When the Newtons took possession, the pond was there, full of cat-tails and blackberries.  With the help of friends, they pulled out the blackberries by hand; no chemicals have ever been used in the garden.  Then they hauled in huge rocks from their Ashland home to dot the property.  Original fruit trees and ponderosa pine continue to thrive.  The garden is made even more inviting by small picnic tables, a swinging tree chair, and a bench by the pond.  The garden is open to the public; the gate is never locked.  The Newtons simply ask visitors not to interfere with Wellness Center activities.  Workers from the shopping center who’ve discovered the gate enjoy their lunch breaks there.
For the past ten years, Paul Garber has taken care of the garden.  Many people have also contributed in trade for classes, workshops, and wellness services, including construction of a little Japanese bridge over the stream as you first enter the garden.  Elizabeth York of Ashland has donated much of the plant material.
As the Wellness Center has been enlarged and remodeled, the gardens surrounding it continue to be upgraded.  A raised bed for herbs is currently under construction by the new fitness center.
– Julia Sommer
 
 

Garden of the Month: July 2012

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From the Street
354 Wrights Creek Drive :
A shady oak glen in front of the home of Linda and Tony Fern at 354 Wrights Creek Drive has been transformed into a colorful and imaginative, peaceful garden.  The Ferns have graciously opened their garden to Ashland Garden Club members during the entire month of July!  They ask only that you enter and exit via the wooden gate at the front, taking care to latch the gate as you arrive and depart.  The handsome iron ring twists to operate the latch. With any luck, you will catch Tony gardening. He’s out there a lot and his hard work is much in evidence.
Along the Driveway

Tony does most of the work, selecting, positioning, planting, and pruning the plants.  Initially, Bonnie Baird designed the hardscape and perimeter plantings about ten years ago, but Tony has made all the subsequent choices.  A crew comes in regularly to help with cleanup, dead-heading and raking.  Tony designed and built the front gate as well as the pergola on the left side of the house.  He designed the complex of decks, stairs and bridges at the front of the house.  The deer fence has been in for only about a year, so the garden is now only in its first year of unfettered growth but it already looks well established.

The gorgeous garden replaced a lawn that previous owners had planted.  The process of substituting the lawn took two years, accomplished about a quarter at a time to reduce shock to the oak grove that shades the property.  When the garden was being established, the Ferns had 80 yards of compost brought in.  Since then, 60-70 yards of bark have been distributed twice to help retain moisture and reduce weeds.
 The Ferns added a recirculating pump to the little waterway that follows a naturalculvert, piped under neighborhood driveways, that ultimately joins Wrights Creek.  The stream bed has been lined and artfully bordered with rocks.  Art pieces abound and colorful plant supports add to the cheerful ambiance.  Colorful flags mark spots where Tony plans to add bulbs in the Fall, knowing those plantings will not interfere with an abundance of bulbs already in place but not currently visible (wish I’d thought of that!).
Asiatic Lilies
Right now, Asiatic lilies are putting on a spectacular show throughout the garden.  Tulips and daffodils have come and gone for the year.  Perimeter plantings concentrate on natives and drought-tolerant plants, including cotoneaster, ceanothus, Oregon grape, rockrose, Russian sage, smoke tree, and manzanita.  Other parts of the garden include lilacs, daphne, Japanese maple, pieris, and Mexican orange.  Laurels include English, Portuguese, and mountain.  Redbud trees and strawberry bushes, one recently replaced, flank the inside of the front gate. Double-potted bamboo screens the hot tub.
Japanese Umbrella Tree
 Among some highly unusual
and beautiful plants are a Japanese umbrella tree and broad-leaf ceonothus.   
There are, of course, ferns—both animal and vegetable.
— Ruth Sloan