Category Archives: AGC Garden of the Month

Garden of the Month: July 2019

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1313 Clay Street

The Country Willows Inn, at 1313 Clay Street, is the Ashland Garden Club’s Garden of the Month for July.  It is an extraordinary property, five acres in all, that has been lovingly developed by Kara and Dan Burian since they purchased the property in 2010.  The original farmhouse dates to 1896.  They added the small picturesque barn near the entrance to the property and have converted the original barn mostly to lodging space.

Dan, who has a keen eye for design, has directed the many landscape projects, relying on Sage Hill for hardscape installation, Karen Marshall of Naturescapes Designs for plant selection and design advice, Jenny Kuehnle of Ahimsa Gardens for maintenance of the raised beds and container plantings, and L&M for lawn, orchard, and planting bed maintenance.  Every project has been created with pollinators in mind.  They recently added a birding program to the list of amenities that they offer at the Inn.

The Burians have enhanced ponds and streams.  They are working assiduously to convert open pastures into wildflower meadows, battling native grasses that want to dominate.  Right now in the garden, hydrangea, gaura, lilies, agapanthus, and crocosmia are at their best.  In the Spring, rhododendrons, weeping cherry trees, and Spring wildflowers abound.  At other times, the lavender, ornamental grasses, and blueberries are sensational.  The willow tree is always majestic.

In an effort to assure privacy and tranquility for guests of the Inn, they ask that Ashlanders hoping to see the gardens call first to schedule a convenient and non-disruptive time.  See more beautiful photographs and learn more about the Country Willows Inn at their website: https://countrywillowsinn.com/.

Garden of the Month: June 2019

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265 Ohio Street

There are several nice garden surprises at the unpaved end of Ohio Street, northwest of Laurel.  One is the fabulous garden and fence at 265 Ohio Street.  This garden, designed and maintained by Gene Leyden, is the Ashland Garden Club’s Garden of the Month for June.  This is a naturally wet parcel (note the giant pond next door) where dampness- and shade-loving plants thrive and carefully placed sun-loving plants also flourish.  Gene planted the willow tree, now enormous (14 feet in circumference!), when she moved in with her family in 1987, transporting it to the site from the nursery in the back of the Volkswagon bus.  Garden observers can walk or drive down the alley to the right of the house to get more views.

In addition to the prospering plant life, there are remarkably beautiful constructions by Gene’s friend, the artist and carpenter Nathan Sharples.  Look carefully at the gorgeous fence, installed only three years ago.  Note the unusual wooden screen door.  Now catch a glimpse of the fabulous gazebo in what appears to be the back yard but is actually the front of the house which was moved to this location shortly before Gene moved in.   Sharples built the gazebo of many species of wood, rarely using straight planks, but fitting curved pieces together with exquisite workmanship.  Multicolor glass in clerestory windows adds light to the interior.

Also salted throughout the garden are sculptures by Gene’s friend Cheryl Garcia, as well as other items of interest.

Gene has the advantage of access to Helman ditch water.  She has had to amend the soil over the years because the site was ill-used before she (and the house) arrived.  She refers to it as a “wild garden” that reseeds itself each year and “does its own thing.”.  She insists that she doesn’t spend as much time working on it as its beauty suggests, and she does have help now with weeding and mowing.  Gene says she has a special fondness for fragrance in the garden and chooses many plants on that basis, including roses, jasmine and nicotiana.

Among the many highlights in the garden are a selection of huge hostas loving their location under the willow, Lady Banks and Cecile Brunner roses climbing through the vegetation, and a smoke tree and smoke bush lending their rich dark foliage as contrast to the riot of greens plus colorful blossoms.  There’s a little bit of everything here. This is clearly the work of people of great imagination, especially the primary gardener.

Article by: Ruth Sloan

Garden of the Month: May 2019

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164 Sixth Street, Ashland OR

There is a special quality to the gardens at 164 Sixth Street, the Ashland Garden Club’s Garden of the Month for May.  It’s not just that children are so welcome and comfortable here and that plants seem always to be blooming, but that they are such interesting combinations of plants and hardscape.  This is Karen Loop’s garden, where she has lived for 25 years, raised her two children–now adults, and has run a preschool, Sunflower Cottage, for 18 years.

Over the years, Karen planted everything on the property except the street tree, and created every pathway, planting bed, deck, and fence.  Ten truckloads of soil were brought in.  She collects heart-shaped stones that are displayed throughout.  With both help and hindrance from young children, Karen maintains the garden with three-to-four hours a week of work, on average.  The bare spot on the right side of the front yard is destined to be a tiny patio when Karen has recovered from a back injury.

This is a magical space where children are encouraged to explore.  Right now, the dogwoods are in bloom, along with redbud, daphne, lilac, and viburnum.  Among Karen’s favorite plants are peonies, feverfew, and foxglove.  Camellias, Rose of Sharon, pieris, hellebore, hydrangea, and rhododendrons abound.  There are beds for vegetables, blueberries, and raspberries toward the back, and play equipment in its own area.

Article by Ruth Sloan

Garden of the Month: April 2019

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500 Parkside Drive

Since 2000, the Ashland Garden Club has been selecting Ashland gardens as Garden of the Month, from April through September.  From late fall through early spring, no gardens are chosen because most gardens don’t look very good at that time of year.  The garden at 500 Parkside Drive is the exception.  It looked good all winter, looks great right now, and is being honored as Garden of the Month for April 2019.


 This property is owned by Terry and Barbara Oldfield.  This year they spent the coldest months of the year near grandchildren in Arizona, while the Ashland house and garden were looked after by family and neighbors.  Terry usually does the garden maintenance.  The side and back yards were designed by Banyan Tree Landscape about three years ago and the front was designed by Solid Ground Landscape five years ago.

 
Mostly this garden is attractive because the plants were chosen to look good all year and/or because of their early- or late-season beauty.  Among them are hellebore, nandina, pieris, and heathers.  The colors are especially nice right now.  The plants are also situated nicely, with larger plants framing smaller plants.  In the back yard, a magnolia is blooming now, the daffodils are just finishing up, and strong shoots herald a lovely display of peonies in the coming months.  There are many comfortable spots to sit and enjoy the view.

There are surprising features in this yard which are small lawns of artificial turf both on the side and in back.  While some Garden Club members applaud its water-wise qualities, artificial turf is not without its detractors, and a garden with fake grass has never been selected as Garden of the Month before.  While air pollution caused by power tools to mow, blow, and trim real turf counter the oxygen-providing benefits of real grass, fake grass contains known allergens, potentially harmful substances that leach into the earth beneath it and into waterways from runoff, and is not, at the end of its approximately 25-year life, biodegradable.  It’s difficult to remember drought after the wet winter and early spring we have had, but it must be anticipated, and this is certainly one way to maintain an attractive green space.

Article submitted by: Ruth Sloan, AGC Garden of the Month Chairperson

Garden of the Month: Sept. 2018

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204 Alicia Avenue

You can often tell, just by looking at a garden (house too) that someone artistic lives there.  Such is the case at 204 Alicia Avenue which is the Ashland Garden Club’s September Garden of the Month.  This is the home of Betsy and her husband Chuck.  Betsy is a Crafts Artisan in the costume shop at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.  They have lived in the home for eight years.IMG_1

The house remodeling and garden hardscape were a collaborative design effort with James Stiritz of Dragonfly Construction.  Wonderful details abound in the decorative fencing, garden screens, and car arbor.

Betsy prefers curves to straight lines in the garden and she is conscious of textures and scale as well as color.  Irrigation and original plantings were by Carol’s Colors, but Betsy has moved, replaced, and added to the vegetation in the intervening years.  In the summer, she spends a couple of hours a day working in the yard.Img_4

The musical notes of a seasonal creek and pond add to the calming ambiance of the backyard retreat.IMG_6

Among the many interesting plants are a smoke tree, grasses, ferns, spirea, rock rose, morning glory, euphorbia, and eucalyptus.  Edibles include plum, cherry, and crabapple.IMG_7

 

Article by Ruth Sloan
Photos by Larry Rosengren

Garden of the Month: August 2018

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622 Drager Street:

Earlier this year, Alison Lerch, the Fire Adapted Communities Coordinator with the Ashland Fire Department, gave a presentation to the Ashland Garden Club about firewise landscaping. She mentioned a garden that was not only firewise but waterwise, calling it the perfect Ashland Garden. Since then we have discovered that the garden at 622 Drager Street, is also pollinator-friendly and deer resistant. The perfect Ashland garden indeed!01_622 Drager

Nancy Garriott is responsible for this wonderful garden. She and her husband Ted had the craftsman house built on the corner lot five years ago and took on the landscaping project themselves, relying on knowledge accumulated over the years.02 summer garden

Nancy has been creating gardens all of her adult life. Each of the eight gardens in her past taught her something about the secrets to gardening success. Early on she immersed herself in gardening publications and classes. Later, she found each plant was teaching her what it liked and what it needed. She says, “It turns out that getting your hands dirty does have a ‘grounding’ affect and is a great way to learn how to care for your plants.”03 summer garden

Nancy and Ted started with the hardscape of small rock retaining walls and garden borders, flagstone and gravel paths, and drip lines. They found a stone mulch that looks like wood but is obviously not fire-prone. Nancy propagated many of the perennials, including favorites that are drought tolerant, deer resistant, and non-invasive with colorful, long-lasting blooms. Among them are echinacea, gaillardia, helenium, coreopsis, rudbeckia, crocosmia Emily McKenzie, sedum autumn joy, and yarrow. She discovered that a bonus is that these plants are great pollinator plants too. She also propagated several varieties of sedum which she likes because they are evergreen, drought tolerant, come in many colors which adds interest to the winter garden, and spread easily without being invasive. Then Nancy developed a list of shrubbery that would enhance the small space but would add an evergreen element to the winter garden when the perennials die back. She focused on dwarf varieties of native, drought tolerant, deer resistant plants, looking for a variety of textures and colors which she thinks helps the plants contrast with each other and stand out visually. The plants she settled on were low growing manzanita, arbutus, nandina, evergreen candytuft, myrtle, hebe, and choisya (Mexican orange). She also found that some evergreen herbs such as sage and basil make good aromatic border plants.

04 summer garden

In designing the new garden, she applied the knowledge that she needed to leave enough room around each plant to accommodate its growth, put taller plants in the back, and create a color and texture balance. She also leaves room for her favorite annuals which are gazanias and many varieties of zinnias. These also happen to be drought tolerant and deer resistant and add joyful color to the garden.05 summer garden

Nancy says that “The favorite thing about my garden is that we live in an accessible part of Ashland where I can share my garden with the many people that walk by.”

Submitted by: Ruth Sloan

Photos by Nancy and Ted Garriott.