Eleven club members gathered to make Christmas wreaths, it was a fun day! 
Category Archives: Community Spirit
Gleaning
Gleaning is good, because so much usable produce goes to waste! Check out how to get involved with Neighborhood Harvest in Ashland.
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com
About Neighborhood Harvest:
“Neighborhood Harvest is an organization dedicated to harvesting fruits, nuts, and other produce that would otherwise go to waste from yards, gardens, and farms in and around Ashland, Oregon and sharing the abundance with the community.
We will only harvest fruit that has not been sprayed with pesticides. At least 25% of what we harvest is donated to local hunger relief organizations, 25% goes to our harvester volunteers, 25% we offer to the home owner, and the remaining 25% we sell or trade to support the organization. ”
To date, we have harvested over 10,000 pounds of fruit, most from within 15 miles of Ashland.
To learn more about the organization, or inform us of possible harvest sites, please call or e-mail.
541 708-1807 – info@neighborhoodharvest.org
2018 Plant Sale Fun
Thank you Ashlanders for making AGC’s plant sale a huge success!
Giant flower springs up near Ashland
Much of the trip between Ashland and the Bay area via I-5 can be tedious, but now Ashland has its own novelty to rival the lineup of all those colorful tanker trucks at Truck City at the base of Black Butte near Weed, Moo Donna and Baby Moo as well as Priscilla the Dragon in fields south and north of Yreka. A wonderful, colorful sculpture by southern Oregon artist Cheryl Garcia has been installed on private land south of the freeway, just east of the Skylark complex, between exits 19 and 14. This whimsical installation of a giant (8’) red flower, with three bees hovering over it, is courtesy of Marge and Dave Bernard. The Bernards cannot see this sculpture from their nearby home, but they do have a smaller version (three red flowers, with one bee hovering) that is visible from their home. They chose simply to enliven the view for travelers along that stretch of highway; their good deed for passersby.
Dave Bernard commissioned the sculptures as a birthday gift for wife Marge who is a beekeeper. The installation was completed over Mother’s Day weekend. Cheryl Garcia’s work is well known in Ashland, not only for the enchanting metal flowers at Walker Elementary School but for other metal sculptures in private collections all over town. Garcia spent 200 hours creating this charming work. It is such a gift to the community and to travelers, for which Garcia and the Bernards are to be thanked.
Article by AGC Member: Ruth Sloan
Published in the Daily Tiding June 12, 2017
Photos by Larry Rosengren
Ashland Creek Pond
Garden Tour: AGC members visited the Ashland Creek Ponds Monday June 1st, where teacher Mia Driscoll of Helman School lead a tour of the area. Helman School has been a recipient of Club donations for the Ashland Ponds Project for several years. Ashland Pond is hidden away on north side of Ashland in Quiet Village. This pond was re-discovered in 2008, but it was severely overgrown with invasive species. An ongoing community effort began to restore the pond to a natural riparian habitat. Ashland students, Lomakatsi Restoration, Bear Creek Watershed, the City of Ashland, along with many volunteers and community organizations worked to clear 12 acres of invasive plants and replant native trees and vegetation. All this effort created a wonderful place to stroll, bird watch and be in nature. The Ashland Creek Pond is a secret garden in the city. The area is used as an outdoor learning experience for Ashland students and last year AGC made a donation for binoculars so students could observe nature closely. The Ashland Creek Pond is open to the public.
Letter to the Editor
Check out Heirloom Garden
We enjoyed reading John Darling’s Feb. 2 [Daily Tidings] story about the soon-to-open Ashland Creek Park and his mention of the many other Ashland parks adopted by other community organizations and individuals. I’d like to add one other community garden to that list, which is the Heirloom Garden at North Mountain Park.
Inspired by gardens from the late 1800s, this particular garden was largely designed by Ashland Garden Club members in the late 1990s, and is solely maintained year-round by our members. According to Linda Chesney, Stewardship Coordinator at North Mountain Park, “The Heirloom Garden is really the front door of the entire park as its entrance is right on the Mountain Avenue entrance.”
Like other service organizations, AGC serves our community in other ways, including but not limited to the following:
- At club meetings from October to May, we offer free programs open to the public about various aspects of gardening.
- We fund both a high school and SOU scholarship (with money raised from our annual plant sale in May).
- We do all floral arrangements for the annual Feast of Will (with all flowers donated by club members from their gardens).
- We participate in gardening and environmental programs at the regional, state and national levels.
Anyone wanting more information can check out our website at www.ashlandorgardenclub.org. And we’re always looking for new members!
Susan Zane, President
Ashland Garden ClubPublished in the Daily Tidings 2/10/2015