Tag Archives: AGC Garden of the Month

Garden of the Month: July 2014

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At first glance, past the tastefully built fence, is a small front garden, struggling a bit as are all of our gardens at this time of year and in this weather. Many of the plants are drought resistant – lavender, rosemary, and ornamental grasses leading up to the front porch. The fence was originally built by the owners, Alan Steed and Jo Wayles. Later, probably as the deer multiplied, Dale Shostrom added an extension that looks like it has always been there.01-P1010141
The real treasure is the garden in the back of the home.
Originally a gravel driveway leading to the garage, the back was fenced off and the garden planning began. After a lovely remodel and addition, Ted Loftus, Landscaper, graded the area, adding terraced elevations, walls, walkways and an inviting private patio laid in a circular design – a trumpet creeper climbs above the bench.02_image[1] 2
Fruit trees, heavy with peaches, pears, plums and the first season of cherries, dot the garden. Blueberries and raspberries grow among a Japanese Maple, penstemon, dahlias and honeysuckle. And, much to my surprise, barely July and the earliest red ripe tomatoes I’ve ever seen. 
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In addition, from Leave Your Mark, a beautiful rock water feature stands at the top of the garden amid lilies and springtime tulips.
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Alan and Jo will open their garden for Ashland Garden Club members.
The date and time has been email to members.  Alan will be available to answer questions

05_P1010140by Kaaren Anderson

Garden of the Month: June 2014

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IMG_0151Pam Lucas works nearly every day in her beautiful garden at 420 Taylor Street and it shows! Her husband Sherm does some of the heavy work, but mostly this is Pam’s labor of love. They purchased the house in June of 2005, but Pam was still working then and didn’t have much time to devote to the yard. She did design and have constructed an interesting complex of decks, walkways, and arbors that look so good now with the garden she has established to replace the lawn, since retiring in 2008. Pam also designed the unusual deer fence. Interesting sculptures dot the property,IMG_1407 many of them metal art by Les and Diane Rasmussen of Steel My Art. Some are collaborations between the homeowner who found metal pieces and asked Diane to work with them, including a wonderful angel made from a bomb and other parts! There are actual headstones, purchased at a yard sale. Large boulders were brought in to add texture and background. The trees are tended by an arborist who visits every other year. Recently, they had the irrigation system improved by a professional.

In back, large Douglas firs create a backdrop and privacy with pin oak, English laurel and bamboo. In front, Japanese maples, thunder cloud plum, flowering cherry trees, and mountain ash provide a canopy. Pam has combined many ground covers to create a colorful and textured surface surrounding a river rock walkway to a deck. Gorgeous collections of artfully placed potted color adorn the decks.

IMG_0182Among the plants in pots are calibrachoa, bee balm, lobelia, mums, begonia, fuchsia and a rare oregano. A well-established wisteria climbs the arbor and provides shade for the largest deck. Trumpet vine and honeysuckle adorn the lattice that lines the driveway, with a little pyracantha to discourage deer nibbling. An incense cedar and yarrow thrive to the right of the driveway, but deer have feasted on most other things that Pam has tried there.

To the right of the front door is a specimenIMG_0189 yew. The front includes yucca, lavender, smoke tree, barberry, rosemary, daphne, sedum, mahonia, zebra and other grasses, gaura, manzanita, iris, lithodora, several kids of euphorbia, columbine, lupine, heuchera, crocosmia, agastache, eryngium (sea holly), spiderwort, Russian and other sages (including a wonderful blue flame sage), and many more ground covers

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Blue Flame Sage

It’s hard to believe that a retired accountant, not an artist, created this garden.

Submitted by:
Ruth Sloan

Garden of the Month: May 2014

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The First United Methodist Church of Ashland, at 175 N. Main Street, is especially lovely at this time of year when the dogwood is in bloom.IMG_1

The gardens surrounding the church are lovingly tended by church members, notably Brad Inman, Beth Hite, Toby Deller, and Evelyn Moore.  Last year, we caught pictures of Brad Inman and Charlie Brown manicuring the boxwood hedges out front.  Volunteers from the congregation attend work parties at the church the last Saturday of each month, tending the facilities inside and outside.IMG_2
The sanctuary of the church was built in 1908, but when more modern structures were added in 2008, a formal landscape plan was formulated by John Galbraith and Byron Williams of Galbraith & Associates and implemented by Seth Barnard of Solid Ground Landscaping.
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The front of the church features Japanese maples, rhododendrons, maple and magnolia trees, in addition to the boxwood and dogwood.  A courtyard on the Laurel street side has a lawn for people to gather on, a low wall, many Japanese maples and crepe myrtles.  Also viburnum, azaleas, daylilllies, dogwood, iris, and hydrangeas.  Annuals are added for color each year by the volunteers.

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The garden on Laurel nearest the street is called the Memorial Garden, where church members’ ashes can be interred. Included there are more Japanese maples, mugo pine, false cypress, mock orange, kinnikinnick, barberry, nandina and sedum.  Even the parking lot has been landscaped.

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Submitted by Ruth Sloan
 With thanks to Sherri Morgan for plant identification.

Garden of the Month: April 2014

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Karen McClintock says she’s lucky her husband, Mick Smith,never saw a Frontweed he wouldn’t stop to pull out.  Indeed!  Mick also plants and prunes, and last year brought a photinia hedge back to good health from disease.  Their garden at 2790 Diane Street to the left of the walkway reflects the hard work they both put into it.  Right now the Spring blooms and colors are spectacular.

They purchased the house eight years ago.  The previous owner did the bulk of the hardscape and some of the basic planting. Karen and Mick, without any formal training, frequently add and rearrange. front_0129This fall Karen moved all of the iris around to mix, rather than bunch, the colors, and she’s eager to see what emerges in the next few weeks.  They get occasional help (quarterly) from a handyman gardener for the biggest jobs such as pruning the grape vines that fill the side yard.  Among the challenges of gardening onback_2 this property are deer, of course, a street light lamp post and three (count ‘em!) utility boxes in the front garden.  They use bone meal to discourage deer and it also fertilizes the tulips.   To keep everything green they use organic fertilizers sparely.  In the fall they purchased and covered the front garden with wonderful organic mulch from Plant Oregon. In front of the house, in addition to the tulips, daffodils, and grape hyacinth currently putting on a show, are Japanese maple, forsythia (the one to the left of the driveway is currently at the peak of its color, the one to the right of the driveway has gone from yellow to green leaves), manzanita, bayberry, variegated pittosporum, blue fescue, shasta daisies, euphorbia, rosemary, oregano, and sedum.
back2_0138In the back yard a small garden provides privacy and beauty.  It includes a crepe myrtle tree, roses, lilac, lavender, huge red oriental poppies, sweet woodruff, lupine, strawberries, wall flower, azalea, nandina, day lilies, foxglove, and hellebore. They use oyster shells in back to thwart snails–with limited success.  Along the back wall of the property a lovely backdrop of photinia provides the frame for this picture perfect garden.

Garden of the Month: September 2013

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The home at 340 Morton is currently owned by Betsy Wessler and the garden is at its peak in late summer.  Kaaren Anderson talked with Betsy last spring to gather a little history on the home and the lovely garden that surrounds it.
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The home was originally built in 1948 and was formerly owned by Dick and Evelyn Strellman.  Betsy purchased the home in 2007 with a move-in date of 2008.  Soon after, the house, as well as the entire yard, were renovated and redesigned.  Betsy’s former husband, Ian Wessler of Wessler Design Associates, worked with her to create the beautiful garden you see today.
 

IMG_0091The first major change was to move the driveway to the far right of the front yard from its former location closer to the house and entry way.  This gave a much broader area to reconstruct the garden.  The entrance to the garage, which originally faced the street, was reoriented to create a turnaround at the end of the new driveway.  Broken concrete pieces from the driveway were used to form walkways leading to the entry and around the house to the garage.IMG_0089

One challenge with the design involved mitigating a seepage problem located at the right rear of the front yard.  This was done by lowering the grade to create a gravel and rock lined dry creekbed, directing water through the front yard to a gated front vegetable garden.  As you will see, it is this creekbed that is beautifully lined with boulders and various tall grasses.  Winding back through these grasses one can find a Triflora maple, Zelkova and palm along with lilaIMG_0088c and wild currant.

Original rhubarb, quince and raspberries were kept and moved to various locations throughout the property.  Blueberries, Asian pear, persimmon and other fruit trees share the backyard with many of the original camellias.  

— Kaaren Anderson

Garden of the Month: August 2013

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It’s tempting to suggest that you rush to see the front garden at 745 Park Street  immediately because the colors are so vivid right now and everything looks healthy and fresh. But it often looks great because it has been so well planned.
  IMG_0076 The homeowners have been serious about their gardens for 15 of the 17 years they have been in the house.  Initially, they had design and installation help in the back garden from Carol’s Colors.  In 2003 they met landscape designer Sharon Creek Siewert, whose practical and creative design ideas have transformed both the front and back.   Sharon ’s husband, Steve Siewert, also offers a variety of horticultural services.  Dubbed the “Tree Whisperer,” he saved the blue spruce in the front yard after it was blown over in a windstorm–among other significant contributions.  Kai Van Aken oversees garden management and weekly maintenance.
They have successfully screened the view of an apartment house over the back fence by planting Leland IMG_0075cypress, deodar cedars, and a giant sequoia, all of which are thriving, in a back area they call “the woods.”  Also in the back garden adjacent to the wood deck is a charming corner known as the Japanese garden with specimen rocks, a tiny stone bridge, azalea, and lacy Japanese maple.
 
 Flowers currently in bloom in front include roses, rudbeckia, heather,IMG_0073 gaura, penstemon, and salvia.  Other times of year, peonies, Dutch and Japanese iris, and lavender abound.  A crepe myrtle is on the verge of bursting forth.  When they moved in 17 years ago, the front garden was largely juniper.
IMG_0074In addition to the woods and Japanese garden in back, there is a lovely terraced area anchored by a large locust that shades the back deck and patio, plus dogwood, fig and apple trees.  Also rhododendrons, more roses, fuchsias, rosemary, gladiolas, erigeron, crocosmia, barberry, hostas, yarrow, photinia, and many more beautiful plants.  Annuals impatiens and snapdragons provide seasonal color.
 This garden is an unexpected treat in a dry (and this year smokey) month.
— Ruth Sloan