Tag Archives: AGC Garden of the Month

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: 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