Ashland Garden Club member’s cleaned out loads of debris at North Mountain Park’s Heirloom Garden Today. AGC member’s meet monthly to tend this lovely garden. Photos by: Lynn McDonald, AGC Member
Tag Archives: Ashland Garden Club Community Service
AGC Gardeners
Gardening continues even in a pandemic! Ashland Garden Club members are still weeding and caring for the Heirloom Garden at North Mountain Park. It’s easy to social distance in the garden.
Jeanne Arago, Allison Koenig, Kristina Lefever, Michael Dawkins, & Alison Chandler. And, taking the picture: Viki Ashford, Heirloom Garden Coordinator
July 2020: Garden of the Month
139 N. 2nd Street, Ashland, OR
Local artist and educator Judith Ginsburg developed and maintains the lovely garden at 139 N. 2nd Street which has been selected as the Ashland Garden Club’s Garden of the Month for July 2020. The property was purchased as a rental in 1988 and completely remodeled in 1996. The existing garage was converted to Ginsburg’s artist studio in 2001. Although living elsewhere in Ashland, she comes to the studio most days and has done the regular maintenance in the garden since then. She is currently planning a move into the front cottage.
In the 1990s, Judith had Landscape Architect Steve Potter create a plan for the garden. Much of the hardscape remains from that plan, but only a few plants. In 2016, Solid Ground Landscape redesigned the front yard, and in 2018, they did the back, always accommodating Judith’s preferences for plants and color. Since then, she has personally added to and subtracted from the plan. Solid Ground workers come twice a month to do standard maintenance. Ginsburg averages about an hour a day on garden care. It is truly an artist’s garden.
There is a gorgeous fountain, the sound of which does its’ best to mask the noise from the Post Office, the back of which is across the alley from the studio. To encourage birds, there are many bird baths and bird feeders. There are a lot of places to sit and relax throughout the back and a raised bed for veggies in the side yard.
On the back fence, there is a thriving climbing hydrangea, which is notoriously difficult to establish. There is a large and healthy wisteria shading the back porch and an old but still glorious lilac in the parking strip. Several Hypercium inodorum are stellar additions to the front garden. Ginsburg often has passersby ask or leave notes asking for identification of those plants. They are a shrub (a relative of St. John’s Wort—a common groundcover with yellow flowers) that has berries that range from white through pink and orange to red. Among Judith’s favorite plants are peonies, hellebores, and tulips.
There is a little bit of everything here and well worth strolling by.
Article by: Ruth Sloan, Ashland Garden Club
Photos by Larry Rosengren
Garden of the Month: June 2020
Near Hunter Park
There is a spectacular garden near Hunter Park that is the Ashland Garden Club’s Garden of the Month for June. The residents have lived there for 40 years, and had done smaller renovations in the past.
The owners re-landscaped about three years ago after they incorporated the back of another property nearby. The property boundary was legally redrawn at that time. The result is a very large garden, especially for the neighborhood.
Laurie Sager, Solid Ground Landscaping, and Tim Ferguson did the work in 2017. The workmanship throughout the property is exquisite: The metal and wood work of fencing and gates, the concrete retaining walls, and the gorgeous stone walkways and patios are impeccable. The deep red color of the metal is unexpected and just right.
An unusual feature is a geometric pattern of concrete pavers beneath a Japanese maple tree surrounded by “Brass Buttons” ground cover. A charming blue star creeper surrounds stone pavers in the front. 
A large Liriodendron (tulip tree) dominates the front yard and a Douglas fir shades portions of the back. Most of the mature rhododendrons are holdovers from earlier gardens here. Ornamental grasses are placed judiciously, particularly in front. Peonies are featured in front and back. A wonderfully diverse selection of plants are perfectly placed throughout the yard. 
Article by: Ruth Sloan, AGC Member
Photos by: Larry Rosengren.
May 2020: Garden of the Month
720 Forest Street
The wonderful garden at 720 Forest St. is a labor of love for homeowners Vicky Sturtevant and Alan Armstrong and is The Ashland Garden Club’s Garden of the Month for May. They have deftly combined edibles with ornamentals in this space they have gardened since 1983. 
It is a heavily shaded lot, particularly the upper, forested quarter-acre parcel that they purchased separately. In all, they have a half-acre that they manage beautifully. The hardscape was designed by Covey-Pardee Landscape Architects in 2009. Eric Cislo welded the gates and Ted Loftus constructed the stone walls. The deer are kept out.
The couple enjoys being outside and are inveterate hikers, so they also love gardening. They devote a lot of time to it and it shows. Nothing is neglected. They follow the sun throughout the yard and throughout the year.
Grandparents of both instilled in them a love of plants and a tradition of gardening. Alan’s grandparents were farmers. Vicky’s had a large lot and grew all kinds of things, especially roses. There is a vigorous peony in the yard that came from Vicky’s grandparents. She speaks fondly of how much certain plants remind us of certain people. Happily, their adult son loves gardening, too.
Both Alan and Vicky are very knowledgeable about plants and have noticed that plants native to the Pacific Northwest, in which they have specialized, are beginning to struggle to survive and that now plants native to Northern California are more likely to thrive in Ashland. So it is to them they are turning their attention. 
Visitors who walk or drive by will notice the great diversity of plant life in this garden. Among favorites of the couple are species rhododendrons (includes azaleas), Penstemons, Salvia, Agastache, and Marionberry. In May, dogwood, lilac, and rhododendrons make a stunning display. 
Article by: Ruth Sloan, AGC Garden of the Month Committee Chair
Photos by: Larry Rosengren
April 2020: Garden of the Month:
467 Scenic Drive
The lovely garden at 467 Scenic Drive is the Ashland Garden Club’s Garden of the Month for April. It is a work-in-progress by homeowners Elaine Yates and Michael Costello who have had this property for 3.5 years. Although the yard had good bones, with handsome hardscape and fruit trees, the garden had been greatly neglected in recent years. They removed several diseased or dead trees which has opened things up for new additions with an emphasis on blooming plants.
Elaine is the primary gardener and designer, but Michael contributes. He rebuilt an impressive set of raised beds for edibles in the side yard as well as choosing and placing a new wisteria. Having moved to Ashland from the Bay area, Elaine has had a steep learning curve with new weather patterns to understand and more aggressive deer than she was accustomed to. On the plus side, she has been happy to discover the multitude of bees and other pollinators and the wonderful profusion of blooming plants that thrive here. She spends anywhere from three to five hours per week in the slow season (Winter) to ten to twelve hours per week the rest of the year.
Heathers, grape hyacinths, forsythia, azaleas (in the deer-proof back yard), and rosemary are the stars right now but soon the rhododendrons will burst forth so Elaine encourages readers to delay until late in the month or early next month visiting to admire the garden from the street.
