Letter to the Editor

Posted on February 10, 2015 by Ashland Garden Club

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 Club

Published in the Daily Tidings 2/10/2015

2014 Holiday Garlands

Posted on November 21, 2014 by Ashland Garden Club

Thirteen garden club members participated in making 114 feet of garland Thursday Nov. 18th.
Now, Ashland’s Community Center and Pioneer Hall are decorated for the holiday.
Nice handiwork! ……………

Garden of the Month: August 2014

Posted on July 29, 2014 by Ashland Garden Club

Tim and Kathy Simonsen established their garden in 2006. The front of the house was uninteresting so they added a wide craftsman style 1133 Beswick Way covered porch. This just invites you to sit down in the comfortable rockers and enjoy the view. Two hanging baskets of red geraniums adorn the porch and two large pots with sweet potato vine and some other greenery bracket the stairs.

Ken Cobb designed and installed the compact flowing garden. First he removed junipers, ivy and St. John’s Wort. Then he designed a wide curving walkway out of tan colored stamped concrete with a few steps. This separates the upper garden from the lower area. Next the Simonsen’s wanted a large water feature; and after looking for just the right boulder Ken built the waterfall to the left of the stairs. The birds love to stop by for a drink and sit to enjoy the melodious sounds.The pond is kept full with a couple of “drippers” with the irrigation system.

The upper terrace has Pieris Japonica, Gold Mound Spirea, a Japanese Maple, Heavenly Bamboo, a Mugo pine, a Japanese Maple and Scotch Moss.

Below the path is Blue Star Creeper with a small swath of green lawn at the owners request. Mugo pines, Yellow Twig dogwood, Red Twig dogwood, a Strawberry Tree and three more Japanese maples with Phlox, Wooly Thyme and Kinnikinnick fill in the lower terrace. The mature garden is now a very natural and interesting place. The low maintenance garden does require pruning, weeding and shaping two or three times a year to keep it looking it’s best.

Tim and Kathy have a lovely hillside garden to enjoy and share with the many walkers who stop to admire and chat.

Submitted by: Karen O’Rourke

Garden of the Month: July 2014

Posted on July 21, 2014 by Ashland Garden Club

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.

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.

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.

In addition, from Leave Your Mark, a beautiful rock water feature stands at the top of the garden amid lilies and springtime tulips.

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

by Kaaren Anderson

Garden of the Month: June 2014

Posted on July 7, 2014 by Ashland Garden Club

Pam 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, 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.

Among 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 specimen 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