128 S. Laurel Street:
Luna Bitzer has been gardening at 128 S. Laurel Street for 22 years and it shows. She lives in the historic home there with her husband Joe. He built the charming garden shed and occasionally helps with heavy lifting, but mostly Luna does all the work herself, including some extraordinary tasks such as installing the paver walkway to the front door—using just a shovel—and forming stairs between levels in the terraced yard.
While she has had some help over the years with specific improvements, such as the all-female group of friends who helped build an arbor, or the Bitzers’ children who helped maintain a pond, she devotes a very large amount of time to keeping the property healthy and beautiful. In summer and fall, she averages 20 hours per week working in the garden. In the winter she takes some time off and in the hottest months of summer she works fewer hours outside. This is the Ashland Garden Club’s Garden of the Month for June.
Among the biggest trees that dot the third-of-an-acre city lot at the corner of Almond Street are an ancient black oak (Ashland’s 11995 tree of the year), Douglas fir, silver maple, and blue spruce. When this garden was on the AAUW tour ten years ago, Luna created a list of plants with nearly 150 names. Luna’s current favorites include Howard McMinn manzanita, microbiota decussata (a low-growing evergreen cypress), agastache, hesperaloe and several varieties of viburnum, ornamental grasses, and hardy geraniums. Cotoneaster franchetii forms a hedge along the alleyway.
Luna says that the installation of a deer fence in 2013 changed her life as she no longer has to worry about what she plants or where. The garden is constantly evolving. What was once a pond that she created is now a shady raised bed, and most of the lawn has been converted to a berm that is rarely watered. The hot tub was removed and the deck rebuilt with a roof for outdoor dining. In all, it is a totally enchanting garden.
Article by: Ruth Sloan
The original landscape design was by Karen Marshall of Naturescape Designs in Medford. All of the hardscape, including a lap pool and recirculating waterfall and pond, the mature trees, and long-established plants were part of Marshall’s plan. Among the most eye-catching examples is a beautiful combination of four conifers, near the pond, that emphasizes differences of color and texture.
Since the original plan, a number of changes have been made, most recently a small project that takes advantage of the City of Ashland’s lawn replacement program. All of the recent changes have resulted in considerable savings in both water usage and labor to replace seasonal plantings. All of this has been accomplished through the guidance of Sherry Zalabak who chairs the homeowners’ association landscape committee and is the volunteer caretaker. A dedicated gardener, Zalabak now devotes an average of ten hours a week to the grounds. She plans carefully, to provide color year-round with perennials rather than annuals, and to enhance the variety of textures. Zalabak transformed one area with the beautiful combination of barberry and blue oat grass. Smoke tree, dogwood, and other dramatic plants have been added for contrast. As the gardens had been neglected for some years, Zalabak devoted over 1000 hours to their improvement over her first two years in residence, starting in 2012. Promak Landscape provides routine maintenance twice a month.
