Generation Jones 2023

Jeff and Julian Jones entertained garden club members yesterday during AGC’s Holiday Celebration. This father and son group has entertained club members often over the last 20 years, and they always delight us. Julian performed for garden member’s when he was just 9 years old. He has mastered his musical talents!

Ashland Garden Club Holiday Celebration: 2023

December 4th member’s met at the Bellview Grange to celebrate the Holidays! Member’s were introduced to Yurritzy, and her parents, who received our Rogue Community College Scholarship. The room was decorated with wreaths made by club members, colorful tables full of entrees, salads and desserts and lively festive entertainment was provided by Jeff and Julian Jones, of Generation Jones.

Garden of the Month: September 2023

623 Prim Street

Elysian Graham and Lou Martinez bought the handsome house at 623 Prim Street in 2020 and promptly set about re-imagining the front landscape.  This is the Ashland Garden Club’s Garden of the month for September 2023.

They hired Banyan Tree Landscaping and landscape architect Lucretia Weems to do the job.  Among their primary goals were to achieve easy maintenance for their steep yard, conserve water, and be deer resistant.  They also wanted a subtle color palette, but color and interest all year, and to be pollinator-friendly.  They have achieved all this and more.

Only the large sweet gum tree on the left side of the garden and the thicket on the far right side, which is seasonally favored by deer, remain from the original yard.  Overhead sprinklers were replaced by a drip irrigation system.  The rock retaining walls and graceful stairs were added.

Ornamental grasses are highlights at this time of year and on through the winter.  As the homeowners and designers of this garden have done, the Ashland Garden Club urges gardeners to take care in choosing ornamental grasses that are not fire-prone, and to remove dead and dry growth.

The couple handle all the maintenance themselves and, as busy professionals, they are grateful that their yard is so easy-care.  Elysian particularly likes the guara and Lou likes the Japanese maple.

Photos by Lou Martinez

Article by: Ruth Sloan, AGC GOM Committee Chair

Today in the Garden

AGC member, Carol Walker, provided photos of her front yard where red poppies (Papaver) and Bachelor buttons (Centaurea cyanus) are in full bloom.

Blast from the past photo

Ashland Garden Club member, Peter Finkle came across this photo while doing research about 4th of July celebrations at the Southern Oregon Historical Society. This photo was taken of an article in the Medford Mail Tribune dated July 5, 1976; it’s about Ashland’s 4th of July parade Grand Prize winner, the Ashland Garden Club. All flowers on the float were real. They were contributed by garden club members and friends!

“Ashland Garden Club took the top prize of all the entries in Sunday’s parade through downtown Ashland.”

Float: Betsy Ross sewing on the first US flag

1976 Ashland 4th of July parade, Ashland Garden Club float, MMT 7/5/1976; at SOHS

Today in the Garden

Today in the garden flowers are in AGC member Lynn McDonald’s October garden.

Nasturtiums, Hydrangeas, Salvia and chrysanthemums, Petunias blooming since March, Geraniums, Origanum, Asters, Tithonia, Sweet peas in October (planted in spring), Gaura, Poppies and Bachelor Buttons, Verbena and Autumn Leadwort, Orange Cosmos, Dahlias