Tag Archives: #ashlandgardenclub

Garden of the Month: September 2024

Posted on by

2025 Green Meadows Way, Ashland Oregon

Miriam Weissberg’s creativity and love of color shows throughout her garden at 2025 Green Meadows Way.  This is the Ashland Garden Club’s Garden of the Month for September 2024.

Photo by Miriam Weissberg, August 2023

When Miriam and her late husband Rob first moved to the property in 2018, the front yard was mostly grass and the back yard was dominated by blank space for an above-ground pool that the previous owner removed.  Miriam and Rob planned and gardened together until he passed away in 2023.  Now Miriam does all the designing and fine-tuning in the garden.

Photo by Miriam Weissberg, August 2023 

Carlos and Pam Maya do much of the routine maintenance and larger projects.  Miriam estimates that among herself, Carlos and Pam, they spend an average of about 18 hours per month on the garden.

Photo by Ruth Sloan, August 2024 

Although she has access to TID water, she doesn’t use it very much because she didn’t want to design a landscape that would be reliant on water that is available such a small fraction of the year.  She figures that, with added hardscape and drought tolerant plants, she uses less water than was the case when they moved in.  The zoned irrigation system employs about two-thirds drip lines.

Flower beds and walkways in the back yard replacing pool site.  Photo by Ruth Sloan, August 2024
Deck stairs with edging for safety, painted and photo by Miriam Weissberg. June 2019

Miriam’s advice to other gardeners is to try different things and see what works best given the many factors in your garden.  Also, to encourage maximum blooming, keep your plants well pruned.

Photo by Miriam Weissberg, October 2023

Among her favorite plants are verbena and roses.  In the recent past, she has planted many annuals, including beloved zinnias, to add color with the knowledge that her choices don’t require much water.  This year, she didn’t have time to plant her usual annuals but the garden is still lovely.

Photo by Ruth Sloan, August 2024


Article by Ruth Sloan, AGC Garden of the Month
With thanks to Marilyn Love for bringing this garden to my attention.

Garden of the Month: August 2024

Posted on by

600 Liberty St

Cleome, peonies, and Japanese maples line the walkway to the front door.  Photo by Tim MacCurdy

Tim MacCurdy started gardening at 600 Liberty St in 2018 and this is now the Ashland Garden Club’s Garden of the Month for August 2024. He lives here with his wife, Tricia, and son, Luca. When they first purchased the house there was little in the yard except a few trees. Now it is dense with food and ornamentals.

Cleome and echinacea, with yuzu in the background.  Photo by Tim MacCurdy.


Tim has had an interest in gardening since he was a child, growing up in Atascadero California where his father inspired hard work on the family acreage. A kindergarten teacher, whose husband was on the botany faculty at Cal Poly, also encouraged Tim’s interest in plants to the point where Tim was known as the “flower boy” to other students and their families. Later Tim earned a degree at UC Berkeley in environmental sciences. When he was newly graduated, he started his own business tending other people’s gardens.

Lavender and bee balm by the mailboxes.  Photo by Tim MacCurdy.


After world-wide travels he settled in Japan where, once again, his interest in plants and gardens was piqued although his primary concentration at that time was photography. He has plants now that are generations later of seeds he collected in Japan. Since his professional gardening days, he has gone on to pursue a career in medicine and now practices dermatology.

Peonies and ceanothus bloom along the walkway in May.  Photo by Tim MacCurdy.


Tim does all the work himself in this garden. He estimates he averages two hours per day—more from May through September—in the garden and considers his plants (soil and structure) as part of his extended family.


The back yard is steeply sloped. Fruit trees, including persimmon, Asian pears, plums, olives, figs, and yuzu are dotted throughout the property. Among his favorite plants are cleome, nicotiana, echinacea, ginkgo, persimmons, and Japanese maples (some from seeds collected in Japan).  Trees of all kinds have traveled with Tim and his family to homes in different parts of the western states.

Hachiya persimmons hang from the house rafters to dry when the MacCurdys first bought the house.  Photo by Tim MacCurdy.

Given current climate conditions, Tim encourages gardeners to lean toward drought-tolerant plants. You should find “clues from your environment” and love your plants. He also suggests that you don’t always have to follow the rules of gardening and garden design, but instead you “should make your own rules.” He says, “engage with your garden, truly engage. Dedicate yourself to knowledge and spirit, and become an expert.”

Cleome and purple Shiso.  Photo by Tim MacCurdy.

Article by Ruth Sloan, AGC Garden of the Month Chair

Garden on the Month: April 2024

Posted on by

The condo complex called Ridgeview Place is the Ashland Garden Club’s Garden of the Month for April 2024.  The 12-unit development faces Mountain Avenue just southwest of the corner with East Main Street.  The five homes that are numbers 51 through 59 face the street and the other seven homes are behind.  The complex was built in 2015 by KDA Homes.  KDA’s owner, Laz Ayala, hired landscape architect Laurie Sager (now Thornton) for the initial design.

Photo by Ruth Sloan
Photo by Jeffrey Seideman

Since then, owners have taken opportunities to express their individuality, occasionally with professional help.  Note, for example, the wonderful use of magnolias to heighten the screening from the street at numbers 51 and 59.

Photo by: Ruth Sloan

The use of yuccas along Mountain Avenue, part of the original design by Sager, provide a unifying theme and present a stunning sight when in full bloom each summer.  Boxwoods, choisya, day lilies, and daphne were also liberally specified.  Common areas are maintained by Miguel Cabrera and his crew from Promack Landscaping.

Photo by Larry Rosengren
Photo by: Ruth Sloan

Each unit has a private patio where owners can plant whatever they want.  Other changes must be approved by the homeowners Board.  A fountain was added later for the soothing sound and lovely sight.

Photo by Jeffrey Seideman

Article by Ruth Sloan, AGC Garden of the Month Chairperson

2023 USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map

Posted on by

Click the link below to check if your USDA Plant Hardiness Zone assignment has changed; search by zip code. Half of the USA has been reclassified. In 1990 Ashland Oregon was Zone 7b: 5°F to 10°F, but in 2023 Ashland is now Zone 8a 10°F to 15°F. Knowing your zone is important for plant survival in your area.

https://planthardiness.ars.usda.gov/

Below is a link to ‘A Way To Garden’ interview with Todd Rounsaville, USDA horticulturist and research scientist, where he explains this new USDA Zone map.

new usda plant hardiness zone map, with todd rounsaville

Below is a link to an Interesting 2018 article from Yale Environment 360 on how fast climate zones are shifting.

https://e360.yale.edu/features/redrawing-the-map-how-the-worlds-climate-zones-are-shifting

Garden of the Month: September 2023

Posted on by

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