Every June members of the Ashland Garden Club create 150-180 beautiful Feast of Will table arrangements with flowers cut from their personal gardens. This Lion’s Club’s sponsored event celebrates the seasonal opening of Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s Elizabethan Theater.
2015 Feast of Will
Garden Tour: AGC members visited the Ashland Creek Ponds Monday June 1st, where teacher Mia Driscoll of Helman School lead a tour of the area. Helman School has been a recipient of Club donations for the Ashland Ponds Project for several years. Ashland Pond is hidden away on north side of Ashland in Quiet Village. This pond was re-discovered in 2008, but it was severely overgrown with invasive species. An ongoing community effort began to restore the pond to a natural riparian habitat. Ashland students, Lomakatsi Restoration, Bear Creek Watershed, the City of Ashland, along with many volunteers and community organizations worked to clear 12 acres of invasive plants and replant native trees and vegetation. All this effort created a wonderful place to stroll, bird watch and be in nature. The Ashland Creek Pond is a secret garden in the city. The area is used as an outdoor learning experience for Ashland students and last year AGC made a donation for binoculars so students could observe nature closely. The Ashland Creek Pond is open to the public.
The lovingly tended Victoria
n house at 386 B Street, at the corner of Third, is now surrounded by colorful gardens. After purchasing the 1886 house in 2011, the current homeowners replanted the front in 2013 with design and labor by Banyan Tree Landscape and the back in 2014 with partial design and labor by Sage Hill Landscape. But the gardeners who live there are having fun developing the gardens themselves.
The gorgeous colors in the front and side, including an extra wide planting strip 
between the sidewalk and Third Street were chosen to blend with paint colors of the house—blues, pinks, purples, and whites. They were also chosen to provide color throughout the early spring through late fall, with heather blooming first, then lobelia, then phlox, and finally germander and thyme. Dwarf daphne, lave
nder, and Santa Barbara daisy add to the colorful display in season. They have also added trees; peely-bark maple, crepe myrtle, Japanese maple, redbud, magnolia, and dogwood—a few of which are still struggling to get thoroughly established. All of the plantings outside the fence are drought-tolerant and deer-resistant.
There are recirculating water features in front and back, statues of Buddha and Mary, metal sculpture cranes, and other eye-catching elements throughout the garden.
Older, larger trees on the property include box elder, walnut, and cedar. They have added olive trees at the side and back. Near their guest cottage, there is a gorgeous smoke tree (cotinus “Golden Spirit”) in a huge pot with oregano that spills over the side later in the season. In the side-back area executed by Sage Hill Landscaping, they have added arborvitae to increase privacy and also passion vine, pomegranate, Phormium atropurpureum, Stipa tenuissima, hops, Agastache “Firebird,” Salvia “Hot Lips.”
by Carol Walker
There is a spectacular 
garden at 777 Jacquelyn Street where Claire Marie has her home and runs a Waldorf preschool aptly called The Children’s Garden. Inspired by Tasha Tudor who was the creator of magical gardens as well as children’s books, Claire aimed to achieve a woodland paradise and fairy habitat, and has made huge strides toward that end on her ¾ acre property that edges Clay Creek, since she moved to Jacquelyn Street 15 years ago.
Claire had help from landscape designer Ian Wessler, who drew up plans for the hardscape from Claire’s ideas. She also credits Carol McBride and Micheline Wessler for their help, and Victoria Eckart (of Bi-Mart’s plant department) for advice on plant selection and help with planting. With assistance from many willing hands, Claire planted 4,500 bulbs in 2012.
The front yard is anchored by a large maple tree; redbud trees; a gorgeous Japanese maple; a prolific cherry tree that many people enjoy, including her graduates who return at cherry-picking time for the bounty; mock orange; fringe plant; and foundation plantings of otto luychen laurel. There is a low privet hedge behind the white picket fence and a Cécile Brüner rose on an arbor near the garage. There are peonies, rhododendrons, daffodils, narcissus, and Mariposa tulips that deer don’t eat!
The side yard has English laurel, crepe myrtle and a crab apple tree plus many varieties of bulbs, including bridal pearls.
The back yard is anchored by many large trees, including ash, aspen, and spruce, plus six varieties of apple trees, and blueberries. There are helleborus, oriental poppies, bleeding heart, columbine, roses, ferns, snowdrop, lily-of-the-valley, forget-me-not, lilac, dogwood, anemone, clematis, photinia, and allium—just to name a few.
There are far too many different plants to even begin to list them all. Among the more unusual are fritillaria meleagris, epimedium, erythronium, eranthis hyemalis, camasia quamash, ornithogalum, and calochortus.
In addition to the lush plantings, there are charming arbors (one covered with wisteria), gates, playhouses, a sandbox, a large deck, and a tree house for the enjoyment of her students and other visitors to the garden. There are sculptures of angels, mushrooms, St. Francis, Buddha, and other charming features throughout the landscape.
by Ruth Sloan
When: Saturday April 25th
Time: 9:00 am – 4:00 pm
Where: Valley View Transfer Station.
Cost: Free
Bring: leaves, pine needles, small branches, brush & other yard debris.
Contact: Recology (541) 482-1471, for more information
Spring has arrived (though, it feels like it began in January) and gardens all over Ashland are making us take notice. One such garden is found at the home of Beverly and Dick Gergen who moved into their Ashland home August 2003. The Gergens previously lived on six acres above Talent where they created large flower and vegetable gardens. After deciding a home closer to town with a smaller yard made more sense, they moved and set about creating the lovely garden you s
ee.
Originally, the front held a flat, grass covered area struggling with large tree roots, all competing for water and nourishment. This also meant that people walking by looked past the yard and into the large living room windows. Beverly and Dick decided to create something more interesting for the passersby and to enhance their pleasant and friendly neighborhood.
Beginning in 2006 Ian Wessler, a friend, fellow Siskiyou Singers member, and garden designer, was asked to help convert the front into something more beautiful. As you will see, he definitely did! Working with Beverly and her vision, this Asian inspired planting is on its way to being a standout even beyond their immediate neighborhood.
Many Asian touches lie within the garden – a slightly tipsy crane greets visitors coming down the path, glass floats live near the water feature, bells hang in the trees, and beautiful pottery and lanterns nest among the shrubs. One clever feature I particularly liked is a “lawn” pathway, much easier to walk on than gravel, and small enough to maintain. Even an old family bear stands back among the trees, keeping watch.
Like so many other gardens in Ashland, this one was planted with deer in mind. Nearly all the plants are considered deer resistant, and except for a few nibbled azaleas, the choices appear to be working. While the deer can take a lot of fun out of gardening, Beverly says, “the planting, pruning and general garden maintenance are therapeutic. When my garden is happy, I am happy.”
I know I’m happy, just looking at it.
by Kaaren Anderson