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
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
In the springtime you will also see columbine, lilies, gladiolus, daisies, crocosmia and camilias, which I know would make the garden even more spectacular than it is now. But though Paige worried that her garden wasn’t at its best, I assured her that even at this time of year, and in one of the the hottest summers on record, it stood out as a jewel.
Ipomoea purpurea (Grandpa Ott’s Morning Glory)
Plant Type: Annual (twinning vine)
Sowing Method: Direct sow seeds in spring (first soak seed in warm water for 24 hrs, then nick the seed)
Bloom Time: Summer until frost – 12 weeks
Flower: Royal purple trumpet with deep pink “star”.
Plant Height: 13-15 feet
Exposure: Full Sun
Soil: Average well drained soil
Attributes: Attracts Humming Birds, Hardy, Easy to Grow, Re-seeds freely, Covers fence or trellis in a profusion of lovely flowers.
USDA Zones: 3-10
California Giant Zinnia
Plant Type: Annual
Bloom Time: Early Summer to Frost
Flowers: Large 4” – 5” Double Flowers
Plant Height: 30” – 48” tall
Vibrant Mixed Colors: Orange, Red, Yellow, White, Cherry, Pink, Scarlet, Purple
Exposure: Full sun
Soil: Loamy – Well Drained
Attributes: Excellent Cut Flower, Easy to Grow, Long Lasting, Attracts Humming Birds & Butterflies, Drought Tolerant, Very Showy especially in mass plantings, Terrific for Drying.
USDA Zone: All
Submitted by: Carlotta Lucas
Tim and Kathy Simonsen established their garden in 2006. The front of the house was uninteresting so they added a wide craftsman style 
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