Lamium plants, also known as Spotted Dead Nettles, are deer-resistant ground covers that grow in a part- sun to semi-shade. Different varieties flower in white, pink or purple. Flowers are delicate and dainty. Lamium’s two-toned foliage provides interest, when the plant is not in bloom.
Perennial Plant, Height: 4-6″ Width: 15″-18″, Blooms early spring- early summer, USDA Zone: 3-9,
Lamium maculatum ‘Aureum’ is a cultivar with gold to chartreuse foliage.
AGC’s April tour of Marydee’s gardens
Photos by: Lynn McDonald, AGC Member
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.
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.
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.
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.
Article by Ruth Sloan, AGC Garden of the Month Chairperson
The Untended Garden in March!
Excuse the weeds, but the bumbles bees like them.
~Garden and Poster by Goly Ostovar, AGC Member
In the Garden: October 22
Photos by: Carlotta Lucas, AGC Member
Alicia and Jeffrey Welder had their welcoming house at 98 Westwood Street built in 2015. The lovely garden that surrounds it was initiated in stages on the bare earth after that, and is now the Ashland Garden Club’s Garden of the Month for August 2023. Working with Regenesis Ecological Design and designer Jane Alexanderr, the Welders created a space ideal for their two children and animals including two dogs, two cats and four rabbits, as well themselves and visitors.
The entry garden was designed to include a water feature that is audible from inside the house on days when the windows are left open, a graceful curved bench, and one of Alicia’s favorite plants, a weeping dwarf dawn redwood. The front garden space is meant to resemble a small meadow teeming with life as pollinators enjoy the catmint and salvia while the children are able to spend time playing and observing nature with the many life forms in and around the water. The front grass areas are seeded with Pro Time’s Fleur de Lawn, which is an eco-lawn designed with OSU for low water requirements.
The backyard is a child’s delight with a large grass area for play planted with JB kevlar tall fescue, grown in Oregon, which tolerates the high traffic of children and pets and is drought tolerant with lower water requirements than traditional lawns. A small orchard is planted with a variety of apple, pear and peach fruit trees and seeded with the same Fleur de Lawn as the front meadow. The eco lawn offers additional pollinator support with pink English daisies, Baby Blue Eyes, and sweet alyssum sprouting in the spring. Alicia and the children love picking the wild flowers from the meadow for May Day crowns and small bouquets. Tall grasses and wildflowers surround the childrens’ play structure for nature based play with a slackline for added fun. A gazebo for shade rounds out the backyard space for use year round by the family. A very large rabbit hutch gives shelter to the children’s rabbits who enjoy the cut grasses and trimmings from the garden and in turn, support the garden growth with plenty of bunny manure. A large deck graces the back of the house.
There are many flowers throughout the year, including peonies, euphorbias, daisies, iris, germanders, hydrangeas, and hellebores. The Welders love to watch pollinators hard at work in their garden. Among the many trees are Seiryu and sugar maples that add vibrant colors in the Fall.
For fire prevention, the Garden Club urges homeowners to check lists of firewise plants to make sure that, like the Welders, they have chosen ornamental grasses that are not especially fire-prone and maintained so that there is not a lot of dry grass at any time.
Taproot Landscaping provides routine maintenance for the Welders and Alicia averages one to two hours per week doing the fine-tuning of the garden.
