Seeds to direct Sow in mid to late March: Peas, radishes, spinach, lettuce, kale, arugula, chard, carrots, beets, and parsnips. Also Plant: Onion sets, and perennial roots like asparagus, artichokes, and rhubarb.
Seeds to start indoors for May Transplanting:
Tomatoes & Peppers:Essential to start NOW for transplanting in mid-to-late May.
Brassicas:Broccoli, cabbage, kale, cauliflower, and Brussels sprouts.
Herbs:Basil, parsley and cilantro
Other vegetables :Celery, eggplants, and leeks
Potatoes:Buy seed potatoes, sprout (“chit”) them in a cool, dark place, then plant.
Fruit & Berry Crops
Planting:March is ideal for planting fruit trees, strawberries, and cane-berries (raspberries and blackberries).
Pruning:Finish pruning fruit trees (apples, pears, cherries, peaches) before buds swell.
Fertilizing:Feed raspberries and blueberries with organic, acidic fertilizer.
Flower Beds & Landscaping
Clean & Mulch:Clear away dead foliage, apply compost, and mulch beds to suppress weeds.
Divide Perennials:Divide and transplant summer-blooming perennials.
Bulbs:Plant dahlia, lily, and gladiola tubers.
Pruning:Prune winter-flowering shrubs after they bloom and ornamental grasses.
Maintenance & Pests
Slug Control:Actively monitor and manage slugs using baits like Sluggo or traps, as they love new spring growth.
Soil Care:Avoid walking on or tilling heavy, wet, or saturated soil to prevent compaction.
Fertilizing:Apply fertilizer to evergreen shrubs (rhododendrons, azaleas) and roses.
Lawns:Sharpen mower blades and set the mower height to 1.5–2.5 inches. Apply Lime to increase alkalinity, boost nutrient uptake. Treat lawn for moss with ferrous sulfate (iron sulfate).
Gardens catch our attention for various reasons. It might be a striking new plant we haven’t seen before, or the scent of a blossom wafting on the breeze, or the image of a butterfly waving its wings at us! This month, the pergola at 903 Stoneridge Avenue is compelling for its ability to create a garden room much enjoyed by the owners, Christina and David Boenitz.
The pergola provides dappled shade on a hot summer’s day. Photo by Elizabeth Essex
The Meadow Brook Park neighborhood located close to where N. Mountain crosses over I-5 enjoys stunning views of the hills but represented a challenge for developers in integrating the architecture with the topography. The Boenitz residence experiences a drop of three feet from the street to the front door and an additional twelve feet to the rear property line. In addition to the critical matter of drainage, the aesthetics of an entry garden were paramount. Incorporating a handsome pergola into the design addressed this issue quite admirably and afforded the opportunity of creating a pocket garden for plants to thrive in.
Plantings at the front door and portico invite guests to linger longer. Photo by Elizabeth Essex
The pergola, constructed of six by six inch posts and six by twelve inch cross beams, complements the front door in scale and proportion. Cross beams are capped with aluminum thereby ensuring longevity and shade cloth provides relief when necessary. Three colorful, ceramic pots have been tucked into pockets where three corners of the arbor are each supported by three posts. Christina has nurtured a self-pollinating Pineapple Guava (Feijoa sellowiana), a Kiwi vine (Kiwi Magic Hardy, Kiwi Combination) and a Heavenly Bamboo (Nandina domestica) in these pots. The flagstone patio is interlaced with Creeping Thyme and a natural gas fire bowl entertains after dusk when rocking chairs are pulled up near-at-hand. Christina has added numerous pieces of glass art throughout the garden.
Friends gather around a fire bowl on a summer’s eve. S’mores anyone? Photo by Christina Boenitz
The garden room is defined by four living walls. Street-side, ceramic pots are planted with a semi-dwarf McIntosh Apple, a 20 th Century Asian Pear and two NZ Flax (Phormium ‘Maori Maiden’). Non-invasive, clumping Bamboo (Fargesia rufa ‘Green Panda’) alternating with Scotch Heather (Erica x darleyensis) define the edging at the end of the patio and Snowball Hydrangea screen the foundation. The front door is flanked by Star Jasmine Trachelospermum jasminoides) trained on trellises elevated further by large tapered pots. Opposite the front door is a Weeping Norway Spruce (Picea abies ‘pendula’), tall and slender to accent the entry. The pergola is extended by a portico over the entryway reaching across the front face of the residence where privacy for sitting is ensured by a grove of trees planted in the side yard (Dogwood, Japanese Maple and a Magnolia ‘Little Gem’).
Note the fine craftmanship where the patio was extended to connect with the DG path. Photo by Elizabeth Essex
Several large shade trees, notably maple and oaks, are planted along a decomposed granite path leading down from Stoneridge Avenue to an alley at the lower elevation. The Boenitz’s chose to connect their patio to this path which necessitated the building of a stone retaining wall artfully complementing the flagstone material used in the patio. The handsome stone wall at the foot of the path mimics the wall built up above.
Wisteria has been trained along the lattice work. Note the handsome retaining wall. Photo by Elizabeth Essex
A wisteria vine is being trained along the top of the fence at the foot of their property. The driveway is edged on the northern boundary by a living screen of Leyland Cypress which completely blocks out rooflines looking out from the residence. All the trees on the property, including the oak and maple, are maintained by Tate with Table Rock Tree Care.
Sunsets can be enjoyed unobstructed by rooflines screened by towering Leyland Cypress. Photo by Elizabeth
The rear garden is private but the Boenitz’s have maximized its potential by constructing raised vegetable beds and utilizing trellises to the fullest extent. Pathways are covered with artificial turf for easy cleanup and a small greenhouse provides a workspace for tender veggie starts. Christina has always been a gardener and she has pushed the envelope on what she can grow here. This is their eighth year living in Ashland and in addition to the plant material that accents the front garden, Christina is growing a pomegranate, basil, bush cherry, blueberry bushes, a Nigroni fig, green beans, butternut squash, tomatoes, ‘Sugar Cube’ melons, chard and sweet peppers. Ferns, lavender, salvia, rhodies and rosemary were all in evidence.
Raised veggie boxes with trellises offer maximum potential for maturation. Photo by Elizabeth Essex
Visitors marvel at the vigor and health of all the plant material, evidence that it is well cared for. Tender plants are moved into a cellar during the winter months where solar grow lights provide the necessary spectrum of light. Christina enthusiastically believes that her time and hard work is rewarded many times over. Family and friends enjoy this bounty and the remnants are easily recycled with an electric countertop composter. A gardener is hired once a year to help with maintenance and clean up.
Christina Boenitz admires one of her ‘Mortgage Lifter’ tomatoes!
It is profoundly evident that the challenges presented by the topography of this landscape were more than compensated for by the structures built at 903 Stoneridge Avenue. The pergola and portico create a welcoming space for entertaining in the front garden while the raised vegetable boxes and trellises provide increased productivity for the table, a feast for both the eye and the palate. Thank you, Christina and David, for sharing your remarkable gardens with us.
The Ashland Garden Club has been selecting Gardens of the Month from April through September since 2000. Nominations are gratefully received at: gardenofthemonth@ ashlandorgardenclub.org
Information on the Ashland Garden Club can be found on the club’s website at: ashlandorgardenclub.org
Sacred Datura, planted from seed. Flowers open in a half hour window from bud stage to full bloom at dusk, they have a heavenly aroma and last for a day.
The amaranth, also started from seed, have tassels that are growing fast and getting longer every day. Amaranth is a great plant to let go to seed for wintering birds.
Canna lilies are putting on new shoots.
The Zinnia patch in doing well with some new Benary’s Giant varieties.
To the casual observer, someone driving past perhaps, the garden at 1044 Park Street might appear unkempt, even neglected. But upon closer inspection, more details emerge and the neighbor out for an evening stroll might pause to reflect and begin to appreciate how successful the owner, Denise Crosby , was in achieving her landscape objectives.
No mow Eco Grass vibrant after the winter rains. Photo by Louis Desprez
The reader may remember the familiar term of Xeriscape landscaping introduced in the early ‘80s when the Denver Water District promoted water conservation in their city. Handsome groupings of native and drought tolerant plants, drip irrigation and dry creek beds became popular features of many gardens. Over the past several decades climate warming has reinforced these principles and more recently our community has added pollinator friendly and deer resistant plants, defensible space, and fire-wise to the vocabulary.
When Denise purchased her new home three years ago, she wanted to leave behind the boxwood borders and expansive lawn of her large corner property and lean into the ancient Japanese philosophy and aesthetic of wabi-sabi that imphasizes finding beauty in imperfection, impermanence, and the natural cycle of growth and decay. She also appreciated that Ashland was a mountain town, nestled in a bowl surrounded by forests and rolling hills and wanted her new-found residence to reflect these attributes.
Denise considers herself very fortunate in connecting with a landscaper who appreciated these same values and her conversations with Louis Desprez of Castle Landscape & Design led to a design that she quickly approved. It is minimalist in nature, encompassing drought tolerant grasses, specimen trees and colorful ground cover enhanced with an artful composition including a rusted iron water feature and cedar screen. The hardscape materials are rich in texture and color.
Water feature designed by Mike Kline, fabricated by Denny DeBay, Ashland Forge, Cedar screen crafted by Louis Desprez Photo by Elizabeth Essex
The existing sod lawn was replaced with Eco Grass to soften the harsh reality of a wide street and driveway. This dense, low growing, deep rooted, no mow grass reflects the changing seasons we so love in our surrounding hillsides. A soft breeze creates a living palette of greens, turning to golden, then to blonde. A cluster of ornamental grasses (‘Karl Foerster’ Feather Reed Grass and Tufted Hairgrass) add screening to a small rise adjacent to a seating area. The blossoms of a Flowering Cherry announce that spring has arrived and a Lace Leaf Japanese Maple greets guests by the entry walk. A Japanese Black Pine anchors the intersection where the driveway meets Park Street. Creeping Phlox and Veronica add splashes of color during the seasons.
Mid-season transition Photo by Elizabeth Essex
It’s impossible to arrive at the front door without admiring the geometry of the walkways. Note the rhythm of bordo block embedded in the decomposed granite chosen to replace the traditional public sidewalk. The colored, stamped concrete of the primary walk is banded on either side with squares of concrete pavers alternating with planting pockets filled with Crocosmia and multi-hued Mexi Pebble Mix. A shorter, softly curved path of crushed Blue Ridge gravel edged with the same bordo block leads from the driveway to the door. In spring the visitor is greeted with the scent of Lilac; in summer, it is aromatic Calamintha. Various boulders of local heritage are included to add authenticity to this landscape, reminiscent of an alpine meadow, complete with scree.
Hummingbirds are attracted to the bright blooms of Crocosmia. Photo by Elizabeth Essex
Ultimately garden design is a subjective art, very much dependent on the viewer’s interpretation of harmony and balance, scale and proportion. The viewer may have developed a critical eye but the design will not resonate unless it is compatible with one’s true self. As introduced above, wabi-sabi is a philosophy that encourages a more mindful and accepting approach to life, embracing the present moment and finding beauty in the everyday. Altogether, this front garden at 1044 Park Street reflects the philosophy of the owner, Denise Crosby. Beauty truly can be found in the eye of the beholder,
Denise Crosby and Louis Desprez Photo by Elizabeth Essex
Article by Elizabeth Essex, AGC Garden of the Month Coordinator
The Ashland Garden Club has been selecting Gardens of the Month, from April through September, since 2000. Nominations are gratefully received at aogardenclub@gmail.com
No mow Eco Grass vibrant after the winter rains. Photo by Louis Desprez
