AGC’s Heirloom gardeners worked today in the North Mountain Park Heirloom Garden. The garden is looking good, but there’s always more weeds to pull! Today was perfect weather for gardening. ~Lynn ~photos by Lynn McDonald
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
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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