Pam Lucas works nearly every day in her beautiful garden at 420 Taylor Street and it shows! Her husband Sherm does some of the heavy work, but mostly this is Pam’s labor of love. They purchased the house in June of 2005, but Pam was still working then and didn’t have much time to devote to the yard. She did design and have constructed an interesting complex of decks, walkways, and arbors that look so good now with the garden she has established to replace the lawn, since retiring in 2008. Pam also designed the unusual deer fence. Interesting sculptures dot the property,
many of them metal art by Les and Diane Rasmussen of Steel My Art. Some are collaborations between the homeowner who found metal pieces and asked Diane to work with them, including a wonderful angel made from a bomb and other parts! There are actual headstones, purchased at a yard sale. Large boulders were brought in to add texture and background. The trees are tended by an arborist who visits every other year. Recently, they had the irrigation system improved by a professional.
In back, large Douglas firs create a backdrop and privacy with pin oak, English laurel and bamboo. In front, Japanese maples, thunder cloud plum, flowering cherry trees, and mountain ash provide a canopy. Pam has combined many ground covers to create a colorful and textured surface surrounding a river rock walkway to a deck. Gorgeous collections of artfully placed potted color adorn the decks.
Among the plants in pots are calibrachoa, bee balm, lobelia, mums, begonia, fuchsia and a rare oregano. A well-established wisteria climbs the arbor and provides shade for the largest deck. Trumpet vine and honeysuckle adorn the lattice that lines the driveway, with a little pyracantha to discourage deer nibbling. An incense cedar and yarrow thrive to the right of the driveway, but deer have feasted on most other things that Pam has tried there.
To the right of the front door is a specimen
yew. The front includes yucca, lavender, smoke tree, barberry, rosemary, daphne, sedum, mahonia, zebra and other grasses, gaura, manzanita, iris, lithodora, several kids of euphorbia, columbine, lupine, heuchera, crocosmia, agastache, eryngium (sea holly), spiderwort, Russian and other sages (including a wonderful blue flame sage), and many more ground covers
Blue Flame Sage
It’s hard to believe that a retired accountant, not an artist, created this garden.
Submitted by:
Ruth Sloan
“We have been using the binoculars down at the Pond. They are highly effective and very user friendly. Attached are some pictures of students using the binoculars to view birds in the bird houses that kindergarteners and 5th graders constructed together. The bird houses were donated by the Siskiyou District Garden Club.
ees are still waiting for the tree plaques, as we are constructing the wooden mounts. We look forward to mounting those in the fall.
weed he wouldn’t stop to pull out. Indeed! Mick also plants and prunes, and last year brought a photinia hedge back to good health from disease. Their garden at 2790 Diane Street to the left of the walkway reflects the hard work they both put into it. Right now the Spring blooms and colors are spectacular.
