Tag Archives: USA West Coast Gardens

Garden of the Month: September 2024

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2025 Green Meadows Way, Ashland Oregon

Miriam Weissberg’s creativity and love of color shows throughout her garden at 2025 Green Meadows Way.  This is the Ashland Garden Club’s Garden of the Month for September 2024.

Photo by Miriam Weissberg, August 2023

When Miriam and her late husband Rob first moved to the property in 2018, the front yard was mostly grass and the back yard was dominated by blank space for an above-ground pool that the previous owner removed.  Miriam and Rob planned and gardened together until he passed away in 2023.  Now Miriam does all the designing and fine-tuning in the garden.

Photo by Miriam Weissberg, August 2023 

Carlos and Pam Maya do much of the routine maintenance and larger projects.  Miriam estimates that among herself, Carlos and Pam, they spend an average of about 18 hours per month on the garden.

Photo by Ruth Sloan, August 2024 

Although she has access to TID water, she doesn’t use it very much because she didn’t want to design a landscape that would be reliant on water that is available such a small fraction of the year.  She figures that, with added hardscape and drought tolerant plants, she uses less water than was the case when they moved in.  The zoned irrigation system employs about two-thirds drip lines.

Flower beds and walkways in the back yard replacing pool site.  Photo by Ruth Sloan, August 2024
Deck stairs with edging for safety, painted and photo by Miriam Weissberg. June 2019

Miriam’s advice to other gardeners is to try different things and see what works best given the many factors in your garden.  Also, to encourage maximum blooming, keep your plants well pruned.

Photo by Miriam Weissberg, October 2023

Among her favorite plants are verbena and roses.  In the recent past, she has planted many annuals, including beloved zinnias, to add color with the knowledge that her choices don’t require much water.  This year, she didn’t have time to plant her usual annuals but the garden is still lovely.

Photo by Ruth Sloan, August 2024


Article by Ruth Sloan, AGC Garden of the Month
With thanks to Marilyn Love for bringing this garden to my attention.

August 2022 Garden of the Month

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994 Kestral Parkway

Jill Weston’s lovely garden at 994 Kestral Parkway is the Ashland Garden Club’s Garden of the Month for August 2022.  She has been gardening here for about three years, starting from the nearly blank slate of bare dirt and dead trees of a previously neglected property.

 In late July and early August, black-eyed Susans dominate the front yard, putting on a dazzling display.  Climbing roses, transplanted from a stunning five-acre spread east of Ashland that Jill and her late husband shared before downsizing, thrive against fences surrounding a small patio in back.  The north side of the property, on the Stoneridge Avenue side of this corner lot, holds rhododendrons, clematis vines, and small fig trees.

 Daffodils enliven the front yard before the black-eyed Susans pop up from the ground each year.  Jill refers to the latter as “hardy, determined girls.”  They share the space at this time of year—somewhat unwillingly—with echinacea, rose campion and many other plants.

 Jill spends a lot of time in the garden, loving every minute.  And she thinks about the garden much of the time even when she’s not in it.  She has an eye for design that enhances the overall display. Of plants not already mentioned, Jill loves cosmos, coreopsis, tithonia, and zinnias among many others.

 Jill has had guidance over the years from Tom Scales of the garden department of the Grange Co-op in Ashland.  And her friend Silvino has been helping her in this garden and the previous one for 15 years.

 Jill has only recently learned the benefits of feeding her plants.  She says she’s been slow to adapt to new gardening conditions, and terrible at being practical.  But none those flaws show in the current result.

Jill recommends that, if you want to see the black-eyed Susans in their full glory, you visit very soon because the extreme heat is taking its toll.  This is a neighborhood of many fine gardens.  Nearby, check out 305 Stoneridge, across the street from Jill on Kestral and 336 Stoneridge, across the alley from Jill.

Photos by Larry Rosengren

With thanks to Marilyn Love for the suggestion,

Ruth Sloan, Garden of the Month, Chair

Garden of the Month: April 2021

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198 N. Wightman Street

As most Garden Club members know, their gardens are not eligible to be AGC Garden of the Month. This is an exception.  Carolyn Gale was invited to be April Garden of the month in 2020, before she had even considered joining. She declined for 2020, but said she would be willing for April of 2021. In the interim, she joined the Club!

When Carolyn Gale bought the house at 198 N. Wightman Street in the summer of 2014, the yard had been neglected. After spending the first year remodeling the interior, she has turned the property into a colorful and interesting site. Now her garden is the April Garden of the Month for the Ashland Garden Club.

Such is Carolyn’s attention to detail that she painted the exterior of the house to match the branches of a stunning magnolia that stars in the garden in April. She planned very carefully to assure that plants are in bloom twelve months of the year, using the book The Ever-Blooming Flower Garden:  A Blueprint for Continuous Color as her guide. She spent nearly a year developing a comprehensive plan that features meandering pathways connecting the side and front gardens

Augustin Herrera and his crew installed the initial plants, irrigation system, and hardscape according to Carolyn’s thoughtful plan, and continue to do the heavy-lifting and some routine maintenance. But Carolyn spends a lot of time maintaining and improving her garden and it shows.

Plants that are not deer-resistant are confined to the fenced back yard. The back was also designed to accommodate her dog who likes to dig and eat green things. She devised clever ways of protecting her plants, such as elevating potted plants on shelves. She has had to resort to pots in some places in the front yard where tree roots interfered with the development of smaller plants.

Among Carolyn’s favorite plants are rhododendrons, heathers, camellias, hellebores, and irises. She planted 500 bulbs just last year. If you look carefully, you will see rainbow patterns and themed planting beds in the landscape, such as a recently added succulent garden with a seaside theme. This is a garden to revisit throughout the year to see the ever-changing display.

Photos by Carolyn Gale, except the photo of the new succulent garden which is by Larry Rosengren.  Some of the pictures here are from previous years and months other than April.

Report by Ruth Sloan, AGC Member/GOM Chairperson