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- Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Valley&State Backpage O&E Sports Archives Classifieds Faith&Beliefs Obituaries Revels June 24, 2004 Growing garden masterpieces By Vickie Aldous Ashland Daily Tidings The standard suburban lawn with a flower border might look nice to some people, but it's a virtual desert for birds and other wildlife displaced by human development. During the first Naturescaping Garden Tour on Saturday, local residents will open up their gardens to show how to create wildlife-friendly backyard habitats that offer food and shelter for butterflies, birds and other creatures. A Clarkia ammonia flower is one of the native plants adorning wildlife gardener Marilyn Havil's front yard. Denise Baretta Ashland Daily Tidings Tour participants will start the day at 10 a.m. at the North Mountain Park Nature Center in Ashland, where City of Grants Pass Horticulturist Tal Blankenship and licensed landscape architect Kerry KenCairn will discuss plant selection and design. From there, participants will embark on self-guided tours to visit several gardens in Ashland, one near Talent and two in Medford, said Lezley Sanders, a member of the volunteer committee that organized the event. Fellow committee member Marilyn Havill, who lives on Anderson Creek Road outside Talent, said she faced the typical homeowner's situation of too little habitat diversity when she acquired her property. But tour participants can see how she painstakingly transformed her land into a haven for native plants and animals. "I don't have any lawn now," she said. "The property was very abused. Each successive owner cleared more of the trees and left a lot of the land abused. There was a corral on one side. We ripped out the fences and replaced the grass with three thicket areas." Havill's property also features four rock gardens that showcase native alpine species, many of which were propagated from seeds collected by her son from Mount Ashland, Dutchman's Peak and other high-elevation sites. "It's really habitat restoration," she said. "I want to be a steward of the land. That to me is the important thing. The Siskiyous are filled with an abundance of beauty. We need to use that more in our gardens." Native plants are not only aesthetically pleasing, but they also attract wildlife and are usually drought-resistant, Havill said. Tour participants will receive information sheets about the design of each garden, as well as a tour map and handouts on plants, shrubs and trees that provide food and shelter for wildlife, Sanders said. "It will be a pretty educational day," she said. "It's for all ages. People who are new to the area and people who have lived here a long time can learn about what grows well here. They can even see vegetable gardens and flower gardens and how people compost." The event is a fundraiser for North Mountain Park Nature Center educational programs. Tickets are $10 per person and are available at the Nature Center, 620 N. Mountain Ave., and the Northwest Nature Shop, 154 Oak St., in Ashland, as well as at Wild Birds Unlimited, 712 Crater Lake Ave., in Medford. Tickets for a raffle of gardening items also are available for $1 each or six for $5. DailyTidings.com Home Page Valley&State | Backpage | O&E | Sports | Archives | Weather | Classifieds Columnists | Faith&Beliefs | Obituaries | Revels | Subscribe | Contact Us Copyright 2004 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers All Rights Reserved Click Here Site Search: .:Advertisements:. RESOURCES - Mail Tribune News - ODOT Road Cams