The Ashland Garden Club has recognized the courtyard and front gardens of the Campbell Center on the Southern Oregon University campus as the Garden of the Month for September. This distinction, announced on September 1, 2026, highlights the dedicated work of volunteers from the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Southern Oregon University (OLLI at SOU), who design and maintain the grounds.
The Campbell Center, located at 655 Frances Lane, serves as the home for OLLI at SOU, featuring an office and classrooms that encircle the central courtyard. The garden’s current design and upkeep are managed by OLLI volunteers.
Efforts to revitalize the courtyard began in 2008 under the leadership of OLLI member Lillian Maksymowitz. At that time, the Southern Oregon University landscape crew, which was very small, had previously maintained the area. Maksymowitz directed numerous OLLI volunteers in extensive work, including removing debris, pruning, weeding, and planting the neglected space with a limited budget. They successfully eradicated rampant bamboo.
The primary redesign of the garden was undertaken in 2013 by Fran Adams, an OLLI member and retired professional landscape designer, along with students from her OLLI class on landscape design. This marked the first time the garden was planted following a comprehensive overall plan. The OLLI campus features two ranch-style stucco buildings facing each other across a walled courtyard, which influenced the symmetrical layout and Southwest planting theme. Goals for the redesign included improving pedestrian circulation and creating more comfortable outdoor gathering spaces for students. This was achieved by widening some walkways and removing others. New plant selections were made to accommodate compacted soil discovered close to the surface, and minor changes have been made to the garden since then.
The dominant trees in the beds fronting Frances Lane are dogwoods, while redbuds are featured in the courtyard. Both varieties offer vibrant, changing colors throughout the year. Deciduous barberry shrubs border the two main courtyard beds, also providing attractive color variations. Shasta daisies in the courtyard are noted for their cheerful appearance in spring and are admired by OLLI members and staff. Other courtyard plantings include yarrow, yucca, nepeta, euphorbia, and several types of asters. Narrow beds along the inner courtyard walls contain nandina.
During the pandemic, a shortage of volunteer gardeners led to California clover weeds taking hold among the cotoneaster ground cover in the two main courtyard beds. Dedicated volunteer work over the past three years has largely eradicated the clover. The Frances Lane beds also feature ornamental grasses, lavender, caryopteris, pieris, lamb’s ear, germander, salvia, and larger barberry.
The garden’s maintenance is almost exclusively carried out by OLLI volunteers, with advice and irrigation system assistance provided by Southern Oregon University landscape supervisor Zack Williams and his crew. Current OLLI garden volunteers include Scout Ames, Kathy Apple, Viki Ashford, John Barth, Helene Becker, Teresina Christy, Bill McDonald, Carol Mockridge, Kim Passini, Barb Settles, Ruthie Sloan, Becky Snow, Nancy Steel, Penny Thorpe, Kathy Uhtoff, Dan Wells, and Shannon Wolff. Two of these volunteers are avid gardeners who are not current OLLI members.
Sherri Morgan, an OLLI member, is the current garden team leader. Morgan is a retired professional landscape designer and has served as past president of both the Ashland Garden Club and the Jackson County Master Gardeners Association. OLLI at SOU is a member-driven educational community primarily for adults aged 50 and above, offering diverse courses and programs designed to foster lifelong learning, social interaction, and cultural enrichment.
