Published August 4, 2005

Raccoon Update: The Jolly Green Goddess’s instincts jibed with Sonoma Mission Gardens’ advice and worked. We stopped tossing kitchen vegetable scraps directly into the garden and guess what? The raccoons tossed us off for tastier pastures, and are gone!

Thinking we had hired terrifically sensitive and artistic house painters we were astonished to come home one evening last week and discover that three roses had been broken, possibly to death, and that my entire herb garden among the roses under our kitchen window had been totally clobbered!

It was as if, while painting the window trim and wall they had turned around and decided: “Gosh-we missed that last nasturtium over there, let’s stamp it out too, just to make the job complete! We are meticulous and thorough around here.”

My Cuban and Italian oregano are broken at the base, and the fennel and several kinds of thyme are simply gone, disappeared. Weirdly enough, the lemon thyme seems to be resurfacing in the lawn several feet away in one spot, and around the corner of the house in the front lawn for a second spot. Thyme’s survival instincts make for wafting of fabulous aromas as I walk across the lawn to water the few remaining lettuce plants under the front window.

Besides missing my years-old nasturtiums, the roses miss them too, because they kept the sun from drying out the soil quickly in this south-facing exposure, which costs us and the world a lot more water to keep things alive without our blessed ground cover.
Sonomans can explore a new garden experience nearby at A New Leaf Gallery at Cornerstone Gardens in Schellville, south of Angelo’s Meats and across the highway from Gloria Ferrer Caves.

Co-owners Brigitte Micmacker and husband John Denning closed their open air A New Leaf Gallery in Berkeley recently, and moved the whole kit and kaboodle, which is more like an artist’s studio or gallery, to a huge 3,500 square foot space at Cornerstone, and to a new gallery in San Francisco.

A New Leaf attempts to get us to create whole artistic environments in our gardens, mingling plants with a choice of their 75 artists’ work. I love the concept, because I feel that my garden, in whatever shape it is in, is an expression of an artistic side of me. As can be even a potted geranium on an apartment balcony. Thrown in for fun is “sculptured” silver jewelry, just in case you need a wee decoration yourself. 23570 Arnold Drive, 10:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. Thursday-Sunday, (707) 933-1300.

A Mill Valley store has cropped up to help all of the brown-thumbs among us called the Urban Farmer. After all, while we may not be urban, some of us consider ourselves to be backyard farmers, but don’t have the background, knowledge, or skills to put in our own drip systems, also known as garden irrigation. While Urban Farmer is oriented toward Marin residents, they also specialize in designing systems for you that use as little water as is required, both to beat water rates and just plain save water.
According to the store, all you need is cutters and a hold punch or ball point pen, all of which one can learn about at their classes. 653 East Blithedale Avenue, Mill Valley (415) 380-3840 or www.urbanfarmerstore.com.

Certainly you can also get similar information at local nurseries here in Sonoma Valley.
August garden tips: Your Jolly Green Goddess has adapted Sunset Magazine’s advice to our Sonoma Valley neighborhood, not that we all have the same climates, but at least to our general ambiance and temperature range.

Deadheading: Deadheading basically means snipping off deceased flowers that are no longer at their prime. When you remove those flowers, which range from rhododendrons to roses, you stop the plant from sending energy into the fading bloom so that it can zoom that power into new leaves and buds. It does wonders.

For the roses, nip them just above the strongest bud facing outward from the center of the plant. This gives light to the “ball” of the plant and directs the blooming where you want it to go.
On your rhododendrons, remove the floppy dried up flowers so that you don’t harm the baby leaves to give next year’s flower plenty of room to burst forth.

Trim suckers: Suckers are those pretty vibrant stem-looking things growing straight up from the bottom of your roses and some trees about now. Cut them off at the very bottom, because they don’t produce any flowers, and just detract from the plant’s general development.

Hydrangeas: When the flowers poop out, cut them back to a place about half way down the stem where there are buds poking out in two directions. If you trim it too high up the stem, the next flower will weigh down the whole stem and make it flop on the ground. It’s hard to do this emotionally, but even your Jolly Green Goddess learned to handle it.
Feeding plants: It’s okay to feed your flowers and veggies now if you 1) wait for cool weather, 2) hoe the soil around the plant so the water and plant food can reach deeply, and 3) water first so that the soil is damp, and then water again the next morning.
Bud worms: They are the nasty little guys eating up your geranium, daisy, and occasional zinnia flowers these days, and leave little round black poopers all over the leaves. Bud worms seem to be extremely active this summer, darn it. The organic solution is to spray everything with water and wait, which is what the Jolly Green Goddess is doing. Will keep you posted, if you will do the same.

Send garden wisdom, lore, and questions to the Jolly Green Goddess at hilltopub@aol.com.

—Kathleen Hill is co-author of Sonoma Valley-The Secret Wine Country and Napa Valley-Land of Golden Vines. Kathleen and Gerald Hill host two shows at 5 p.m. on KSVY- 91.3 FM Mondays and Thursdays.