Published September 29, 2005

What’s to love about fall, which is now officially upon us? Liquid Amber leaves changing from yellowy green to burgundy red, vineyards changing colors constantly before dropping their remaining grapes and leaves, cooler temperatures and a soft, lower sunshine, and the opportunity to pamper our gardens and help them get through the winter happily. And let’s not forget to count our blessings in this rare environment out of the way of the hurricanes our brothers and sisters are suffering from in the southeast.
As many people know, your Jolly Green Goddess is encouraging everyone, particularly businesses with storefronts, to plant pretty flowers to enhance their shop’s appearance, as well as that of our whole community, and release a little oxygen into our overused atmosphere.

In this vein, we give mongo kudos to the whole Marketplace Shopping Center for their abundant hanging flower baskets, which are reminiscent of those decorating lampposts in Victoria, British Columbia. Hopefully we, too, might someday have baskets overflowing with flowers hanging from light posts around the Plaza. There are actually devices made specifically to clamp the hangers around the poles, so it is not an impossible goal. And what an improvement to our surroundings!

More congratulations to Linda Semple of the Laughing Queen on East Napa Street. Just to show what is possible, Linda has a half wine barrel with three hundred (300) Double White Angel Trumpet blooms cascading toward the sidewalk in front of her shop. Angel Trumpets are extremely fragrant, and emit extra scent at night. So stroll on by after dinner or a movie, or just on a walk, any day or evening.

Wedekind’s Garden Center on Broadway had a tremendously festive Harvest Moon Celebration to celebrate the full moon and the long moonlit nights when people used to use the natural light to harvest the best of crops at their peak. The day included a Moss Hanging Basket Demonstration, and a fall color garden demonstration with Dora McCulloch of Blooms Nursery. Plein Air artists’ work was exhibited around the nursery’s grounds. The evening was topped off with EZ Kewl’s music featuring local jazz singer Jennifer Cabaud. Great food was prepared in the nursery’s elegant outdoor kitchen by Alex Finn, Wedekind’s Event Coordinator, Office Manager, and Caterer.
Wedekind’s owner Janet Rude has loads of advice for gardeners, and we pass lots of it along, since fall actually arrived last week.

Garden maintenance, just to keep it going, and going better:
Cut back some of your “annuals” and treat them nicely, because with proper watering and care they just might come back and bloom next year, saving you money.
Feed your “stone” fruit trees (they are the ones with pits, such as peaches and plums) now that you have enjoyed all the fruit they bore, and before the leaves fall off. If your peach trees didn’t produce as many peaches this year as they did in previous years, they and you weren’t alone. Just to give them and you an advantage for next year, especially with the weird weather we are all experiencing, humor them with a little food.
Most nurseries, including Wedekind’s, offer chemically made fertilizers as well as organics. E.B. Stone Organics products have a complete line of alternative fertilizers and plant foods, which the Jolly Green Goddess happens to prefer for the sake of the healthof all of us and the environment. Some folk methods are equally reliable.

Speaking of which, it is also time to cut back your hydrangeas to about one-half their size, and add some acid material to produce a dark blue bloom next year. One way to achieve that bright effect is to feed them GreenAll True Blue, and another way is to sprinkle used coffee grounds and tea or tea bags around the base of the plant.
If you want to keep your roses blooming into December, you might want to give them some rose food, or just keep snipping them properly and give them lots of love and conversation.

Camellias, azaleas, and gardenias need a winter feeding before the end of September to create their most splendiferous colors by feeding the roots and helping buds to develop until spring blooming season. But then, a couple of our azaleas are beginning to bloom already, so go figure.

It’s also a good time to divide perennials, pull weeds before rains set in, and add soil conditioner. Lawns enjoy some food as well in October, making them more disease-resistant and discouraging moles and gophers.

If moles or gophers do appear through their tell-tale annoying little dirt mounds, Rude recommends a variety of cures, both scientific and folkloric. Set out traps, use repellents with a castor-oil base that both smell and taste bad to the animals, or stuff Wrigley’s gum down the hole (chewed or unchewed is the question). Many of us try to drown them by running hose water down the hole, which probably doesn’t work because their tunnels are often extensive, including an occasional sort of loft-like apartment where they can escape the deluge.

Now the fun part—planting:

Both Wedekind’s and Sonoma Mission Gardens have big sales going on, such as roses 50 percent off at Wedekind’s and some sale plants still remaining at SMG. Sonoma Mission Gardens is currently taking orders, with discount, for bare-root roses that have not yet arrived. Best prices early, for sure, and you choose colors from color photos.
For flower lovers, you can plant all sorts of bulbs that flower in spring, such as anemones, crocus, daffodils, Dutch iris, freesias, hyacinths, ranunculas, and tulips. If you already have bulbs in your garden or pot, now is a good time to divide the bulbs in natural pieces and create whole new plants from each.

You can still plant sweet-pea seeds in full sun against a wall or fence for December color and fragrance. Flowers you can buy in plant form (someone else succeeded or failed with the seed stage) now include delphiniums, foxglove, columbine, and Shasta daisies.

Winter veggies waiting for you to plant them before the holidays include all the cruciferous ones, which means healthy favorites like broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts and cabbages, as well as kales, chards, and lettuces. Red, white, and yellow onion sets are coming into the nurseries, and Wedekind’s will have bare root onions in bundles of 25.

Jolly Green Goddess also encourages local gardeners to plant fava beans in the next couple of months. While they are the basis for many Mediterranean dishes and soups, the plants pull nitrogen out of the air, so that when you turn them under in the spring you naturally enrich your soil without chemicals.

Cornerstone Festival of Gardens offers a new ongoing children’s crafts program in its owl-themed Children’s Garden, first and third Saturdays in October, November, and December. Upcoming crafts sessions include this Sunday (October 1), when kids can create a native barn owl with papier mache, feathers, and paint; October 15: make owl-head masks and watch pumpkin carving demonstrations; November 5: owl print making; November 19: terra-cotta tile painting; December 3: create a snowy white owl for a holiday decoration; and December 17: children and adults get to make wreaths and owls from herbs such as rosemary, thyme, and lavender. Crafts sessions are included in admission to Cornerstone.

Cornerstone Children’s Garden was designed by MIG of Berkeley. Founded by Chris Hougie in 1999, Cornerstone has a collection of 22 expert-designed gardens on nine acres, and is the first “gallery-style” garden in the United States. Visitors can also enjoy the elegant café and Artefact Design & Salvage, A New Leaf Gallery, and Sloat Garden Center nursery.

In Forestville toward the Russian River, the Occidental Arts and Ecology Center presents its fifth annual CALABASH, this Sunday, October 1. Calabash is “a celebration of gourds, art and gardens” from 1:00-4:00 p.m. and is co-sponsored by the Sonoma County AIDS Food Bank and Food for Thought. The event features a silent auction of gourd art made from gourds grown in the gardens and painted by well-known Bay Area artists, strolling musicians playing gourd instruments, local wines, and gourmet delicacies. Tickets are $30 advance, $35 Sunday.
Have fun enjoying your garden and the fruits of your labor!

On the beauty of our surroundings: “Because we know we can see it everyday, any day, we tend not to see it at all.” –from Gardening in Eden, by Arthur T. Vanderbilt II.

Kathleen Hill is co-author of Sonoma Valley-The Secret Wine Country and Napa Valley-Land of Golden Vines. Kathleen is also the host of The Kathleen Hill Show, Mondays from 3 to 4 pm on KSVY- 91.3 You may reach Kathleen at hilltopub@aol.com.