It looks to the Jolly Green Goddess as if all sorts of the earth’s surface materials, natural and otherwise, rotated slightly during our recent New Year’s floods. Vineyards acquired “debris” from flooded homes, floating fence boards and other junk, while cement water-meter covers floated blocks away, and vineyard topsoil floated out from under the debris and showed up in our driveways and garages.
The big question for us home gardeners following New Years’ flooding is what to do with the silt and sludge, especially when it washed away or covered our gardens. Always trying to turn negatives into positives, Jolly Green Goddess preferred to see the migrating sludge that made our driveway unwalkable as having come to us from nearby vineyards and possibly from a new compact housing development a couple of blocks away. Other neighborhoods’ muck came from very different sources.
Thinking I was the smartest sustainable gardener in the neighborhood (and probably the only one) I scooped up the gook with a heavy straight-edged shovel, using a dustpan as a scooper, and deposited it into various veggie beds around the periphery of our house.
A couple of days later, the stuff was still in the same form as when it fell off the shovel. Oops. JGG began to wonder just what really was in that reddish brown film. A call to Wayne Wirick at Sonoma City Hall produced several answers. Sonoma had not tested or analyzed the goo around town; there were no sewer breaks or leaks within the city limits; and city crews that power-washed sidewalks use “no chemicals, cleaning agents, or bleach.”
Many of us have heard rumors of sewer breaks around the valley. After Jolly Green Goddess visited and consulted both local nurseries, Wedekind’s and Sonoma Mission Gardens, it appears that whether your newly arrived gunky dirt will be good in your garden depends on where you live. Try to figure out if you are downhill from any broken sewer pipes and get your answer. In any case, add some compost material and cook a nice garden brew for next year’s blooms and veggies.
If you have had standing water around the base of trees, particularly older ones with any weaknesses, you might call a local tree service and ask them if the tree is safe or a possible danger to your home or body. Personally, Jolly Green Goddess would not lean on the tree to test whether the tree is loose, as the San Francisco Chronicle suggested last Friday!
Sonoma Mission Gardens sells E.B. Stone’s organic “activator” in a box that breaks down “brown material” (ahem…) and accelerates the composting process, all for only $5.99. Jolly Green Goddess will probably try it and like it.
This is the perfect time to treat yourself or someone else to a new bare-root rose or fruit tree. Bare roots are always less expensive than potted plants later in the year, but both Wedekind’s and Sonoma Mission Gardens now sell “bare root” roses in cans. Go figure.
Both local nurseries have dozens of bare root roses in stock right now, many newer ones with beverage and food-related names that can confuse or entice. Sonoma Mission Gardens features grower David Austin’s roses, known for being disease resistant, highly fragrant and continuous bloomers, while Wedekind’s carries primarily well-known Jackson and Perkins. Check out Gourmet Popcorn, Hot Cocoa, Julia Child that boasts a “licorice fragrance,” Cherry Parfait, Black Cherry, Rainbow Sorbet, Lemon Meringue, Snow Cone, Iceberg, Aperitif, Tequila, and Brandy.
Then there are the movie stars like Marilyn Monroe, Gina Lollobrigida, Ingrid Berman, Betty White and Barbra Streisand. In the political rose category we have on the Republican side Ronald Reagan, Nancy Reagan, and “Mr. Lincoln,” while in the Democratic corner we only see John F. Kennedy and maybe Henry Fonda and Chicago Peace.
If you are interested in perennial bare-root asparag
us plants, run don’t walk to Sonoma Mission Gardens, where they also have loads of bare-root berry plants, fruit trees, new organic lettuces and chards. If you lost a tree in the storms, consider replacing it with one that produces food.
Free Master Gardener Workshop this Saturday, January 21, featuring Louise Seymour and Wylie Hartman, M.D. on how to select, prune, and care for roses. 10 a.m.-noon, Sonoma Valley Library, 755 W. Napa St., Sonoma. Later workshops will include “Herbs for Sonoma County,” “Pruning Deciduous Fruit Trees,” “Conquering Gophers and Moles,” and “Summer Vegetable Gardening.” Call (707) 938-0237 for more info, drop by Master Gardeners’ table at the Friday morning Sonoma Farmers’ Market, or visit mgsonoma.ucdavis.edu.
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.
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