Gardeners Revel In The Sunshine

After the long, long winter and rains that continued into June, Healdsburg gardeners are, at last, back out in their gardens reveling in the sunshine.

 I was curious about their feelings of renewal or exasperation for the extended wait but, for the most part the gardeners were pragmatic.  Many of them commented on how lush and full their gardens look after a season of abundant rainfall. Others recounted the benefits of the rains. 

Former Geyserville resident, Roxann MacLeod, who now gardens in Ukiah, responded to my questions by taking an overall look at what her cottage garden means to her.

“It’s all about sunshine, looking at all the beautiful flowers and enjoying the birds and the bounty of wildlife,” MacLeod said.  “I look forward to savoring the abundance [of vegetables] coming from my wildlife-friendly potager garden.”

Potager is a French term for a kitchen garden.  The idea behind the design is to make the vegetable garden esthetically pleasing and an oasis from which a bounty of cut flowers, vegetables and herbs can be obtained.  A potager garden hides functionality behind beauty.

Long-timemember, Billie Harrison, gardens in an older part of the town with well-establish plants and unusually large backyards. “The colors of the flowers are just beautiful,” said Harrison. “The climbing Sally Holmes rose has been in bloom for weeks—it’s a climber.

“The flowers start out blush pink and turn creamy,” she stated. “The foxgloves and columbines were beautiful and now the hydrangeas are beginning to get color.  It’s just wonderful!” Harrison ended.

I walk through what I would call a “Zen” garden—a placed steeped in tranquility, grace and beauty. I breathe deeply and relax.

has a small yard at the southern end of town where Fitch Mountain Road begins its climb. But the impact isn’t small when you step through the door and experience peace. The pond, with its goldfish gleaming through water lilies, is the focal point. 

The gently curving rock provides graceful hardscape for the flowers and grasses.  Alyssum wafts a sweet scent to rose beds interplanted with other perennials. Butterfly bush in full bloom bends gracefully.  Even the vegetable garden has flowers planted among the chard, parsley and leeks.  A tall angel’s trumpet reigns beside a lemon tree.

“The garden is my muse, the garden is my meditation, the garden is my companion,” said Ginzberg. “The garden feeds my sense of awe.”  Ginzberg will soon release a new book of poetry, I Don’t Know How to do This, Poems on Aging. We got a sneak peek at the package design and it is as graceful as the garden.

Another Healdsburg poet and performer, Margo Van Veen, known in poetry circles as “Granny V,” talks about her gardening experiences out in the wild.  Despite competing with raccoons, gophers and deer, she says she gardens, “because it makes me feel good.”  Then she offers an evil chuckle with a twinkle in her eye.

“It’s become possible, because of the rains, to eradicate the Scotch broom and poison oak,” Van Veen said.  “You just pluck it up and you’re done with it. It’s exhilarating!”

“It’s wonderful!” said Daphne Tanner, another Healdsburg resident and Garden Club member, said about gardening, “It’s a heavenly feeling.

“The smells, the birds—they’re very active right now,” she continued “And the flowers—they really took quite a beating in the rain.

But she sees the bright side of that, too. “Even the wet weather—it allows you to pull the weeds easily,” she said with a beatific smile.

I haven’t seen her garden -- we met at the Healdsburg Senior Center --but Tanner says she has roses, penstemon and petunias.  Her husband is growing tomatoes but they have a shady garden, so they don’t grow many vegetables, but they do have hostas, white flag grass and dahlias.

Gardeners are a hardy and optimistic bunch.  It takes optimism, after all, to plant knowing that the forces of nature may conspire to thwart you.