THROUGH THE GARDEN GATE: Spring is here – by Judy Brinkerhoff

A cobalt blue vase in front of me holds a bouquet of spring blossoms: calla lilies, freesias, narcissus of several kinds. Yellow, red-orange, cream, whites, and their fragrance fills the air around me. I cut their stems today, a day of sun, clean air and cool breezes.
Rain and gray mists came before this beautiful day, leaving me to wonder if spring would really appear. But the shrubs and perennials in the garden are greening up. The new grapevine shows fat buds, the native salvias and fuzzy blue borage are already buzzing with bumblebees. Orange poppies and calendulas are bright and foxgloves and columbines are pushing up their stalks of green leaves. The Anna’s hummingbirds are dodging in and out of the current (Ribes sanguineum) and twinberry (Lonicera involucrata) bushes. The current blossoms hang, pink, in drooping clusters, at the end of the branchlets and the little tubes of yellow-orange flowers on the twinberry are difficult to see without peering under the green leaves. This honeysuckle is not a vine. Many of us from climes back east knew the Japanese honeysuckle as a huge invasive, clambering vine. Our native honeysuckle, the twinberry, is a tidy shrub of medium growth, which needs a couple of deep waterings in the summer. Its other bird-attractive feature is the appearance of shiny black berries that follow the flowers. There are two or three other native honeysuckles; both are vines that should be grown where they can do what vines do, climb all over everything.
The Scotch broom is in full bloom, but so easy to yank from the buttery-soft earth right now. A weed wrench will be necessary for the tree-like ones, deeply rooted, that have gotten away from me. The invasive English ivy is springing up, as are blackberries and other tough weeds. It’s all part of the gardening process, removing what we humans don’t want, adding what we do want, making it beautiful in our eyes and hopefully helping birds, insects, amphibians and animals find food, cover and nesting spots. And it is an on-going and all-consuming process, never finished, always demanding, and completely satisfying.  
April opens up the many spring events that take place all over our blooming county. I list a few:
The Occidental Arts & Ecology Center will hold its annual spring plant sale on Saturday & Sunday, April 14 and April 15 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Another sale will be on April 21 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Don’t miss these sales! Their varieties are open-pollinated, heirloom and many are rare. You’ll find vegetables, perennials and herbs. Call 707-874-1557 for more information.
The Windsor Garden Club continues to bring in fine speakers to their monthly meetings. The April 17 meeting features Sandy Metzger, a Master Gardener, talking on “Gardening for Butterflies and Bees”. Now that’s a very great topic! Meetings start at 6:30 p.m. and run until 8 p.m. They take place at the Windsor Senior Center next to the Hembree House Museum at 9231 Foxwood Drive. Call 707-529-8819 for more information.
EARTH DAY is April 22. Appropriately, the Windsor Garden Club will be hosting a plant sale from 11 am to 3 pm. Come visit at the Windsor Town Green! Check their web site at windsorgardenclub.org
Luther Burbank created more than 800 varieties of plants, most of them at his Gold Ridge Farm in Sebastopol. Visitors may attend an Open House, including a tour of his cottage, on April 21 and April 22 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Farm. It’s located west of downtown Sebastopol on Bodega Ave. (Rte. 12) at 7777 Bodega Ave. Please call Erin Sheffield at 707-481-3488 for more information.
Please contact me at: jo*******@co*****.net. Have a happy Spring!