GardenBook

Cornerstone Sonoma opened some 15 years ago in Sonoma County  as a wine country marketplace featuring gardens as art , wine tasting and shops. The gardens are now and have always been free to visit, with the hope that visitors would spend some money in the cafes, shops and tasting rooms. The founders hoped to pattern the venue after the international Garden Festival at Chaumont-sur-Loire.   You can see the echos when looking at images of the French festival, and Cornerstone came the closest to it's French inspiration when in September of 2009, 'The Late Show Gardens' made it's debut. Not the typical spring indoor 'flower show' with it's displays of  tulips, cool season annuals and flowering trees ' 'Late Show' was a celebration of  summer harvest times and the richness of our wine country fall. Many of the display gardens addressed the climate and water issues that have since  moved closer to the spotlight for California gardeners. This was conc

  My garden is looking pretty grim this month--it's just so very dry as we enter our 7th month with zero precipitation. I've intentionally cut back on watering and it shows, but as the sun lowers and nights get colder it seems pretty pointless to waste that precious resource on plants that are about to descend into dormancy. This upcoming weekend I'll start cutting a few things back , pull some annuals and plant some spinach seeds. Here are the slim pickins' I have to share this month. Chasmanthium latifolium, one of my favorite grasses . I'll be moving it to new quarters this winter -some tree branch removal on a neighbors part has left it in too much sun.  I was really thrilled with the shade reduction but I need to address the collateral damage . Mahonia 'Soft Caress' Cutest groundcover ever, Cotula lineariloba 'Big Yellow Moon'. It's enthusiastic but takes well to chopping. NOID Aster with Spirea 'Ogon' . The rest of the Asters are do