Petalumans grow community through gardening

Jilda Hellinga is transforming her yard, one wheelbarrow of mulch at a time.

Her drought tolerant west side garden, with its unique succulents and native perennials, is fitting for the president of Digging in Gardens in Sonoma, also known as DIGS, a Petaluma-based gardening club whose members, according to Hellinga, are all trying to garden “a little smarter” these days.

“I’ve said more than once that I’m on a plant diet, but then I always see another succulent I need to have,” she said. “It’s been an evolution and an education to see what really works with little water.”

When Hellinga moved to Petaluma more than a decade ago, she knew almost nothing about gardening, but she imagined an “English country garden” in her spacious backyard and was eager to find a gardening club that would help her learn how to accomplish this. She saw a listing for DIGS in the newspaper, showed up at a meeting and has now been president of the club for over five years.

“I’ve actually become more of an avid gardener than I thought,” she said. “I learned so much from being at DIGS.”

DIGS is one of several gardening clubs in Sonoma County, but with yearly membership dues of $10 and a once a month evening meeting at Garden Valley Ranch on Pepper Road, it’s a good fit for novice to master gardeners who are looking for an informal gathering and might not be able to make a daytime meeting. The club’s 20 members learn about everything from beekeeping and pruning to garden crafts like “kokedama,” a Japanese technique for growing plant in balls of moss at the meetings, held the first Thursday of each month beginning at 6:30 p.m.

DIGS, which began more than 20 years ago, is a nonprofit social club, so it’s not allowed to fundraise. In fact, it’s intentional about its mission to not make any money.

“You can’t give us money and we don’t want you to,” Hellinga said. “We’re here purely for our own fun and education.”

Some members have been involved for decades and some are brand new - and the group is always open to curious beginning and experience gardeners who want to have their questions answered and meet other like-minded dirt diggers and plant lovers.

The Petaluma Garden Club is another local group that gladly opens its doors to new faces, and the existing 130 members of this club are drawn to it because of their passion for gardening. The club is also a nonprofit and raises funds to give back to the community in a multitude of ways.

The club, which was started in 1941 as part of the Petaluma Women’s Club’s effort to build wartime Victory Gardens, became its own organization in 1946. The club attracts primarily women and some men who are able to attend the monthly daytime meetings. As Bonnie Sobel, the current president, explained, the membership reflects a variety of backgrounds and skillsets, from floral designers to docents at Olompali State Historic Park. They are master gardeners and novices who share a passion for gardening and participating in their community.

Sobel, for example, joined the club in 2014 with very little gardening knowledge, but a strong desire to honor her mother, an avid gardener who, unlike her daughter, knew the name of every plant.

“I just call them the ‘yellow somethings,’” Sobel said.

At her first meeting, she was immediately impressed by the shared passion and energy of the club members. As a longtime resident of Petaluma, she was amazed that she hadn’t known about this vibrant club in her own backyard. She quickly moved from a “table greeter” at meetings, to attending board meetings, to being elected vice-president and “with a big gulp”, began serving as president for the 2016-17 year. She’s become a key part of the organization, and has learned a lot about gardening in her short tenure there.

“I used to go to the garden store and pick things out, but I never knew what was an annual and what was a perennial,” she said.

Now, with the guidance and support of the club, she has ripped out her lawns and replaced them all with drought resistant native plants and a small vegetable garden.

Sobel also helps guide the club’s choices for speakers and field trips, like the tour of a gourmet mushroom company they took last year and a talk about saving monarch butterflies. Events for the upcoming year include a tour of the Hallberg Butterfly Garden in Sebastopol, a visit to Jack London State Historic Park in Glen Ellen, a presentation by local artist Karen Hess who uses plants to dye hand-spun wool, and a talk by Frances Rivetti, local author of “Fog Valley Crush.”

The Petaluma Garden Club has also played an important role in beautifying gardens around town through fundraising events like the annual “Plant and Garden Treasure Sale,” which raises money for grants for garden-related school projects. Members also maintain the Wickersham Park garden and Jonathan’s Garden at the Petaluma Senior Center and, every Arbor Day, the group provides trees and native plants to be planted along the Petaluma River.

The group meets September through June, on the second Monday of the month at 10 a.m. at the Petaluma Veterans Building.

DIGS and the Petaluma Garden Club are both part of the California Garden Clubs, Inc., a branch of the National Garden Clubs, Inc. The statewide branch includes 300 clubs with 21,000 members and the Luther Burbank Region, which encompasses Sonoma, Marin and Napa counties, includes nine clubs with 677 members.

For more information about DIGS, the Petaluma Garden Club and the other clubs in the region, visit californiagardenclubs.com/LutherBurbank. (Contact Ariana Reguzzoni at argus@arguscourier.com)