Home and garden news, upcoming events

<p>SANTA ROSA: Home show at fairgrounds</p><p>Does your house need a little love? Are deferred maintenance projects dragging you down? Or is this simply the year you're determined to take on a project on your to-do list?</p><p>The Sonoma County Home Show this weekend at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds is an emporium of spring home-improvement ideas featuring vendors offering products and services for inside and outside the home. Many will be offering discount savings on landscaping, concrete repair, remodeling contracts and more during the show.</p><p>Friedman's Home Improvement is offering product demonstrations.</p><p>Attendees can vote for their favorite local non-profit, with the winning charity receiving a new 22-cubic-foot Resource Saver Bottom Freezer Refrigerator along with a $500 gift certificate to Oliver's.</p><p>The show, which opened Friday afternoon at noon, will be open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, March 16 and 17. Cost is $7, with kids under 12 entering free. Discount coupons worth $2 off admission are at all Friedman Home Improvement stores or on the web at scshows.com. 1350 Bennett Valley Road, Santa Rosa.</p><p>HEALDSBURG: Special ReHealdsburg sale includes crystal</p><p>ReHealdsburg celebrates "The Luck of the Irish" for St. Patty's this weekend with a special sale that includes Irish Waterford crystal.</p><p>There's no pot of gold but treasure hunters can also troll among designer items for home and garden by Frank Gehry, Healdsburg's St. Dizier, Knoll, John Seitz, Roche Bobois, Broussard, Palacek and Tiffany.</p><p>The periodic pop-up sale is held at 1229 Grove St., Healdsburg.</p><p>Visit Rehealdsburg.com or Facebook for a sneak preview of the vintage, antique and gently used items that will be available at the sale.</p><p>Hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. March 15 and 16 and from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. March 17.</p><p>OCCIDENTAL: Western Hills Garden to open in time for spring</p><p>Western Hills Garden re-opens for public tours just in time for spring on March 16.</p><p>The internationally-known garden featuring several acres of rare and unusual plants, welcomes visitors from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturdays, as well as weekdays by appointment.</p><p>The three-acre garden is abloom with azaleas, camellias, hellebores and rhododendrons through May.</p><p>Visitors may bring home a piece of the garden by purchasing some of its popular plants, showcased on its website To schedule a visit check out westernhillsgarden.com or call 872-5463. 16250 Coleman Valley Road, Occidental.</p><p>SANTA ROSA: Workshop on how to</p><p>create raised bed garden</p><p>You don't need carpentery skills to make raised beds. Lisa Marvier from Art of the Garden, will demonstrate how to make easy-to-assemble beds with Mbrace brackets during a seminar March 16 at Prickett's Nursery. The workshop will also offer tips on vegetable gardening, amending soil, fertilizing and more, all in raised beds. 10:30 a.m. 5173 Sonoma Highway 12, Santa Rosa. 539-3030 or prickettsnursery.com.</p><p>SEBASTOPOL: Open house at Bamboo Sourcery and Gardens</p><p>Bamboo Sourcery Nursery and Gardens is holding a Spring Open House March 23, featuring guided tours of their seven-acre farm and demonstration gardens and bamboo craft activities. The event is from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.</p><p>Bamboo Sourcery specializes in bamboo plants for every microclimate and purpose, including privacy screens and rare garden highlights as well as expert advice and educational materials on the selection, containment and maintenance of bamboo. 666 Wagnon Road, off of Bodega Highway, Sebastopol. For information visit BambooSourcery.com or call at 823-5866.</p><p>SANTA ROSA: Zierdt to talk about finding edible mushrooms</p><p>Rachel Zierdt will lead an armchair walk through the woods in search of edible mushrooms during the next meeting of the Santa Rosa Garden Club March 25.</p><p>Zierdt will talk about the great variety of mushrooms growing on the North Coast and give tips on how to find them and use them in cooking.</p><p>Zierdt, who lives in Sebastopol, is on the board of the Sonoma County Mycological Association.</p><p>Garden club meetings are free and open to non-members. They are held at 1:30 p.m. at the Luther Burbank Art &amp; Garden Center, 2050 Yulupa Ave., Santa Rosa. gardenclubevents@yahoo.com.</p><p>KENWOOD: Class on dogwoods and how to grow them</p><p>There's something about a blooming dogwood that coveys gentility. Learn how to bring these beautiful bloomers into your own landscape March 23 at Wildwood Nursery in Kenwood.</p><p>The class will cover the basic growing requirements for dogwood and discuss the many varieties, some of which re-bloom in the late summer and fall.</p><p>The nursery at Wildwood Farm offers over thirty varieties of dogwood, including varieties native to the East Coast, China and Korea.</p><p>Free. Rain cancels. The class gets underway at 1 p.m.</p><p>Wildwood owners Ricardo Monte and his son Joe, experts in tree shape, will give an introductory class on the art of trimming for shape at 1 p.m. March 17. The $25 fee includes a tree to take home. Participants should bring their own clippers and dress to work outside. The class is limited to 10 so reservations are encouraged. Visit wildwoodmaples.com or call 833-1161. 10300 Sonoma Highway, Kenwood.</p><p>SONOMA COUNTY: Free workshops with Master Gardeners</p><p>The Sonoma County Master Gardeners offer a wide variety of free Saturday workshops, most held at library branches throughout the county from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. For more information on the Master Gardeners, who offer advice and education to home gardeners, visit sonomamastergardeners.org or call 565-2608.</p><p>March 16</p><p>Dahlia Care and Culture: Jim Lang, who has been growing, exhibiting and judging dahlias for years, will discuss varieties, planting, care and culture of these exuberant bloomers. Healdsburg Regional Library, 139 Piper St. He will repeat the workshop on March 23 at the Guerneville Library, 14107 Armstrong Woods Road.</p><p>Lessons Learned in My Garden: Dave Gould will talk about his mistakes and lessons learned during 45 years of gardening. Petaluma Regional Library, 100 Fairgrounds Drive, Petaluma.</p><p>Tomatoes for Beginners: Rob Fowler will teach the basics of tomato growing, from starting them to growing them to harvesting them. Rincon Valley Library, 6959 Montecito Blvd., Santa Rosa.</p><p>Habitat Gardening: Learn how to attract beneficial wildlife to your own backyard by selecting plants and trees to serve as hosts for songbirds, butterflies, hummingbirds, bees and other pollinators. Sonoma Valley Regional Library, 755 West Napa St., Sonoma.</p><p>Growing Great Tomatoes, Peppers and all Summer Vegetables: Learn about the best hybrids and heirlooms as well as how to feed, water and protect your plants right up to harvest, from Steve Albert is an expert and author of The Kitchen Garden Grower's Guide. Sebastopol Regional Library, 7140 Bodega Ave., Sebastopol.</p><p>March 23</p><p>Selection, Use and Maintenance of Garden Hand Tools: Kathy Matanok will discuss how the right tool makes all the difference in performing a job. She will talk about selecting the proper tools and them keeping them safe and in good condition, as well as which maintenance jobs you can do yourself and which ones require a pro. Petaluma Regional Library, 100 Fairgrounds Drive, Petaluma.</p><p>You can direct Home and Garden news to meg.mcconahey@ pressdemocrat.com or 521-5204.</p>