Upcoming home & garden events around Sonoma County

PETALUMA: Art & Garden Festival

At least as far as shopping experiences go, it beats a trip to the home improvement big box store any day.

The Petaluma Art & Garden Festival on Sunday is a chance to stroll the downtown streets for crafts and cool items to upgrade your home and garden while also indulging in good food, wine, beer and live music.

The annual event also includes a chalk painting contest and kids' corner.

The festival is free with fun central at Kentucky and Fourth streets in downtown Petaluma. For more information or to register for the chalk painting competition, call 762-9348.

SANTA ROSA: Kourik class on healthy soils, roots

Great gardens begin in the ground. Whatever you're growing - whether it's vegetables, trees, shrubs or flowers - good soil will lead to success. Horticulture expert Robert Kourik will teach a one-day course today, “Healthy Soils, Healthy Roots,” that will show gardeners how to create good loamy soil using simple raw materials and homegrown fertility.

Kourik will cover “green” manures, the benefits and limits of manures, the realities of composting, layered fertility, no-till soil development, mound gardening, use of wood chips for free drainage, cover crops and more. “The roots of all landscape and garden plants are dependent on soil quality,” said Kourik. “Root growth has a profound effect on every garden, yet because roots are out of sight, many gardeners harbor common misconceptions about them.”

The course will also delve into how roots really grow.

The class will run from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. People can register in advance at 527-4471 or at 8 a.m. the day of the class. The class will be held in Emeritus Hall, Room 1518 at Santa Rosa Junior College, 1500 Elliott Ave.

Kourik is a pioneer in low-water landscaping and has written books, including “Roots Demystified.” SANTA ROSA

Workshop on composting

Learn how to put worms and kitchen scraps to work today during a free workshop on Composting and Vermicomposting put on by the Sonoma County Master Gardeners.

The class will cover the basics of composting with kitchen scraps and yard waste, creating compost using worms and making compost teas. Participants will receive coupons that can be applied toward the purchase of composting products.

The two-hour class starts at 11 a.m. at the City of Santa Rosa's Water Department. Register and get directions at 565-2608.

The class will be repeated at 9 a.m. July 16 at the Sonoma Garden Park, 19996 7th St. E., Sonoma.

OCCIDENTAL: Pair share secrets of compost cooking

Award-winning compost cookers Dick and Mary Miner will share their secrets for making the best compost today at Western Hills Garden.

The couple, part of the volunteer team at Western Hills in Occidental, are former microbiologists who approach composting with a scientific eye. Dick Miner has won multiple blue ribbons at the Marin County Fair for compost he made on Alcatraz Island.

The hands-on look at Western Hills' composting operation will be from 1-2 pm., and includes an optional docent-led tour of the garden afterward. Admission is $10. The garden also has a small nursery with plants for sale. Registration is not mandatory but garden overseers say it would be helpful to know ahead of time how many people will come since parking is limited and carpooling encouraged. To contact the garden and for information call 872-5463. 16250 Coleman Valley Road, Occidental.

Compiled by Meg McConahey. Direct Home and Garden news to meg.mcconahey@pressdemocrat.com or call 521-5204. Please submit items at least three weeks in advance of an event. On Twitter @megmcconahey.