Find inspiration in nature center's native plant landscaping
The new pollinator garden at the Hinkle Creek Nature Center features 85 percent California native plants. Kathy Morrison
Folsom has no gardens represented this year on the Gardens Gone Native Tour on Saturday, May 3, but there is one Folsom site that could easily be added to anyone's itinerary focused in the northeastern part of Sacramento County.
The Hinkle Creek Nature Center at 7000 Baldwin Dam Road has a brand-new pollinator garden -- 85 percent of which is California native plants. The landscape designer, Laura Schaub of Ranch Handy Design, took on the redesign of a neglected "water conservation demonstration garden" outside the nature center. Except for huge mutabilis (butterfly) rose bushes near the street, some western redbud trees and a legacy valley oak that towers over the building, most of that garden was long gone.
What now fills the spaces around the nature center (formerly a decommissioned fire station) are excellent examples of landscaping with California natives. The plants are still small, of course, but include a blue oak, manzanita, hummingbird sage, ceanothus, toyon, deergrass, yarrow, bush monkey flower and California fuchsia. Additional plantings are in the works. The new non-natives are pollinator favorites: rosemary and lavender.
New steps and pathways allow for accessibility and easy viewing (and sniffing) of the plants.
The garden relandscaping was funded by an American Rescue Plan Act grant and installed by Terracare Associates.
The nature center is not staffed at present, so a peek inside isn't possible, but there is another reason to visit: The Hinkle Creek Nature Area, which is just across the road and which this time of year has wildflowers and other plants in bloom.
The mostly shady area features an easy 1-mile loop that runs over and along burbling Hinkle Creek. During a walk along the trail, Schaub, who lives in nearby Orangevale, pointed out a beaver dam and said the beavers can be heard and occasionally seen.
The Hinkle Creek Nature Center and Nature Area are located just off Folsom-Auburn Road and just south of the entrance to Folsom's Lew Howard Community Park. There is parking on both sides of the road at the center. Dogs on leash are welcome on the trail.
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Garden Checklist for week of May 11
Make the most of the lower temperatures early in the week. We’ll be back in the 80s by Thursday.
* Plant, plant, plant! It’s prime planting season in the Sacramento area. Time to set out those tomato transplants along with peppers and eggplants. Pinch off any flowers on new transplants to make them concentrate on establishing roots instead of setting premature fruit.
* Direct-seed melons, cucumbers, summer squash, corn, radishes, pumpkins and annual herbs such as basil.
* Harvest cabbage, lettuce, peas and green onions.
* In the flower garden, direct-seed sunflowers, cosmos, salvia, zinnias, marigolds, celosia and asters. (You also can transplant seedlings for many of the same flowers.)
* Plant dahlia tubers.
* Transplant petunias, marigolds and perennial flowers such as astilbe, columbine, coneflowers, coreopsis, dahlias, rudbeckia and verbena.
* Keep an eye out for slugs, snails, earwigs and aphids that want to dine on tender new growth.
* Feed summer bloomers with a balanced fertilizer.
* For continued bloom, cut off spent flowers on roses as well as other flowering plants.
* Add mulch to the garden to maintain moisture. Mulch also cuts down on weeds. But don’t let it mound around the stems or trunks of trees or shrubs. Leave about a 6-inch-to-1-foot circle to avoid crown rot or other problems.
* Remember to weed! Pull those nasties before they set seed.
* Water early in the day and keep seedlings evenly moist.
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