Garden clubs meet at the McKinley Park site -- arts groups, too
The Iva Gard Shepard Garden & Arts Center, built in 1958, is in the eastern portion of McKinley Park in East Sacramento. Kathy Morrison
Since January signals the start of a new gardening year, it's a good time to get in on the ground floor of yearly plans by the region's gardening groups.
Many such organizations in Sacramento make their home base at the Shepard Garden & Arts Center in McKinley Park. The city calls the nonprofit corporation that runs the center the Sacramento Garden & Arts Center, which is a bit confusing. The structure, built in Mid-century Modern style in 1958, was named for Iva Gard Shepard, who decades ago was the Sacramento Bee's garden columnist and who also served for many years as the center's board president.
The Shepard Center calendar is packed, though most of the public events -- shows and plant sales -- don't get rolling until March. But the clubs and organizations based there are active and meeting now. They range from the Capital City African Violet Society to the Sacramento Weavers' and Spinners' Guild. Interested in bonsai, flower arranging, irises, cymbidiums or carnivorous plants? There's a group for each. California native plants, too. Non-gardening clubs focus on antiques, photography, watch collecting, porcelain artistry, textile arts, and clay and hot-glass artistry.
Check out the list of clubs here: www.sgaac.org/clubs/
The listing includes meeting dates; the center's specific calendar is here. Upcoming dates for pubic events include the Weavers' & Spinners' Guild Open House & Sale, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Feb. 10-11, the Perennial Plant Club's Gardener's Market on Saturday, March 9, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., and the all-organization Spring Sale on March 16-17.
The Shepard Center is located at 3330 McKinley Blvd. in the McKinley Park Annex, east of the main park. There is a small parking lot, but most of the nearby parking is on the streets.
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Garden Checklist for week of May 18
Get outside early in the morning while temperatures are still cool – and get to work!
* 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. 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.
* Are birds picking your fruit off trees before it’s ripe? Try hanging strips of aluminum foil on tree branches. The shiny, dangling strips help deter birds from making themselves at home.
* As spring-flowering shrubs finish blooming, give them a little pruning to shape them, removing old and dead wood. Lightly trim azaleas, fuchsias and marguerites for bushier plants.
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