Sacramento Digs Gardening Article
Your resource for Sacramento-area gardening news, tips and events

Articles Recipe Index Keyword Index Calendar Twitter Facebook Instagram About Us Contact Us

Where do plant lovers hang out in Sacramento? Try the Shepard Center

Garden clubs meet at the McKinley Park site -- arts groups, too

Sacramento Digs Gardening
BY Kathy Morrison PUBLISHED JAN 16, 2024

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.

Shepard Center sign — This sign outside the Shepard Center should
say "Arts" not "Art."

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.

Comments

0 comments have been posted.

GENERAL GARDENING

An article about gardening.

Keywords:

Sacramento gardening January winter Shepard Center city of Sacramento McKinley Park meetings garden clubs plant sales arts and crafts groups

Newsletter Subscription

Sacramento Digs Gardening to your inbox.

Flowers in My Back Yard Series

May 12: Know your coreopsis from your bidens

May 5: Mums the word on Mother's Day weekend

April 28: Majestic Matilija poppy is worth a look

April 21: Celebrate roses, America's favorite flower

April 14: Small flowers with outsized impact

April 7: Calendulas do double duty

April 3: Make Easter lilies last for years to come

March 31: In praise of a pollinator magnet (small-leaf salvias)

March 24: Azaleas brighten shady spots

March 17: The perfect flower for beginners? Try zonal geraniums

March 10: Keep camellias happy for years to come

March 3: Fruit tree blossoms are a fleeting joy

Feb. 27: Are your roses looking rusty?

Feb. 24: Treasure spring daffodils now and for years to come

Feb. 17: How and why to grow wildflowers

Feb. 10: Let's talk Valentine's Day roses

Feb. 3: Why grow flowers?

Local News

Taste Spring! E-cookbook

Find our spring recipes here!

Sites We Like

Garden checklist for week of May 17

With an eye on warmer weather to come, continue to work on the summer vegetable garden:

* Remember to irrigate your tender transplants. The wind can quickly dry out young plants. Seedlings need consistent moisture. Deep watering will help build strong roots and healthy plants. Water early in the morning for best results.

* 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 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, calibrachoa, columbine, coneflowers, coreopsis, 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.

* Put your veggie garden on a regular diet. Set up a monthly feeding program, and keep track on your calendar. Make sure to water your garden before applying any fertilizer to prevent “burning” your plants.

* 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.

* Don’t forget to weed! Those invaders are growing fast.

Send us a gardening question, a post suggestion or information about an upcoming event. sacdigsgardening@gmail.com

Taste Summer! E-cookbook