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Sacramento clubhouse gets special honor

Sacramento Digs Gardening
BY Debbie Arrington PUBLISHED NOV 29, 2018

The Shepard Center in McKinley Park was built in 1958 and hosts many city clubs. (Photo courtesy Shepard Garden and Arts Center.)

City names Shepard Garden and Arts Center historic landmark

Sacramento's clubhouse has a new honor: It's officially a historic landmark.

Shepard Garden and Arts Center, the home of many Sacramento clubs for 60 years, is already beloved by the hundreds of people who meet there regularly.

Late Tuesday, the Sacramento City Council named Shepard Center a "Sacramento Historic Landmark," which gives the building some added distinction as well as protections.

Also named to the landmark list Tuesday were Gunther's Ice Cream, the Freeport Chase Bank building and the Sacramento County Courthouse. These additions all represent mid-century modern design in a city full of history.

Named for longtime Sacramento Bee garden columnist Iva Gard Shepard (who served as the center's president for many years), the center is owned by the City of Sacramento, but operated by its own nonprofit board with support from Friends of the Center.

Built in 1958 in the McKinley Park annex, the center was designed by Raymond Franceschi and was a stark contrast to the surrounding Craftsman cottages and Mission Revival mansions. Considered a mid-century masterpiece, the center combined stone, wood and glass in a dramatic A-frame with a butterfly wing extending over a large patio.

In its 60th year, the center has received some much needed TLC. Club members pitched in to re-do the big blue entrance sign, which had started to rot away. Led by Daisy Mah, new theme gardens are being planted in the beds surrounding the building.

Looking for a hobby? Interested in specific kinds of gardening or plants? The center hosts about 30 clubs, all looking for new members. Contact information and meeting times are available on the center's website.

Open to the public, Shepard Center is available for rent for many different functions, from group meetings to special events. Find out more at: www.sgaac.org .

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gardening Sacramento Sacramento history Shepard Garden & Arts Center events garden clubs McKinley Park

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Garden Checklist for week of Nov. 3

November still offers good weather for fall planting:

* If you haven't already, it's time to clean up the remains of summer. Pull faded annuals and vegetables. Prune dead or broken branches from trees.

* Now is the best time to plant most trees and shrubs. This gives them plenty of time for root development before spring growth. They also benefit from fall and winter rains.

* Set out cool-weather annuals such as pansies and snapdragons.

* Lettuce, cabbage and broccoli also can be planted now.

* Plant garlic and onions.

* Keep planting bulbs to spread out your spring bloom. Some possible suggestions: daffodils, crocuses, hyacinths, tulips, anemones and scillas.

* This is also a good time to seed wildflowers and plant such spring bloomers as sweet pea, sweet alyssum and bachelor buttons.

* Rake and compost leaves, but dispose of any diseased plant material. For example, if peach and nectarine trees showed signs of leaf curl this year, clean up under trees and dispose of those leaves instead of composting.

* Save dry stalks and seedpods from poppies and coneflowers for fall bouquets and holiday decorating.

* For holiday blooms indoors, plant paperwhite narcissus bulbs now. Fill a shallow bowl or dish with 2 inches of rocks or pebbles. Place bulbs in the dish with the root end nestled in the rocks. Add water until it just touches the bottom of the bulbs. Place the dish in a sunny window. Add water as needed.

* Give your azaleas, gardenias and camellias a boost with chelated iron.

* For larger blooms, pinch off some camellia buds.

* Prune non-flowering trees and shrubs while dormant.

* To help prevent leaf curl, apply a copper fungicide spray to peach and nectarine trees after they lose their leaves this month. Leaf curl, which shows up in the spring, is caused by a fungus that winters as spores on the limbs and around the tree in fallen leaves. Sprays are most effective now.

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