| NEW! View recent videos featuring WPA Garden and Lotus Garden: https://www.pbs.org/video/region-rising-land-park-lotus-pond-jsbmid/ https://vimeo.com/457577229 |
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Entrance to WPA Garden |
Daisy Mah in the Sacramento WPA Garden |
The WPA Rock Garden was established in 1940 through the Works Progress Administration during the Great Depression. Based on recollections of long-term residents of the area, annuals and succulents were interspersed among trees and shrubs. After Proposition 13, the staffing and funding was reduced and the gardens were planted with groundcovers such as ivy and vinca.
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In the fall of 1988, Daisy Mah, City of Sacramento Parks employee, began a major undertaking of revitalizing this neglected site. Currently, Plantings are mostly from Mediterranean regions with a growing emphasis on California natives. The one acre hillside garden is comprised of a series of rock-lined beds and meandering paths. Over the years, many of the former plantings have been replaced with a more drought tolerant and wildlife friendly palette. Plants range from annuals, grasses, herbs, perennials, bulbs, and shrubs. |
Presently, Mah maintains the garden on a part-time basis with help from a fabulous group of garden volunteers. The Sacramento Perennial Plant Club, California Horticultural Society, and individuals have helped support efforts to beautify the garden. The garden currently attracts native and Italian honeybees, butterflies, and birds, including hummingbirds, and lizards that complement the naturalistic plantings.
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The Garden is located about a quarter mile east of Land Park Drive on 15th Avenue, across the street from Fairytale Town.
A Grove of “Timeless Beauty”
As a child growing up in the Land Park neighborhood, our former treasurer, the late Judith Waegell had fond recollections of bounding through the WPA Rock Garden. Perhaps that early experience nurtured her love of gardening expressed in her extensive and beautiful garden. To honor her dedicated service to our club, the board approved a planting of trees for the rock garden. Because of her interest in California natives, Daisy suggested a grove of five desert willows (chilopsis linearis “Timeless Beauty”). This native is smothered with fragrant lavender and white blooms throughout the summer.
The five trees have been incorporated along a hillside to the eastern edge of the rock garden. It is gratifying that this area, once a thicket of shrubs, will again be expanded to make way for more drought tolerant, wildlife friendly, and beautiful native plants that will honor our native flora and our friend Judy.