Nampa Garden Club

10/27/2026

The culmination of several years of fundraising and volunteer efforts came together yesterday at the Rose Garden at Nampa's Lakeview Park. Nampa Garden Club members were thrilled to present the Nampa Parks & Recreation/Forestry Team with several checks to fund park and community beautification projects, including the purchasing of two benches for the Rose Garden, funding for new roses to fill in a few bare spots, and the installation of a new tree at Orah Brandt Rose Garden, located on Cherry Lane.

The bench purchases came from funds entrusted to the Nampa Garden Club from the parent organizations, in addition to club fundraisers including our NGC Annual Plant and Yard sale. The members determined that a portion of these funds be used to provide items of lasting benefit to our community who come to enjoy these two beautiful gardens to honor the memory of several recently passed founding members.

Funds collected from members at the beginning of each member meeting (our "Nampa Penny Pines" program) were dedicated to the purchase of a tree for the Orah Brandt garden.

In addition to the funding for these additions to the rose gardens, Nampa Garden Club members showed their commitment over the past two summers by rolling up their sleeves--partnering with the maintenance team to deadhead and prune the roses on a weekly basis. More than 20 members volunteered a total of 112 hours in 2026 to ensure that the rose gardens were at their best for the thousands of local visitors who enjoy the rose garden every season.

Keep an eye out for updates--the benches, trees, and roses should be finding their final spots in the gardens this spring, and we will share photos once they're available.

Nampa Parks & Recreation/Harward Rec Center

09/16/2026

Just a reminder to our many gardening friends and neighbors that our local irrigation water in the City of Nampa will be shutting down for the season on September 28 this year. Now might be a good time to start tapering off your watering schedule and ensuring that your plants and begin hardening off for the winter season, and complete your seasonal cycle of lawn fertilizer applications before irrigation ends.

Pay special attention to plants you've divided or planted so they have enough time to settle in, and make sure they don't get too dry if we have any long stretches between rain showers.

09/16/2026

Late summer can be a whirlwind for gardeners--lots of harvesting, preserving, and squeezing in those last fun activities with family and friends. In all the excitement, we almost forgot to slow down and take a moment to share some of the floral entries our members submitted to the 2026 Western Idaho Fair.

Quite a number of our Nampa Garden Club members took a special interest in honing their skills in preparation for entering the regional competitions for floral designs this year, and they really turned it up a notch! Here is a selection of their submissions, and the recognition they received from the judges. We're really proud of their creativity and eye for design!

09/15/2026

💐🌼🌺 A Bouquet Blow-Out! On Monday, our Nampa Garden Club enjoyed one of its favorite special meetings of the year. In September, we end the season with a bang by gathering up our last and best blooms, finding every spare jar and vase, and having a marathon flower-arranging session to spread some cheer in our community.

Special thanks to our President, JoAnn S., who hosts this fun event, and to our floral guru Vickie H. who offers up her arranging expertise with a quick tutorial and some creative encouragement to get us underway.

Finished bouquets were delivered to local retirement communities, nursing homes, long-time friends experiencing tough times or health issues, and neighbors who could use a friendly pop of color to brighten their day. A sincere thank-you to members and dear friends who contributed flowers, creativity, and a helping hand!

09/08/2026

09/06/2026

So true 😅

08/25/2026

Even with summer on its way out, the Veterans Garden at Nampa City Hall is still going strong--the colorful coneflower, blanket flower and perfectly mounding zinnia plants are especially lovely right now. Our club members spent the cooler early morning today deadheading, pruning and tidying. Always a labor of love and such a wonderful way to honor our community's vets. Stop by and take a look the next time you're in the neighborhood!

City of Nampa, Idaho - Municipal Government

08/19/2026

🌱 Time to top those tomatoes! Hard to believe, but the first frost date in our Treasure Valley Zone 6b gardens isn't very far away--how do we make sure that we get the maximum yield from those hard-working tomato plants before the end of the season?

Depending on the variety, it can take a tomato flower 50-110 days to mature, and a green tomato on the vine right now can take between 21 and 30 days to ripen. Topping indeterminate tomato plants and removing new growth as we approach our first frost date (usually sometime between October 15-30 in our area) redirects the plant's energy from producing more flowers and leaves, ensuring that the fruit that's already on the vine gets enough energy to fully ripen.

So, top your tomatoes sometime between 6 and 8 weeks before the first frost date: Just cut the tops off your tomatoes, and remove any flowers on the rest of the plant. This will help stop the growth of the plant so it can send its energy to the existing tomatoes, ensuring a fully ripe and delicious crop.

Happy Harvest!🍅🍅

08/17/2026

It seems like the air is starting to feel a little different right now in our beautiful Treasure Valley, and instead of focusing on more flowers and fruits, many of us are starting to let the garden alone in hopes of collecting something for next year....

Calendula flowers, coriander seed, pods from the sweet peas and radishes. What are you saving for future-gardening-you?

06/17/2026

This week, our Nampa Garden Club members started in on one of our biggest community-beautification projects of the year--helping with the weekly maintenance of the two rose gardens located within Lakeview Park and Orah Brandt Park. It was hot, but we got the job done! Here are a few shots from the Lakeview Park Rose Garden meetup on Monday--thanks to everyone who pitched in!