Shadelands is Greening and Growing in More Ways Than One!
Our Garden’s annual spring Great Tomato Plant Sale kicked off the summer growing season, offering eager gardeners a wide variety of organic tomatoes, peppers, leafy greens, herbs, and other young vegetable plants.
Located at the southwest corner of Shadelands Drive and N. Wiget Lane you’ll find a gem of a garden: Our Garden, a one-acre public demonstration garden built and maintained by Master Gardener volunteers, graduates of the UC Master Gardener Program of Contra Costa County.
Our Garden Master Gardeners are local residents who have trained through the University of California Cooperative Extension and now share their knowledge and enthusiasm for gardening with community members. Their focus is to educate home, community, and school gardeners in sustainable, environmentally friendly gardening practices, and to help gardeners succeed in their planting, nurturing, and harvesting efforts.
Originally established in Shadelands in 2009 on land that is now part of the Shadelands SportsMall, Our Garden moved to its current location on Shadelands Drive at N, Wiget Lane in 2012. Today, Our Garden is a go-to destination for growers of all abilities, from beginner to experienced. Our Garden showcases gardening methods and best practices for Contra Costa County gardens, and provides educational resources, expert answers to gardening questions—and encouragement—for home gardeners.
Our Garden showcases gardening methods and best practices for Contra Costa County gardens.
Two vital components to creating a productive garden are putting the infrastructure in place (beds and irrigation) and using healthy soil.
Our Garden is prolific indeed. You name it, Master Gardeners grow it. Tomatoes. Squash. Leeks. Garlic. Peas. Beans. Onions. Artichokes. Okra. Eggplant. Kale. And so much more. During their growing seasons, the orchard is lush with apples, pears, citrus, stone fruits, and even avocados. Trees are pruned short and manageable for the home gardener.
Trees are pruned short and manageable as an example for the home gardener.
Espaliered fruit treas are pruned and tied against Our Garden’s border fence running along N. Wiget Lane.
Green and red table grapes grow in the vineyard. Ornamentals bloom. Winter crops of lettuce, broccoli, and cabbage keep Our Garden producing year round.
Master Gardner John Fike tends to the grape vines.
“Our Garden is an outdoor classroom and a free resource for all community members and gardeners,“ said Janet Miller, the garden manager and a Master Gardener since 2008. “We’re open to the public Wednesdays, 9am to noon, April through October, and we invite people to come visit—we love to show others what we’re doing and hear what our home gardeners have to say about their gardens.”
Visitors are encouraged to wander through the garden, attend weekly talks, and get advice and answers to gardening questions from the Ask a Master Gardener team.
Visitors are encouraged to wander through the garden and watch the Master Gardeners tending to the plants, beds, trees, and vines. They’re encouraged to attend weekly talks, which are held Wednesdays, 10–11:30am, under the big oak tree. And they’re invited to step up to the Ask a Master Gardener table—staffed Wednesdays, 9am–noon—and ask a Master Gardener for advice and answers to their most vexing gardening questions.
UC Master Gardener volunteers build bountiful organic gardens in Shadelands year round. [Photo credit Greg Letts]
Master Gardeners provide University of California research-based horticultural information through their volunteer efforts as UC Master Gardeners. It is the acquisition of knowledge, the skill in gardening, and their passion to give back to the community that distinguishes a UC Master Gardener. Because of this, they have become trusted resources for all things garden-related.
The UC Master Gardeners Help Desk is another resource for the community, available year round by phone (925.608.6683) and email ([email protected]) for gardening questions and information. Staffed M-Th, 9am to noon, Help Desk volunteers can help identify a mysterious pest, locate the best plants for a specific situation, and offer advice for sustainable gardening practices in specific soils and climates.
Master Gardeners donate the majority of harvested fruits and vegetables to the Monument Crisis Center.
Our Garden’s donations to organizations that feed the hungry average 12,000 to 14,000 lbs. of fresh, healthy produce annually.
The demonstration garden’s bounty serves another purpose. Throughout the growing season, Master Gardeners harvest produce twice a week and deliver fresh picked, organic fruits and vegetable to the Monument Crisis Center year round, which averages between six and seven tons of healthy, seasonal food for our hungry neighbors.
Lines formed early for Our Garden’s Great Tomato Plant Sale in April. Enthusiastic home gardeners brought their own boxes and baskets and shared gardening stories with fellow gardeners, while looking forward to taking their new purchases home to their own gardens.
Kicking off the summer growing season, Our Garden holds the annual Great Tomato Plant Sale in April over the course of four days.
Mary Jo Corby, a Master Gardener since 2013, is the plant sales coordinator for the Great Tomato Plant Sale. “The Great Tomato Plant Sale is our major fundraiser for UC Master Gardeners of Contra Costa County, supporting all our other programs and projects, of which there are many.”
(l) Master Gardener Janet Miller, Our Garden garden manager, and (r) Master Gardener Mary Jo Corby, plant sales coordinator, greeted visitors at the entrance to April’s Great Tomato Plant Sale. [Photo credit Chris Tanaka].
This year’s sale was a huge success, selling out most of the inventory of more than 27,450 plants: 13,400+ tomatoes, 5,500+ peppers, and 8,500+ other vegetables and herbs.
“We held our first Great Tomato Plant Sale at our original location in 2011,” said Janet. “We scheduled the sale to last three days, and we sold out in three hours! We learned to grow more plants after that.”
The Our Garden website is a wealth of information about the annual sale, the available inventory, and how to plant and tend to young veggies and herbs once you get them home. For those who missed this year’s sale, mark your calendar for April 2026 and visit Our Garden for updates.
Several new varieties of tomatoes were available this year at the Great Tomato Plant Sale, including dwarf plants that are ideal for gardeners with limited space.
More than 27,450 plants were available over the four-day Great Tomato Plant Sale, featuring tomatoes and other garden vegetables and herbs.
“We’re all volunteers,” said Mary Jo. “And as volunteers, for the amount of time and work we commit, you have to have a passion about gardening. And that’s one thing we have in abundance: passion for this work in the garden and for sharing the joy of gardening with others. We’re an energized group because this is what we love.”
In addition to their work at the Our Garden site, Master Gardeners also present educational materials and talks on sustainable gardening at libraries, schools, and other public venues throughout Contra Costa County. You’ll find Our Garden Master Gardeners on Saturdays at the Diablo Valley Farmers’ Market, just up the street, N. Wiget Lane at Mitchell Drive.
Our Garden is one of three gardens in the UC Master Gardener Program of Contra Costa County, each with its own focus. Our Garden in Walnut Creek focuses on helping home gardeners with sustainable, organic home gardens. Rivertown in Antioch focuses on different methods of planting, such as vertical planting. The Low Water Demonstration Garden in Richmond focuses on low water and drought tolerant plants.
Visit UC Master Gardener Program of Contra Costa County and Our Garden for links to scores of articles, tips, and techniques for building and managing your sustainable, edible gardens. And sign up for the quarterly e-newsletter, News to Grow By.
Our Garden | UC Master Gardener Program of Contra Costa County
SW corner of Shadelands Drive & N. Wiget Lane, Walnut Creek
Open to the public Wednesdays | 9am–Noon | April–October
Ask a Master Gardener Help Line: 925.608.6683.