Garden Tour Season is Here

After a year or two pause for most garden tours, more are returning to the calendar for 2022. Here are the ones who have notified us as of our deadline, providing plenty of opportunities to check out the area’s most interesting gardens and gather some tips to implement in your own landscape!

Ste. Genevieve Master Gardeners Garden Walk May 14th-15th

10am-4pm both days. Ste. Genevieve Master Gardeners’ annual Garden Walk is held in the downtown historic district of America’s oldest French Colonial village. This is a unique opportunity to tour private and public gardens. Several gardens are part of historic homes in Ste. Genevieve and are typical of the 18th century time period. The Master Gardeners’ plant sale begins at 9am and extends through Sunday. Other weekend activities: Private vendors, discounts at participating downtown merchants, art exhibits, and the Farmers’ Market on Saturday morning. Tickets are available at Ste. Genevieve Welcome Center, 66 S. Main, Sainte Genevieve, MO. $7 per person.

Gardens in Bloom Tour June 3rd-4th

4:30-8:30 Fri., 9am-1pm Sat.. Featuring gardens in Belleville

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Open 7 days a week @ 16498 Clayton Rd. (Corner of Clayton/Strecker in Wildwood) and Swansea, IL. Tickets available after May 1st at Sandy’s Back Porch, Effinger’s Garden Center, Creative Landscapes Garden Center, Ace Hardware O’Fallon, Hometown Ace Hardware Belleville, and University of Illinois Extension Offices in Waterloo or Collinsville, and online at https://event.gives/ gardensinbloom2022. Day of event tickets at West End Dental, 9460 W. Main Street, Belleville, IL. For more information contact U. of I. Extension (618) 939-3434 or uie-mms@illinois. edu.

The Square in Bloom Garden Tour & Antique Fair June 4th

10am-5pm. Tour of 8 unique Lafayette Square neighborhood gardens, local food and beverages, music in the plaza, outdoor living vendors, classic trolley, vintage Packard Club Car, Historic 1860s baseball, evening concert and more, plus the popular outdoor Antique Fair. $15/person, $20 day-of can be purchased at www.lafayettesquare.org/housetours.

27thAnnual Town and Country Garden Tour June 4th – 5th 10am. The Garden Tour includes both a walking tour of gardens in downtown Historic Hermann and a driving tour to gardens in the hills around Hermann. The $15 ticket price includes visits to at least four private gardens; these gardens are both in town

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cont’d from page 6 and in the country and include a traditional four-square garden. Garden Tour visits may be spread over Saturday and Sunday. Tickets will be sold online before the tour at Eventeny and at Topiaries (138 E. 4th) in downtown Hermann during the tour from 10-5 on Saturday and 10-3 on Sunday. Gardens close at 5pm on Saturday and 4pm on Sunday. A map to the gardens will be provided starting on Saturday June 4th at the Topiaries ticket sale site. The Hermann Garden Club’s website www. hermanngardentours.com provides up-to-date events, ticket prices, links to the online ticket sale site, contact numbers, and photographs of past tour gardens.

22nd Annual Madison County Garden Tour. June 10th-11th

4-8pm Fri., 9am-1pm Sat. Visit six beautiful private gardens and two community gardens in Edwardsville and Glen Carbon, Illinois. The gardens may be toured at the leisure of the ticket holders. The tour is sponsored by Madison County Extension Foundation with the support of the University of Illinois Master Gardeners. Tickets are $13 online, children 10 and under free. More information at (618) 344-4230 or http://event.gives/ madcongardentour22.

St. Louis Native Plant Garden Tour June 11th

9am-4pm. The popular St. Louis Native Plant Garden Tour is produced annually by St. Louis Audubon Society and Wild Ones St. Louis Chapter. This year it also will include participation from Wild Ones St. Charles Area Chapter because some of the 10 gardens on the Tour are in the St. Charles/St. Peters area. The others are in Chesterfield and Maryland Heights. This self-guided tour includes a wide variety of habitats, native landscaping styles and yard sizes. This is an educational tour, so there will be a lot of information posted in gardens and shared by the homeowners and by volunteer docents throughout the day. Mark your calendars for May 7, when registration opens. In previous years registration has filled up very quickly. To register go to stlaudubon.org.

St. Louis Master Gardeners Garden Tour June 12th

9am-3pm. The 2022 St. Louis Master Gardener Garden Tour will include ten beautiful gardens from around the St. Louis area and is open to all Master Gardeners and their guests. There will be a $15 per person charge to be paid upon registration at the University of Missouri Extension website. In case of rain, the tour will be held on Saturday, June 18th. More information and a link for registration will be provided later this spring on the Master Gardener website.

22nd Annual Pond-O-Rama Water Garden and Pond Tour June 25th and 26th

9am-5pm both days. The St. Louis Water Garden Society (SLWGS) is celebrating 32 years as a society sharing information about fish, ponds, and gardens. This year is the Society’s 22nd annual water garden and pond tour, The 2022 tour will feature 30 private gardens owned and maintained by Society members. The gardens are located

throughout the St. Louis metropolitan area. This self-guided tour is arranged each day by geographic location. There are always so many varieties of water gardens, bubbling rocks, small ponds to massive ones. There is something for everyone to enjoy safely outside and social distancing. In addition to their water features, most of our hosts are avid gardeners who maintain beautiful landscapes filled with perennials, annuals and shrubs. Our hosts will be available and delighted to share information and answer questions. This event provides funds for the St Louis Water Garden Society to continue their civic project to plant and maintain the reflecting pools at the Jewel Box in Forest Park. Tickets covering both days of the tour are $15 each (18 and older. A special 2022 Discount: Groups of 10 or more are only $10 each person. The tour ticket booklet provides location addresses, descriptions and driving directions. For more information on where to purchase tickets call 800-374-9665 or by mail order from the Society’s website in May, www.slwgs.org, and at many retailers and garden centers.

Bittersweet Garden Club 22nd Annual Garden Tour June 26th

Noon-4pm. Tour five beautifully landscaped gardens in the Jefferson City area and discover fresh ideas to apply to your own gardens. More information can be viewed at www. bittersweetgardenclub.com.

New Town Garden Club Annual Garden Tour June 26th

Noon-4pm. Tour up to 10 different New Town home gardens that use small spaces for a big impact. Tickets are $10 in advance, $15 on the day of the event. Contact Terri via email at terristeffes@ gmail.com for more information or to purchase tickets.

The Sustainable Backyard Tour June 26th

11am-4pm. The Sustainable Backyard Tour is a free, openyards tour of eco-friendly spaces throughout St. Louis and St. Charles. Get tips and ideas for living more sustainably on a warming planet, like organic gardening, beekeeping, stormwater management, renewable energy and more. Don’t miss this chance to see first-hand how others have integrated sustainable living practices into their lives and learn what you need to know to go green! Visit sustainablebackyard.org for more information.

St. Louis Open Yards

St. Louis Open Yards isn’t a one-day tour. Rather, it’s a program that allows visitors to select from a database of participating native garden homeowners and schedule a tour any time of the year the host makes the garden available! The St. Louis Open Yards program recognizes the tremendous diversity of native plants and their gardeners and that each native plant landscape looks different from week to week and month to month. No single day event can capture multiple seasons of beauty and inspiration; some gardens will be at their peak while others past or not yet reached, and all will look different on a different day. Our hosts’ open dates reflect their own unique landscape and when they feel it will be best to see. Net proceeds go to various participating charities. To find out more, visit stlopenyards.com.

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