When was the last time you gave a garden tour?

I think that one of the most powerful ways to encourage other people to garden is to bring them out to your own garden. Let them see, smell and taste the fruit of the earth. When they experience how much better homegrown vegetables are, they might catch the gardening bug, too!

So, when was the last time you showed off your garden to somebody?

I'll start. The last time I showed off my garden was a few months ago. My brother is sharing our garden right now so that he can cross off a few things from his list of goals. So we showed him his garden bed and what we were planting in the remainder. He has already experienced fresh radishes, and he will get to eat fresh peas very soon.

Speaking of peas, is there a better plant to show to gardeners who don't know they are gardeners yet? They are sweet and crunchy and delicious! This is the first time we are growing both snap peas and shelling peas. And they are both so good. As the snap pea season continues, we will get to eat some every time we visit the garden.

it was 10 days ago  https://permies.com/t/281041/sharing-flowers#3059593

and before that maybe a month...our oldest son is here in town so we tour his garden frequently and he tours ours every couple weeks.

Otherwise, it's random and on a whim, like when evangelists come by we take them to the gardens and I talk plants non stop 🙃

I like this idea.

Unfortunately this would not work for me.

Though I have a suggestion.  When giving a tour do you offer things for sale?

I would love homemade pickles and preserves, something you have harvested, or just about anything homemade, and some pretty flower bouquets.

About two years ago, my dad and his partner came up for a visit and we did a thorough tour. I periodically show off bits and pieces to my granddaughter who lives in the city and is terrified of all bugs (but will play with crawdads) so doesn't help much.

It was yesterday for me.

One thing people comment on is how wild it looks. I may not have a ton of cultivated food (yet) but oftentimes people love the atmosphere of it. When they say it feels wilder than a wilderness that makes me especially joyful. I do hope that my one yam spreads… right now it is mostly root vegetables and wildflowers with some tree seedlings and berry bushes. And swales, lots of them. That is essential.

I saw there is a second viper’s bugloss and I’m so excited to get seeds! They are one of my favorite flowers.

Actually I do tend to focus on wild foods, but it helps that parsnips are ubiquitous in the wild. I should have harvested a lot more last fall; would have been spared some boils and blisters…

It's been a couple of years. Young local couples with kids who stripped the gardens and fruit patches of anything edible. When they came back a year later the kids knew *exactly* where to go for loot. Like little black bears, they never forget a food source.

But these couples have busy, busy lives. I'm just a neighbour. I have no intention of hounding them like some old geezer desperate for company. Mostly my gardens will now support their initial attempts at gardening -- raspberries are next on the list. And we need to talk about giving trucked-in soil a big nutritional boost. So I'll be going there instead.

Last Mon., a week ago, my best friend and her family were in town from FL, they all got excited and my little nieces by her got to try fresh snap peas.  One of them has been growing some plants but they all died while she was on this trip, so she'll start over.  My garden isn't much yet, but people love that I'm trying and learning as I go.

It was just a few weeks ago! We had friends watching over our chicks while we were at a family reunion, and I took them (mom & four kids) on an adventure through our property, showing them all the berries we can eat. One of the kids said, "I want a place like this when I grow up. There's just food outside!"

Sometimes I forget how magical it is to have so many edible things outside. It's been a busy year, as I'm now teaching multiple classes at my kids' homeschool co-op. My garden is a disaster. Buttercup is covering the flower beds, and the only annuals that grew are peas and tomatoes....if you don't count the self-seeding kale & radishes and the wheat that sprouted from my duck bedding mulch! We didn't even manage to mow the paths, and many might think it looks messy.

But, even without having time to spend in my garden, my perennials are doing great. There's: honeyberries, strawberries, blackcap raspberries, red & gold raspberries, thimbleberries, jostaberries, red huckleberries, blue huckleberries, trailing blackberries, salmonberries, mulberries, currants, blueberries, and cherries all ripe right now. There's nettle to eat (we cooked some up for our guests and the kids said it was the best vegetable they'd ever eaten and they wanted to grow some, too). Soon there will be plums and peaches and pears and apples and potatoes.

The real strength in permaculture, I think, is that it makes food even when you don't have time, especially when it's established. And, there's just something magical about stepping outside and being surrounded by tons of edible foods ♥.

I'm thinking about why we haven't shown our garden off so much this year. Certainly we have had many friends and acquaintances over. Most of the answer is that our big annual garden is a long way away. You have to cross the patio, a field and go behind the barn. It is definitely out in zone 3. Meanwhile, there are all kinds of interesting things between here and there. Most recently my brother-in-law set up his urban farm here. So there are quail and rabbits in that barn. And my sister's horse. So most of the time we simply don't get out that far.

But we have rhubarb at the corner of the house. And herbs in pots that are waiting to be planted in the hugel I built across the driveway. So we get to talk about those quite often. I think any gardening effort that I can show off helps other people see that gardening is a good idea.

I usually have people looking at my land once or twice a year. The last time was when my friends came up in the spring to help with sowing and mulching.
Tomorrow I have a group visit, which will be a bit different for me as they are not people I know, but the leader found me through permies. They are based at the South end of the island, so have similar challenges in growing. I hope what I do will be useful for them to see. I also hope to learn from them too, as I'm told at least one is a skilled horticulturist! I've already warned them that it is not a show garden. I have been improving the access through the front garden and the fruit jungle for them, which was OK for me, but not great for less able footed. I'm glad to have done it too, since it means I can get the wheel barrow round now too!

Best of luck! A friend of mine visited our community & own allotment for the first time yesterday.

Hi. Last month.  Folks lingered at our food forest row, planted along the back of our 1/3 acre in an HOA. New to everyone and so fun to share!

Our village has a local volunteer group that beautifies the public spaces in the area. They raise money by selling tickets to a garden tour that folks can volunteer to host as a stop. I did not participate this year but I have plans for next year!

Friends and family are always eager to see my garden. And just like with children people say it grew so much! Last week old time friends came by and i have to really watch not to overload people with information or they zone out. Sometimes people get jealous and are happy things don't turn out as i want, like my hazelnut trees still not producing, while they find loads in the wild.
A neighbor lady invites herself to harvest in the garden she would have wanted but cannot have (too much work), she gives me part of her marmelades, so it's fine.
Some people i know give paid tours in their garden, i like to keep it simple, not too many.

Our garden became a community garden again. One of my brothers got married last year. So he and his wife were interested in sharing the garden space with us. So we showed them around a few weeks ago and agreed on the new dividing lines. There wasn't much to show with the beds all covered in leaves. But since then we have planted almost all of it.

Has anyone else given garden tours this year?

I had family staying locally for a holiday recently and showed them all round what I'm up to. I've got a little off road invalid scooter now, which my Mum wasn't keen on, but one of my sisters appreciated.
Last week I did a very quick tour for some people that may be giving a good home to my old polytunnel. Their kids loved the stepping stones in my new tunnel, and soon disappeared into the trees in the tree field. Luckily the deer fence keeps kids in as well as deer out!
I see new things everytime I show people round, especially in spring. I think I have female flowers on one of my walnut trees again.

Last week, showed a neighbour around. She kept asking what everything was and I realised how much I take for granted knowing what's growing where. The best bit was when she tasted a gooseberry straight off the bush — that face of surprise is always worth it.

I sometimes walk in the garden at its height of growth and marvel at how full of life and beauty it is, and I wish others could see it and appreciate it too.  I love the idea of giving people a tour of my garden and food forests.  
However, whenever anyone comes around it when I'm out there, I usually try to make a quick exit.
If I'm working, I am in a zone of communion with the land, and it gets altogether too 'talkative' with others present.

Partly I get bothered by all the questions and the asking of me to name this and name that - even though at other times I'm happy to wax poetic explaining about plants and permaculture type things.  If it is my nieces or nephews, I am much more tolerant, happy to encourage their love of nature and gardening.  Also, if it is with another experienced gardener, I find it enjoyable.
But when it feels like 'small-talk' I balk and try to end it as soon as politeness allows - especially if the questions are focused on numbers and names of things.
If the visitor shows an attitude of reverence for the miracle of diverse life exemplified in the place, then I feel more comfortable.

I know this is my own personal idiosyncrasy, and I regret not being able to share my knowledge and work with others.
I promise I'm not wholly a curmudgeon.  I do like when people go out into my garden when I'm not present and enjoy the fruits of my labor (as long as they stay on the paths!) and I hope that they can learn from my examples if not from my words.
 

I give garden tours pretty often.  I grow extra and usually grab a bag before the tour.

I gave another tour this morning.
Wow you have mullein?
I didn't plant it.
So he was excited to get one of those in a pot.
Also went home with a Bob Gorden elderberry that I potted last year but didn't have a spot for.
He brought me a couple dozen eggs from his chickens.

I kinda laugh when I take someone on a garden tour and they reach down and start pulling a few weeds.
Now that's a real gardener.
Doesn't happen very often.

I gave a tour a few weeks ago to my "Pollinator Pathways" group.   During the winter, we decide on a book to read and we get together every few weeks to discuss the chapters assigned.  We've read Braiding Sweetgrass, Nature's Best Hope, The Light Eaters, and Wilding.  We've become good friends through our gatherings and we even get together for a "Three Sisters" dinner in November--Thank you Robin W-K.

In the warmer months, we tour each other's gardens and have some speaker events.  It's a nice low-key group. I signed up to have my tour just two weeks ago. I have an acre, but there are so many edible and medicinal plants it's pretty amazing, even to me.  I wanted things to be blooming (and they were) and I wanted it early enough that I wouldn't have too much time to worry about weeding and tidying.  

Often, when I'm in the front food forest, people will stop and chat; there is a sidewalk that is well-used.  One thing leads to another and I'll offer them a tour.  They are always excited to see the property and are always blown away by the fact that it is only an acre and the fact that I take care of it all by myself!  That's the beauty of perennial plants, though.  They pretty much take care of themselves.  I can prune in late winter, I leave the leaves in the beds, the animals do the fertilizing and I do the harvesting--with a little help from them!

A friend from town has a birthday within a week of mine. She likes to schedule an annual Birthday Brunch at our house, just so she can tour the garden after we eat. The spouses get to stay inside and drink wine and coffee, free of mosquitoes and endless chatter about compost and lacewings. I get to show off 'the proppity' - and I get cake.

I think it's a win-win for all involved, but most of it lands on my side. I'm thinking of adding another collective birthday brunch event for the spouses...

Last August. The local grange has an annual Chicken Coop, Greenhouse, Garden Tour each year.

Very Random

Whenever folks come over we give them tours of silvopastures, the animals, the native hedgerows /fencerows and annual-perennial gardens..

I shamelessly make people tour my gardens. I’m beginning my third summer “in town” after living on acreage for a long time.  I’m also pretty old and have a pesky autoimmune disease that makes it difficult to work outdoors in summer. As a result I am inordinately proud of my successes, am endlessly fascinated with experiments in growing, which I have continued to enjoy, albeit on a much smaller scale than in the past, having learned to make peace with needing an extended timeline for accomplishing.

Granted, where I see life and food and beauty, most people see an untidy mess (backyard, hidden behind a 6 foot cedar fence and the stomping grounds of my 2 uncivilized ankle-biting mutts), or unfathomable decisions (front yard - included in the tour).  The front yard, which is way too big in comparison with the back yard, and has for more than 30 years has been  wasted on a ridiculously large chemically manicured lawm.  It’s now on year 3 of a slow process of replacing lawn with native plants.  I cannot be relied upon to keep bird feeders stocked , let alone assist other city dwelling varmints in their efforts to find a meal.  Nor can I be relied upon to mow, water, and weed  as often as city neighbors expect. So instead, I am addressing both issues by working on planting what the wild ones want to eat, out front where my pup dogs won’t bother them. I’ll know I’m done when the lawn mower dies of loneliness.  And the air will be a little cleaner, the house better shaded from the hot summer sun, and I’ll see something interesting when I look out my window.

Of all the different things I do, my gardens, messiness and all, are the most important to me.  They bring meaning to my life.
As a result, anyone who knows me understands that if they decide to risk coming to my house, sooner rather than later they will be coerced into submitting to a tour and a monologue about the whys and wherefores. Thus, people  who come to my house already know I have “odd ideas” about how the grounds around a house should be dressed and managed, and most will gamely tolerate the forced march and accompanying monologue.  I am lucky that the people who visit me tend to tolerate my enthusiasms, even if they don’t understand why I don’t just hire a landscaper and buy all my food at the store like everybody else around here.  Mostly they are pretty good at feigning interest, and frequently, often surprisingly , the interest is genuine.  One fun thing is how often people who showed the least interest during their tour start asking questions a year or so  down the road because they have gradually started looking at their own city lots in a different way.

So yeah, I confess, I drag people through a tour, even the uninterested. To be honest it’s not because I want to teach them things or change their ways or learn from them, though of course all of those things do happen sometimes.  My motivation is actually quite selfish. I have a captive audience that allows me to talk about things I love best while standing in the midst of it. Any other positive impact is purely coincidental.  It’s amazing what grandmas can get away with when they put their minds to it.  

L Anderson. Hahahaha, seems like you're punishing the zombies. Good on you!

I'm having a garden tour this Sunday. A group of garden enthusiasts i met at a seed exchange will pass by for a visit.

L Anderson wrote:Granted, where I see life and food and beauty, most people see an untidy mess

That reminds me of this thread. I'm with you on making the birds (and other wildlife) help themselves rather than putting out feeders for them.

This garden has a huge secret. Prolonged  desperation and poverty can be great teachers if one is observant and really cares about others.  If the world knew about it, there would be more peace.  A multitude of cultures garden here on land that does not belong to them.  Due to a many on-going barriers, this was the solution to bring people together in a shared interrest for the greater common good: https://bsky.app/profile/luc-drouin.bsky.social

My garden, 5/16/26. I also give tours of ancient Tolowa food forests several days a week via kayak and raft.

The last time was about 10 days ago because I had an herbalism class "Fostered and Foraged Apothecary".  Did the class twice with 12 attendees the first time during which we had a downpour!  Thankfully,  I have a greenhouse and we waited it out.   The second class had about 6 attendees, and it was lovely.   I made nettle cake, spring garlic pesto and BumbleTea (Nettle,  Hibiscus,  Dandelion and Lemon Balm) to share with class.   I do take individuals on little mini tours now and then as well.   I have an Elderberry Crafting and Lore class early September in the garden and we will tour then as well.  And the Goumi berries are popping now!

L Anderson wrote:

I’ll know I’m done when the lawn mower dies of loneliness.
Of all the different things I do, my gardens, messiness and all, are the most important to me.  They bring meaning to my life.
It’s amazing what grandmas can get away with when they put their minds to it.  

L Anderson, I adore your entire post,  but these three lines are pure gold!!!

Next tour, this coming Saturday, June 13th, 2026. www.stonegardenfarm.com.

I gave a tour this Sunday. A group of garden enthusiast/ seed savers came from an hour drives away to be inspired. That was the mission. They had totally different gardening skills levels amongst them. I ended up mostly chatting with the most experienced of them during a two hour stroll past differing trees, shrubs, perennials, annuals and groundcover set-ups. And then getting questions 'from the back', so stop and explain and then got talking to most experienced again. The  watering situation got highlighted. The evolution of appearing shade places got discussed, a biomass producing Silphy hedge in the annuals bit. The latest extension with food hedges, a bit syntropic/temperate agroforestry style. Etc,etc..
We quit when we'd been everywhere and lunched with the group outside under the pergola, everybody had brought something and we discussed this and that.
It was very relaxed this way, but in hindsight i think people gravitate to what they know, what they recognize in their own gardens and start chatting about how they see things. Then asked me to respond to that, so why and how got discussed. But the topics were mostly what they already know and i missed this opportunity to explain my wormcomposting system and the oxygenated compost tea making system that uses said compost and soil i take on walks.
This would have opened a pathway toward speaking of soil health and actively creating microbial and mycelial biodiversity in a deeper way.
A good thing i did was to put a paper down and have people write their names and emailadresses. So i can adress the compost and compost tea in writing. Opening the situation to dish out some plants/cuttings and seeds, spreading the garden love.
One lady said she got discouraged, but i'm happy she felt she could share this and think she might be helped with a more perennial gardening style
Al in all mission succeeded and ready for the next tour if the occasion arises.

I gave a tour this Sunday. A group of garden enthusiast/ seed savers came from an hour drives away to be inspired. That was the mission. They had totally different gardening skills levels amongst them. I ended up mostly chatting with the most experienced of them during a two hour stroll past differing trees, shrubs, perennials, annuals and groundcover set-ups. And then getting questions 'from the back', so stop and explain and then got talking to most experienced again.

That reminds me of this quote from Lord of the Rings.

‘What? [Talking] in riddles?’ said Gandalf. ‘No! For I was talking aloud to myself. A habit of the old: they choose the wisest person present to speak to; the long explanations needed by the young are wearying.’

Sometimes it is just easier to talk to the most experienced person present. :D

I love showing off my little yard and the things growing there.  Its not big enough, or exciting enough, to host formal tours but when people come over to visit and are interested I show them what is growing and they seem to like it even though its not as good as I hope for it to be one day.