Let’s Host A Garden Tour Every Year, Honey!

Okay, just kidding. We’d probably keel over if we had to get the garden in shape for a tour every year. But it was a really fun day and if someone asked, we’d probably offer up our yard again for a tour in the future. Even though it was in the 90s with extremely high humidity, the 9-hour day went by fast and we honestly could have gone on yacking with visitors for at least another hour or two after the 4 p.m. closing time.

The numbers have been crunched and it looks like we had 367 people touring the 11 gardens on display—that’s the biggest year yet for the annual Hennepin County Master Gardener Learning Garden Tour. Our garden is small and the paths are narrow, so we were worried that visitors might feel cramped and rushed in a way that would keep them from experiencing the garden as it’s meant to be experienced.

Luckily, people trickled in throughout the day and meandered down the paths looking at everything. Everyone was smiling and happy and had a lot of questions. It’s mostly true that mean people don’t garden, and this day was a testament to that. Love fest would be a good way to describe the day, really, and who doesn’t want more love?

After everyone left, we broke out the cold wine and talked and talked about what people said and asked about. What do you think they asked about most? You’ll never guess, so I’ll tell you. It was this mister from Gertens, a local garden center we like.

I grew up in Arizona where misters like this are often used to cool the air so people can actually sit outside in the summer without melting into piles of goo. Here, however, misters don’t work quite as well because the humidity is so high. Still, on nights with a bit less humidity in the air this little $15 investment does make the patio a nicer place to eat supper. We lost count of all the people on the tour who stuck their sweaty faces into the mist to cool off for a minute and then asked where they could buy one.

In addition to the mister, a few other things really seemed to capture people’s attention.

The container garden in the backyard, which is mostly edibles, including herbs.

The ligularia in the front yard that happily decided to bloom just days before the tour.

The Japanese painted fern in the front yard.

And the silly dog planter featuring Proven Winners’ hybrid calibrachoa Superbells® Lemon Slice. As a garden writer, I try out new plants for Proven Winners and I just love this one. It’s bloomed well all summer and has had no pest or disease problems. And you never see this pretty white/yellow color combo anywhere.