BY WIL CREWS
SPORTSCREWS@
OPELIKAOBSERVER.COM
LEE COUNTY —
Lee County Master Gardeners’ biennial Garden Tour is set to return next Saturday, May 13.
The event serves as the main fundraising activity for Lee County Master Gardeners, which puts the profits towards demonstration gardens, grants, public education and scholarships.
The Garden Tour features eight gardens spread across residences in Auburn and Opelika. Attendees can visit each garden, which the organization said are layered and have variety, on their own, self-guided timeline. The event runs all day, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., as each garden must be extensively fashioned to be included in the tour. Tickets can be purchased before the event for $30, and the day-of for $35, at leemg.org.
When arriving at each garden, there will be a white tent stationed in front of the home with a Lee County Master Gardener and volunteers on hand to answer questions. In each garden, plants will be spotlighted for the attendees by labeled QR codes that provide more information on what is being seen. Things like the soil, what kind of irrigation has been used, etc., will explain more about each individual plant’s growing process. Attendees can expect to see gardens that include things like Japanese Maples, orchids, chickens, vegetables, an encircled pool, greenhouses and more.
Overall, Lee County Master Gardeners said it hopes this event will serve as a learning experience for those looking to build their own at-home gardens.
This is the ninth Garden Tour hosted by Lee County Master Gardeners, with the first taking place in 2006. Lee County Master Gardeners has 120 members, all of whom completed the Master Gardener class through Alabama Cooperative Extension Service. Each member volunteers 25 hours of community each year. The nonprofit maintains three public demonstration gardens located around Lee County, including the Caroline-Dean Wildflower Trail in Opelika, the garden at Kiesel Park in Auburn and an old-fashioned heirloom garden at Pioneer Park in Loachapoka.
