Travis County – Inside Austin Gardens Tour

The Travis County Master Gardeners Association has set Saturday, May 11, 2024, 9:00am-3:00pm, for their popular Inside Austin Gardens Tour (IAGT). The tour provides a rare look inside four private gardens that demonstrate realistic, sustainable gardening practices for Central Texas that will inform and inspire.

The tour’s theme remains: “For Gardeners. By Gardeners”, focusing on the vast variety and practical beauty of native and well-adapted plants in the garden. In turn, each garden has a theme that highlights a particular set of characteristics Central Texas gardeners are likely to encounter in their own gardens. Those themes are:

The Suburban Farm – 35 garden spaces, 5 chickens and 2 miniature donkeys on three acres
The Woodland Escape – Shade of 65+ oaks, garden rooms nestled into natural areas, sculpture
The Elevated Garden – Berms, stock tanks, fruits, veggies, bee hives, succulents, a 20-lb. tortoise The Work-In-Progress – On-going suburban experiments, successes and not

Three of the gardens are at the home of Travis County Master Gardeners, and the fourth, The Work-In-Progress garden, features the home landscape of Travis County Extension Horticulturist Daphne Richards, who also appears weekly on Austin PBS’ widely loved and respected “Central Texas Gardener” television segment.

JoAnna Benko, TCMGA President, described the unique nature of the tour this way: “This really is a garden tour for gardeners, by gardeners. These distinctive private gardens have never been open to the general public before. The featured gardens are not a product of landscape architects, garden designers or excavation contractors. Rather, they are the result of the individual gardener’s vision and their own handiwork. Our aim is to educate and enthuse. Interested visitors can experience a wide array of ideas, learn the details from the Master Gardeners that created the gardens, and know how to execute those ideas successfully in their own gardens.”

Manda Rash, Co-Chair of IAGT added: “Native and well-adapted plants require less water and less maintenance. They survive the Central Texas environment which includes erratic swings in temperatures, high summer heat both day and night, drought, flood, clay soil, and rocky soil. And, they are remarkably varied in style and structure. Natives provide food for animals, birds and insects while establishing a beautiful, unique sense of place. They are the foundation of all the sites on the Inside Austin Gardens Tour.”