Sustainable Backyard Tour: June 14

It's almost time again for the Sustainable Backyard Tour in St. Louis, which is just a little over a week away (next Sunday, June 14th).

This will be the second year that my garden is part of this free tour, which focuses -- as you might guess -- on sustainable gardening. Although what is "sustainable" in gardening isn't always clear (for instance growing food in some climates or even at certain times of the year takes a lot of municipal water) in this case it means growing food and more.

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Along with growing food -- many of the gardens are in the city and have to be put into the category of "urban farms" -- other practices involve harvesting rainwater or otherwise preventing runoff, raising chickens and bees, providing habitat with native plants, water gardens. Essentially it's anything that makes your yard a garden of any type.

This is the fifth year for the tour, and there is a handy tour booklet available at select locations around town that lists the three dozen or so gardens on the tour...

...along with a map of where they can be found:

The city gardens are clustered together so they get a zoomed-in map:

Even though my house is one of the outliers according to the map, we still had at least 75 people show up last year (despite the heat and the mid-day shower). I know that the city gardens can get 200 people or more attending. Did I mention that it's a free tour?

If you'll be in the St. Louis area on Sunday June 14, please stop by one or more of these gardens and share some sustainability ideas!

Registration is not required, but you could win prizes if you do! For more information and to register, visit The Sustainable Backyard Tour website.


Incidentally the tour host kickoff event was held at Brightside St. Louis, which has a nice garden full of Missouri natives:

Liatris, untouched by herbivore lips!

The one big advantage that urban gardeners have over us in suburban areas: no herbivores to deal with. (The deer would have eaten these long ago in my garden...)

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