Peek into the backyards of your neighbors this month at Experience Memphis Gardens, the citywide garden tour that takes you through more than 260 of Memphis’ private and public green spaces in more than 35 neighborhoods. Featured are gardens of all sizes and styles, from beginner vegetable plots to cut flower farms. Though the monthlong event kicked off on May 1st, its capstone event, which started it all — the Cooper-Young Garden Walk — is this weekend.
The Cooper-Young Garden Walk will have 70 gardens on tour, with a shuttle running through the neighborhood for people to get to and from the gardens and local shops and restaurants. Urban Bike Food Ministry will also provide guided bike tours and will watch your bikes as you get off at secret gardens. Some gardens might have vendors, music, educational programming, and other fun surprises.
“[The Cooper-Young Garden Walk] only started 10 years ago. We only had 23 gardens,” says Kim Halyak, co-chair of Experience Memphis Gardens with Sharron Johnson. “Then three years ago, we decided to go citywide and invited all these other neighborhoods to participate. People who didn’t live in our neighborhood were asking us to be on the tour, and it has always been our dream to go citywide.”
So far, in Cooper-Young Garden Walk and Experience Memphis Gardens’ 10 years, the club has showcased about 630 gardens total. And this year, for the first time, Halyak says, “We have 70 garden communicators from all over the U.S. and the world coming in June for five days to look at special gardens in Memphis to write about gardening in Memphis. It’s their 16th year of going to a different city, and they’ve never been to Memphis before, and it would never have happened if our garden walk didn’t exist. It’s like we’re starting to reap the rewards.
And there have been other rewards to the garden walk to be sure, Halyak says. “We complain about litter, we complain about blight, and I don’t know how to fix those problems. Those problems are too much for my pay grade, but I do know that when you invite people to show you their spaces, they want to keep making it better and better every year. And if you start turning some neighborhoods around, what does that do to our city? … It builds neighborhood pride. It brings people together.”
In other words, it makes Memphis beautiful. In fact, each year donations from the walk go towards the CY Beautify Grant, for which any participating neighborhood can apply. Usually ticket fees account for that, but this year tickets are free thanks to the Dr. Rudy Campbell Foundation. To reserve a lanyard, which will serve as your admission pass, go to experiencememphisgardens.org. A list of pick-up locations for lanyards and a schedule of neighborhood walks can be also be found there.
Experience Memphis Gardens, Various Locations, Through June 15.
Cooper-Young Garden Walk, Cooper-Young Historic District, Saturday-Sunday, May 17-18, 9 a.m.-3 p.m.