Friends of Bees and Watertown Community Gardens are planning to hold the 27th Life-Friendly Garden Tour on Sunday, September 8 from noon to 3 pm. (Rain date September 15). A social hour will follow at Watertown Free Public Library from 3:30 pm to 4:30 pm.

We will explored how our gardens are part of Homegrown National Park, at an introduction to Homegrown National Park at the monthly meeting on August 21.

Homegrown National Park is a national challenge raised by University of Delaware professor and best-selling author Doug Tallamy. By reducing lawn, removing invasive plants, and planting keystone native plants, we can increase habitat and enjoy nature at home. If we replaced half of what is now lawn nationwide, that could restore roughly 20 million acres — an area larger than any single National Park — to diverse ecosystems. For example, if you have room to plant a new tree, an oak will have immense benefit for biodiversity. Our own Garden Tour is all about using no chemicals, leaving the leaves, and adding “soft landings” under trees for overwintering insects. And anyone can help by using motion-detecting lights at night or simply turning them off.

And now the map is available!  

The green flowers indicate hosted gardens. Hosted gardens will be welcoming guests during the hours of the Garden Tour. Until the next tour, please be respectful and view these gardens from the street.

The golden flowers indicate unattended planting strips and public gardens. These are open for viewing from the street any time!