Saturday, September 30, 2023

10AM to 4PM

You’re invited to the second annual Intown Atlanta GNPS Native Garden Tour. Tickets include admission to five habitat sites.

The self-guided tour is an opportunity to find inspiration for ways to add biodiversity to your own yard or patio as you wander through beautiful habitats created to support pollinators and other animals. Come see bees, butterflies, and birds feasting on nectar and berries. The gardens are private properties that have been certified GNPS Native Plant Habitats. The gardens can be visited in any order and the onsite tour is self-guided. At each property, GNPS volunteers will be available to answer questions.

Invite your friends and neighbors! Tickets are limited and may sell out so get your tickets early. Children under 12 and volunteers attend for free.

Volunteers attend for free. Volunteers will be asked to work about four hours at one of the gardens. If interested email alederberg@gnps.org.

Not a member? Join GNPS and save $5 on your ticket plus become eligible for member-only events!

Purchase your tickets here.

Ticket proceeds support Intown Atlanta’s educational, restoration, and advocacy activities focused on inspiring Atlanta to grow and preserve native plants.

A brochure that includes addresses and descriptions of the properties will be emailed to ticket holders a week before the event.

The tour takes place rain or shine.

The five gardens are described below:

Native Garden 1

In just over 10 years, this quarter-acre Morningside property has been converted from a traditional “lawn-with foundation plantings” type of residential landscape, to a planned habitat with close to 200 species of native plants. It is a pesticide free and remarkably productive food forest (for humans and wildlife) and a place to enjoy close encounters with dozens of species of insects, birds, small mammals and reptiles.

Native Garden 2

This Morningside homeowner started gardening with native plants in 2017 after hearing an inspiring talk by Doug Tallamy. She has been especially interested in the keystone native plants that host the most caterpillars which in turn feed baby birds. She started her garden with the top keystone natives: Oak, willow, cherry/plum, goldenrod, asters, and sunflowers and then just kept adding native nectar plants. September should be an ideal time to see butterflies.

Native Garden 3

This garden is a special narrow, long yard in Virginia-Highland with a high diversity of native plants that provide year-round food and shelter for birds, insects, small mammals, and other wildlife. Berry-producing shrubs, vines, and trees, sheltering evergreens, small prairie pockets filled with pollinator plants, mature canopy trees, a fern-filled seepage, and partly shady woodland edges combine with brush and stone piles, logs, and water sources to provide a diverse wildlife habitat.

Native Garden 4

At this amazing deeply sloped property in Decatur, the owner used a profusion of native shrubs and grasses to replace a non-native landscape over six years. An overgrown backyard was removed in favor of natives. A lovely array of Solidago and little Bluestem Grass greets the visitor in the front yard; Inkberry, Florida Anise, and Muhly Grass highlight the back.

Native Garden 5

To support wildlife, this half-acre wooded property in Avondale Estates required several years of invasive plant removal, and replanting with an understory of native shrubs, small trees, ferns and pollinator plants. This ongoing restoration project shows how an owner-designed and maintained native plant garden can be achieved.