The Sustainable Backyard Tour, held each year in June, is becoming a much-anticipated event heralding summer in St. Louis.
A unique opportunity to see firsthand how homeowners in the St. Louis region are transforming their yards into heavenly havens of green, the tour is June 23, from 11 to 4 p.m. With dozens of stops in municipalities and neighborhoods throughout the region, this year’s tour will showcase a range of green living practices, including low-impact lawn care, composting and using recycled materials creatively, organic gardening, chicken and beekeeping, gardening with native plants, cultivating mushrooms, fruit and nut trees, as well as rainwater conservation, pesticide and herbicide reduction, renewable energy production and backyard habitat creation.
“This free, self-guided tour opens the gates to private yards and gardens so that attendees can ask and learn, pick up new ideas, and share inspiration,” says Terry Winkelmann, Founding Director of The Sustainable Backyard Network, the tour’s producer. Tour goers design their own routes, choosing the listings nearest their own home or their own interests. Map booklets will be available at area businesses in June.
Residents will open their yards, patios and balcony gardens to share how they have incorporated sustainable strategies to grow food, support biodiversity, conserve and manage rainwater and even generate energy. “This is not the tour of the designer show garden,” said Winkelmann. “This is the real-world application of organic, sustainable and beautiful ideas that will leave you saying, ‘I can do that!’”
Visitors who register to attend through the website or Eventbrite, will receive the listings of properties on the tour and set their own route to visit between 11:00 and 4:00 on Sunday June 23rd. Guests can plan their tour around neighborhoods or special interests like permaculture, beekeeping, backyard chickens or solar power.
The event is free but registration is required. Registered guests could win one of several prizes including gift certificates to Rootbound Juice & Smoothies and Local Harvest Grocery.
To register to attend or for more information, visit www.sustainablebackyard.org.
Sponsors include EFS Energy, Greenscape Gardens, Missouri Wildflower Nursery, Isabees Beekeeping Supply, Kitchen House Coffee, St. Louis County Soil & Water Conservation District, St. Louis Jefferson Solid Waste Management, the William A. Kerr Foundation and others whose support is gratefuly appreciated!