Lansdale Open Gardens Tour organizer Jenniah Caldwell, left, and Manna on Main Street Food Resources and Operations Director Jim Lynch pose with several hundred pounds of food donated by garden tour attendees earlier this month. (Credit: Jenniah Caldwell)
Free public tours scheduled for June 8 and Aug. 17
If you’ve been looking to get into gardening mode, several key dates are coming up.
Organizers of the annual Lansdale Open Gardens Day have announced several key dates that are fast approaching, including one this upcoming weekend.
“We are doing our first plant sale on May 4th as a fundraiser for the club,” said organizer Jenniah Caldwell.
In 2022 Caldwell organized a free public tour of gardens throughout the town, when volunteers set up a table in a borough park to hand out maps of the dozens of homes taking part, and gardeners showed off their growing skills while those who toured donated several carloads and several hundred dollars for a local food bank. The first tour proved so popular that a second tour was held in June 2023, yielding hundreds of pounds in additional donations, followed in August 2023 by a second tour for that year.
Since then, according to Caldwell, locals with green thumbs have formed an informal Lansdale Garden Club that meets monthly to hear guest speakers, plan field trips and discuss gardening activities and conversations, and that group is planning several big events coming soon, starting with the May 4 plant sale.
“We will be having it at Stony Creek Park from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and be featuring flower and veggie starts, house plants, natives and assorting gardening tools and accessories. A large part of the plants we are selling will be grown by our club members,” she said.
Dates for the two public tours have also been announced: on June 8 and Aug. 17, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., new gardens throughout the town will be open for the public to tour. The exact route is still being finalized so anyone interested in being featured can still apply, according to Caldwell.
“It really is the most fun day, to have all the people come through your garden and be excited to see what you’re growing — it’s just awesome. This is not a gatekeep-y kind of tour either. If you’re worried that your garden isn’t fancy enough or is too small as long as you’re willing to show it off, we would love to have you,” she said.
The Lansdale Garden Club meets at 7 p.m. on the third Tuesday of each month at the Lansdale Wissahickon Parks Building, 765 East Main Street; for more information on the tour contact Caldwell at [email protected] or search for “Lansdale Open Gardens Day” on Facebook.
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