Featured Gardens 2025

Our 2024 Garden Tour offers visitors insight into new ways of gardening in support of native species and in harmony with the mostly urban nature scene. Discover creative hardscapes, tranquil water features, a wide assortment of native, useful, or adapted plants, and plenty of pollinator habitats.

Ticket-holders may visit eight residential gardens as well as two staffed public gardens. Your program serves as your ticket. Pick up your program SEEDS or The Durham Extension Office. Tour the gardens in any order.

eight residential gardens:

1. Dave and Sally’s on delafield- Colonial Village

Dave and Sally's Garden, nestled on nearly 2 acres off Roxboro Rd, blends 35 years of growth and creativity. Originally planted with pecan trees, azaleas, and camellias, it now boasts two orchards with fruit trees, a solar-powered greenhouse, terraces with flowers, native perennials, and veggies. A stream runs through the garden, feeding two ponds, while a beehive adds to the buzz. Visitors can enjoy a mix of azaleas, peonies, fruit trees, and native pollinators like mountain mint.

2. Emma Thomas and Luke Jones Garden- DUke Park

In 2020, Emma Thomas and Luke Jones transformed their first home’s muddy yard into a thriving, eco-friendly garden. Focused on supporting pollinators and birds, they created a beautiful all-season space with mostly native plants. The front garden features a cottage feel with winding stone paths, while the backyard blends English terrace charm with cozy urban vibes. Designed with Laurel Babcock, it includes butterfly weed, echinacea, goldenrod, raised veggie beds, and more, all nurturing local ecosystems and welcoming wildlife.

3. Rogers-Price Garden- Forest Hills

The Rogers-Price Garden, nestled on an acre near downtown Durham, is a tranquil retreat with unique features like a prominent treehouse, winding brick and stone walls, and Japanese-themed garden designs. The garden, with minimal grass, uses drip irrigation and boasts drought-resistant plants. Three water features, two housing goldfish in Japanese-style gardens, and one replenished by rainwater, add to its charm. On the tour, look for native iris, clematis Armandii, thunbergii pines, Japanese styrax, and more. Designed and maintained by the owners, the garden's stone wall was completed in 2011, with Japanese elements added starting in 2020.

4. Frank’s Cottage Garden - Duke Park

Frank Hyman and Chris Crochetiere’s Garden is a vibrant, edible oasis featuring an organic vegetable garden, an herb garden with permanent gravel mulch, and fragrant plants that attract hummingbirds and wildlife. Unique design elements include a straw bale seating garden, a lawnlet, and the sculpture "Fourward Spiral." Cedar beds, stone and slate edging, and boulders enhance the landscape. Hyman, a horticulturist, carpenter, stone mason, and sculptor, created this diverse space. On the tour, discover peonies, white bearded iris, a sourwood tree, Mediterranean plants, and a mature bay leaf tree, along with many varieties of tomatoes from Hyman’s upcoming book, Ripe Tomato Revolution.

5. SHERIDAN GARDEN - Old North Durham

The Sheridan Garden, established 15 years ago, features a variety of areas, including traditional and raised beds, a stone path through a shade garden, a flagstone patio, a terraced garden with a potting shed, and a greenhouse. With no turf and no mow, the garden thrives with vegetables, herbs, perennials, shrubs, ornamental trees, and cut flower beds. Dry creek beds manage water flow across the property and neighboring streets. Installed with help from Chris Van Goethem and Environs Landscaping, the garden showcases penstemon, dahlias, hellebores, peonies, irises, alliums, and camellias in bloom during the tour.

6. Montague Garden - Downtown

This garden is a complex assembly of native plants, both common and rare, fruiting trees and shrubs, and plants from the Mediterranean, South Africa, and other dry habitats across the world that have adaptations that make them suitable for a hot, dry garden downtown. The garden is an example of xeriscaping, and is one of the only houses on the street with lightning bugs. Food and herbs are integrated into the garden, which are regularly enjoyed by passers by. The garden recently won a national award of excellence from the Perennial Plant Association. Design by homeowner Preston Montague, installed by Terra Fina Landworks.

7. North Street Neighborhood Gardens - Old North durham

Established 12 years ago, the North Street Community Garden is a vibrant, organic space that integrates plants, animals, soil, and spirit. This biodynamic garden, full of flowers, vegetables, and fruit, is located on a 0.16-acre plot within an intentional community of 100 people with and without disabilities. In addition to serving as a community hub with sculptures and winding wood chip paths, the garden functions as a rain garden, using cisterns to capture all rainwater. A recent project includes using a freeze-dryer to preserve food for residents. Designed by Bountiful Backyards, the garden features irises, poppies, foxgloves, salvia, peonies, and more in full bloom during the tour.

8. Jaliya’s garden - Cleveland Holloway

The back half of this property consists only of plants native to the Southeast. The area around the house has many non-native species not usually seen around here. There is a formal water garden near the house and a natural style water garden in the back. This garden has been established for 15 years and designed by Sheldon Galloway.

Two PUBLIC Gardens staffed during tour

1. SEEDS- Cleveland/holloway

SEED is a vibrant urban garden dedicated to promoting sustainable farming, community engagement, and food justice. This educational garden features a variety of plants, from vegetables and herbs to native flowers, all cultivated using organic and eco-friendly practices. The space includes raised beds, composting areas, and several water-efficient irrigation systems, helping to conserve resources while nurturing the land. SEEDS also offers hands-on learning opportunities, teaching individuals of all ages about gardening, nutrition, and the importance of local food systems. During the tour, visitors can explore colorful flowers, seasonal vegetables, and learn about the garden's mission to empower the community through gardening and education.

2. Extension Demonstration Garden - downtown

The Demonstration Garden is located in downtown Durham, right in front of the Durham Extension building. Spanning 0.07 acres and established four years ago, it is a showcase for research-based gardening techniques for urban environments. Boasting over 200 plant species, approximately 70% are native. The garden features beds catering to plants thriving in heavy shade, partial shade, partial sun, and full sun. Noteworthy is a unique recognition walkway, a hand-carved bird bath, Gabions, trellises and QR Code plant tags.