KINGSTON, R.I. – June 4, 2025 – Gardens are constantly evolving, but the state’s most dedicated gardeners will pause their planting, weeding, and dividing to open their gardens across the state to the public this summer. Eighteen private and public gardens tended by University of Rhode Island Master Gardener volunteers will open their gates for the 12th Gardening with the Masters Tour, a biennial event.

This year’s garden tour takes place Saturday and Sunday, July 19 and July 20, rain or shine, from 10 a.m. – 4 p.m.

The two-day event lets ticket holders visit some of the state’s most beautiful public and private gardens tended by certified URI Master Gardener volunteers. Environmentally-friendly garden practices on display include composting, native plant pollinator gardens, hugelkultur, low-input vegetable growing, small-space and container gardening, and more.

URI Master Gardeners will greet visitors in all gardens, ready to answer questions and share science-based horticultural information about best gardening practices. This year’s tours include gardens from Chepachet to Charlestown, and in nearby North Stonington, Connecticut.

There’s even a castle.

The historic gardens at Smith’s Castle, operated by the Cocumscussoc Association in North Kingstown, are joining the garden tour for the first time this year. Cocumscussoc is part of the ancestral homeland of the Narragansett People, and was a trading post established by Roger Williams and Richard Smith in the late 1630s. Nestled among the cattails, Smith’s Castle, built in 1678, is the oldest surviving plantation house in America. The gardens there demonstrate practices followed by early gardeners which remain relevant today.

This year’s garden tour showcases the abundant diversity found across the state, in all corners of Rhode Island in a variety of growing conditions.

First-time tour host Lindsay Robinson has a tiny urban gem of a garden in Providence, near Roger Williams Park. Her garden highlights the wonder and beauty that can be cultivated in a small space. Certified as a National Wildlife Habitat since 2023, her yard hosts a variety of pollinators, birds, and other wildlife. She says a past URI Master Gardener tour let her see how others solved yard problems, giving her ideas that she was then able to apply at home.

Having a small city space is no barrier to gardening, she adds.

“You can do a lot for yourself and wildlife in a small space. Having limitations also forces you to keep learning and be creative. I hope people enjoy seeing my city garden and maybe even pick up something helpful to use in their own space,” she says.

Tour goers will also get to visit the Roger Williams Park Produce Donation Garden, which produces fresh produce for donation to local food pantries and kitchens. With more than 15 raised beds and grow bins, the pesticide-free garden grows more than 5,000 pounds (2.5 tons) of produce to donate each year.

Karen Lambe of Chepachet is looking forward to welcoming visitors to her property again this year. A Class of 2009 Master Gardener, this will be her fourth year opening her property to guests. More than 500 people visited her one-acre garden plot during the last tour.

A retired educator, Lambe says she loves the chance to talk to other garden enthusiasts, whether experienced or novice.

“It’s such a great opportunity to get all your gardening questions answered,” she says. “We offer lots of resources and the variety of gardens on the tour is really impressive. These are real-life gardens tended by regular people who just love to garden. We share our errors and our failures, too. Gardening is a learning process, never done, but always fun!”

The University is also opening its own gardens for the tour.

At URI’s Kingston campus, visitors can explore the University’s Square Foot Vegetable Garden at the Kathleen M. Mallon Outreach Center in Kingston. Five years ago, the garden’s raised beds sat unused, except for a small area that a graduate student and his family were attempting to grow vegetables in. A URI Master Gardener volunteer noticed their efforts and offered to mentor the future gardeners using the square-foot gardening method. After a successful partnership and multiple harvests, that first family moved on to Kansas (where they continue to grow vegetables in a community garden), making room for new families of URI graduate students to begin growing.

This garden is located within the URI Botanical Gardens, which visitors are welcome to stroll through after visiting the demonstration garden. URI hosts nearly six acres of botanical collections on its Kingston campus; campus guests can also preview the collection by visiting URI’s recently unveiled plant database.

The garden tour is hosted by URI Cooperative Extension’s Master Gardener Program, which trains garden enthusiasts of all levels in environmentally-friendly, science-based horticulture practices, and curates volunteer opportunities for them throughout the state. Tour proceeds benefit the educational services offered through the URI Master Gardener Program, including the gardening and environmental hotline (401-874-4836 / gardener@uri.edu) available for inquiries all year-round.

With the hopes of inspiring the next generation of environmental stewards and gardeners, admission is free for youth under 18 accompanied by an adult.

Tickets for the tour cost $30 each and include admission for one to all gardens on both tour days. Learn more at the URI Cooperative Extension website. Questions? Email coopext@uri.edu or call (401) 874 -2900.