photograph by kenzie campbell
Jimmy McCown and Connie Arduini’s back garden
June ushers in summer’s lushness, when coneflowers, lilies, and hydrangeas are their showiest and the air is honeysuckle-sweet. Jump in — enjoy nature’s wonder by taking part in the Greater Memphis Garden Walk. Each Thursday through Sunday during the month of June, gardens across the city will be open for touring.
With more than 30 neighborhoods participating in this year’s event (it launched mid-May with Cooper-Young’s Garden Walk), there’s plenty to love.
Created by Experience Memphis Gardens (EMG), organizers hope visitors will explore neighborhoods they’ve never visited before. Stroll through Midtown’s Hein Park and Vollintine Evergreen neighborhoods, then head east to Central Gardens and East Memphis, north to Scenic Hills in Raleigh, and continue southward to Fox Meadows and Hickory Hill. The growth of EMG’s vision has even extended beyond Memphis to include gardens in Lakeland, Arlington, Piperton, and Somerville. For $26, you’ll receive a lanyard that provides access to all locations.
“For me, it’s about saying, ‘There are different ways to garden. What kind do you like?’” says Experience Memphis Gardens founder Kim Halyak. “Look at these gardens and see if you don’t find something you love.”
Halyak’s gardening work is a labor of love. Although she claims to be retired, she spends countless volunteer hours writing grants, managing EMG’s activities, and keeping its website updated. Fostering community is her true passion, something she fervently believes in and works to promote.
photograph by kim halyak
Garden visitors planning out their garden route.
Sowing seeds
“She has a great vision,” says community activist Mary Wilder. “Kim sees gardening as something positive and an asset to our city.”
Wilder, a longtime Vollintine Evergreen Community Association (VECA) volunteer, oversees Idlewild Garden, a raised-bed community garden located just west of McLean on the V&E Greenline. Here, volunteers gather on Saturdays to weed, mulch, and mingle. Residents got involved with EMG last year during the first citywide garden walk after Wilder posted information about the event in their newsletter. Thanks to her e-blast, eight gardeners jumped in. This year, 10 gardens will be part of the tour, including the V&E community garden and a traffic island at Hallwood and Oakmont maintained by neighbor Bill Schultz.
“If you can get people excited about their yard and the space beyond their own home, that’s the key.“ — Kim Halyak.
Experience Memphis Gardens has its roots in the Cooper-Young Garden Walk, which Halyak and Sharron Holloway Johnson launched in 2016. During that first year, just 23 gardens were featured. They were an eclectic group, with some traditional gardens, but others featuring chicken coops, rain barrels, and funky art. All shared a singular passion for creating a welcoming outdoor space. This year, 70 gardens were included on the tour.
Halyak decided to take EMG citywide in 2023 after successfully managing the Cooper-Young walk. She wants Memphis to become a national destination for garden tourism. In her mind, gardening goes far beyond growing plants; it’s about growing community and cultivating green space. She wants to demonstrate how making affordable improvements can nudge other residents to join in and thus bolster a whole neighborhood’s appearance and pride.
photograph by jane schneider
The raised beds of Idlewild Gardens along the V&E Greenline are planted with a variety of perennials. You’ll see irises and roses blooming during the spring months, followed by tomatoes, fennel, and sunflowers later in the summer.
Fostering neighborhood improvements
The nonprofit also works to help garden groups reach that goal. The funds EMG raises from ticket sales are poured back into neighborhood improvement projects. Participants can apply for beautification grants up to $1000, which must be matched by the applicant in cash and/or labor. Groups receive one-third of the funds up front and the remaining two-thirds after demonstrating results.
Last year, a beautification grant helped to improve the southern entrance to the Cooper-Young neighborhood. Every week, Johnson and her team pick up gallons of trash strewn along an eight-block expanse of Southern Avenue south of East Parkway to Cooper. The grant enabled them to have murals painted, add planters with native, sun-tolerant shrubs, and create decorative trash containers that brighten the street.
The C-Y Garden Club has encouraged neighborhood participation by doing away with the traditional Yard of the Month awards. Johnson says she and Halyak viewed those awards as too limiting. “Receiving a Yard of the Month award was a once-in-a-lifetime event,” says Johnson. Instead, they came up with a sign that reads “Beauty Grows Here.” The pair would surreptitiously plant the sign in a yard of a homeowner they deemed was making special efforts, along with a note that read, “Thank you for doing your part to beautify the neighborhood.” But when they would return to retrieve the sign, recipients were often loath to give them up. So the signs stayed put and today are sprouting across Cooper-Young, an indication that neighborhood pride has taken root.
“If you can get people excited about their yard and the space beyond their own home, that’s the key,” says Halyak.
This year in the Fox Meadow neighborhood, an EMG grant enabled cedar planters to be purchased to hide a few eyesores. “It was a way of demonstrating that if you have a unified look, it can change how the neighborhood feels,” says Halyak. “The pallets were placed in front of things like tree stumps as a way of providing a budget-friendly DIY solution.” The planters were then painted coordinated colors by teens from Girl Scout Troop #13.
Additional projects EMG has funded include a Little Free Library for Idlewild Elementary School and signs for Black Seeds Urban Farms.
photograph by jane schneider
Volunteers gather each Saturday to tend the beds, using tools provided by the V&E Greenline. They are a mix of ages, from children to retirees, and most live in the neighborhood. Elizabeth Mueller, a financial analyst with Mercer Capital, is a Saturday regular. She describes time spent in the garden as creative and fulfilling.
Pushing for change
In addition to viewing private gardens, there are some cool public spaces on tap, all citizen-led efforts. These include Audubon and Gaisman Parks, both of which have been recently revitalized by the City, a greenhouse in Berclair, and Black Seeds Urban Farms.
Suzanne Shown with Friends of Audubon Park pushed to have that popular park refurbished and is organizing family-friendly activities during their tour. In Berclair, Chris Collier and John Long lobbied hard for the improvement of Gaisman Park, which now boasts walking trails, native plants, and a new community center. Also on the Berclair tour is gardener Marius Blake, who uses his greenhouse and vegetable garden to teach others how to garden. Downtown, Black Seeds Urban Farms in the Greenlawn neighborhood reflects the vision of owners Bobby and Derravia Rich, who grow organic fruits, vegetables, and herbs. The couple also provide a green space which is open to the public.
Gardeners know that when you plant something new, patience is a virtue. “Sleep, creep, leap” is the adage one follows to gauge how long it will take for a new plant to prosper. Perhaps Memphis’ gardening adventure will follow this path too, eventually leaping onto the national stage to show just how rich and bountiful our city’s neighborhoods can be.
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photograph by kenzie campbell
Randle Witherington and Kerry Palmer’s garden
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photograph by kenzie campbell
Barry and Myna Host’s patio
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photograph by kenzie campbell
Barry and Myna Host’s garden
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photograph by kenzie campbell
Another view of McCown and Arduini’s garden
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photograph by kenzie campbell
Dave Gallagher and Li Wang’s garden
photograph by jane schneider
The V&E Greenline garden
The Greater Memphis Garden Walk
June 1–30
26 days / 270 gardens / 30 neighborhoods
$26 gives you all-garden access
Gardens are open Thursday through Sunday.
Go to experiencememphisgardens.org to order tickets and see the event schedule
