By Dawn Weber
Member-at-Large, Wild Ones – St. Louis Chapter
The Sustainable Backyard Tour returns for the 8th year on Sunday, June 10, 2018.
As a free, self-guided tour of residential yards throughout St. Louis, the tour showcases a range of green living practices, including low-impact lawn care, composting and using recycled materials, organic gardening, chicken and beekeeping, gardening with native plants, water conservation, and renewable energy.
If your backyard is green or you know someone whose yard is, we invite you to consider being a host on this year’s tour and putting your yard on display.
Although not exclusive to native plants, the Tour’s mission fits well with our Wild Ones mission – to teach about and encourage others in our community to landscape with native plants, for the benefit of the wildlife AND the people. When you register, please include Wild Ones in your property description and let us know so that we can share the list of Wild Ones participants here on this blog. Last year Wild Ones had at least six homes participating. Let’s get more involvement this year!
Missouri evening primrose (Oenothera macrocarpa)
Your yard doesn’t need to be perfect, elaborate, or large. If it’s inviting and demonstrates some element of sustainability that the public can learn from, we’d like to hear from you! As an organic, life-celebrating event, the tour asks only that you commit to organic best-practices and refrain from using synthetic pesticides and additives. If you have questions about what that means, we encourage you to contact us for more information.
Hosts agree to open their yards from 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. and interact with visitors—as many as 300 have visited individual yards in past years. More than 2,000 people attend the tour overall—but with dozens of stops to choose from, no yard is overwhelmed.
Practices like naturescaping, rain gardening, and edible landscaping are spreading into every neighborhood and town. We want to find the trailblazers so we can shine a light on their efforts and learn from each other.
While many host sites are single-family backyards, organizers encourage residents of apartment buildings, condos, and other residential communities to apply also. If you have worked hard to make your yard sustainable, consider being a host.
The deadline to register to host is May 1, 2018.
Visit the Sustainable Backyard Tour website for details or email Terry Winkelman at TerrySBYT@gmail.com
