This year’s Tour of Gardens includes FOUR gardens open to the public and TWO photo spots.
Gardens are staffed by Anderson County Master Gardeners. The Tour of Gardens benefits both the Anderson County Master Gardeners and the community gardening and nutrition programs of Grow Oak Ridge. If you have a garden to suggest for next year, please contact us!
OPEN Hours:
Friday, June 20, 4 to 6 PM
Saturday, June 21, 10 AM to 4 PM
Sunday, June 22, 2 to 4 PM
Pets are not allowed, except for service animals.
Adults must show their tickets at the entrance to each garden. Children 18 and under are free with paying adult.
SCROLL DOWN for information on each garden
Garden #1 - An oasis in the shade
The DOBBS GARDEN - 101 CORNELL LANE, OAK RIDGE, TN
The garden of Norm and Lee Ann Dobbs borders Emory Valley Greenway and is a delight for anyone who has the joy of walking by!
Purchased 33 years ago, the home just had just six cedar trees on an otherwise bare one-third acre lot. Quickly the couple realized they would need a way of channeling the rain runoff from the driveway and room, because the lawn would get washed out with every storm. So, Norm laid hundreds of rocks … himself … and installed a dry creek bed.
“Nowadays you might call this a rain garden,” said Lee Ann. Today it is surrounded by an abundance of shade loving hostas, ferns, hydrangea, trillium, wood poppies and more. Casting abundant shade in the garden are a few dozen trees including Kousa dogwood, buckeye, willow oak and Japanese maples.
In addition to the dry creek bed, Norm laid extensive stone work around the garden beds to add definition and order to the design.
The Dobbses have been involved with the UT Arboretum plant sales, and have purchased many native and other shade-loving plants over the years through that. They are also collectors and sometimes creators of whimsical garden art. Check out the bottle tree (Norm’s creation), wind chimes, the two rain chain off the back porch, and even a welcome sign near a chipmunk hole because the critter refused to leave.
✋🏼 Please stay off the dry creek bed and other roped-off areas. ✋🏼
PARKING - Please park in the cul-de-sac and do not block driveways.
ACCESSIBILITY - This garden is flat but unpaved.
PHOTO SPOT NEARBY - Nearby is 117 Cascade Lane, which is always an open garden and also features the Cascade Lane Little Free Art Museum.
Garden #2 Tennessee Smart Yard
Bunick Garden - 117 Claymore Lane, Oak Ridge, TN
PHOTO SPOT NEARBY - On this street you will also find a second Tennessee Smart Yard (124 Claymore Lane), and a Lavender Festival Photo Spot (111 Claymore Lane).
This Tennessee Smart Yard is the garden of Dr. Elaine Bunick, who is also a Master Gardener. It features a series of wet-weather run off pathways that welcome pedestrians in the dry weather. A Tennessee Smart Yard is a yard that is in balance with the local environment for the benefit of both people and our ecosystem. Read more about the Tennessee Smart Yard program here.
This garden has been featured on the Lavender Festival Tour of Gardens previously, but several new beds have been replanted this year to add variety and replace those damaged by a spring freeze. “I love to propagate plants and use them to fill beds to decrease erosion,” Elaine said. “This year the rain has made the plants grow big and lush.”
The garden is filled with a variety of native plants and backs up to the UT Arboretum, with abundant wildlife coming to visit. Elaine intersperses hostas, which the deer love to eat, with prickly and stinky flowers, hoping to deter them. Unusual plant species such as Amorphophallus, commonly called Dog’s Penis, are interesting to see as well.
Elaine will have a display of the Tennessee Smart Yard program in her garage.
ACCESSIBILITY - The garden is sloped, but if you go through the garage, you can see most of it from the back deck.
PARKING - On the street.
Garden #3 - A Wild and wonderful “D” / Reducing the lawn
106 Dixie Lane, Oak Ridge, TN
The garden on the tour is in one of Oak Ridge’s historic World War II neighborhoods, 106 Dixie Lane.
Built in 1943 during World War II, this home sits on a half-acre and was one of the original “D” houses in the Oak Ridge alphabetic housing system, which later became the template for post-war ranch houses. For a history of the Oak Ridge alphabet homes, be sure to read the National Park Service information on them.
Amy and Kelly Myers bought this home in 1998, and never paid much attention to the garden for about 20 years, said Amy. Unfortunately the previous owners had planted English Ivy, which over the years began to take over. Amy began pulling up ivy in 2020 when she was home from work in the Oak Ridge School System on an extended spring break during Covid.
“The kids had a fort back there that was getting overrun, and there were daffodills getting covered over,” she said. “And then it’s like picking a scab, once you start and you can’t stop. I caught the gardening bug for sure!” she said with a laugh. Over time she began to rip out the lawn, and install native flower beds and two water features.
In spring 2024, Amy tackled the side yard, killing grass by smothering it with cardboard and wood chips, and planting a low-lying “flower driveway,” with help from American Meadows, one of our sponsors for this Tour of Gardens. American Meadows sent moonshine yarrow, phenonmenal lavender, snow cap daisies, may night salvia, mardi gras helenium, all low-growing plants that not only will make the side yard beautiful but can be drive over (lightly) for when the family needs to drive around the side of the house.
Her favorite season is fall, she said. “The goldenrod and asters, Amsonia blue star, look so pretty together. In the spring, I really like the cactus opuntia humifusa,” which is also known as devil’s tongue or eastern prickly pear.
Amy says she doesn’t worry too much about weeds and structure! She likes a natural, wild look, so we’re calling this garden “wild and wonderful.”
Master Gardeners will be on hand to answer questions.
PARKING - Please park in the cul-de-sac and do not block any driveways.
ACCESSIBILITY - The garden is largely flat, but not wheelchair accessible.
Garden #4 - A Rural retreat
Thompson Garden - 1667 Oliver springs Highway, Clinton TN
On four acres on the edge of the Marlow Community, the grounds of Mike and Darlene Thompson have undergone continuous evolution over the past 27 years. The main garden was originally coaxed out of a heavy-clay fallow meadow, initially just a few garlic bulbs planted in a 4X4 ft space, created with just a digging fork. Today the main garden, fenced against deer and other critters, sports perennials, low evergreens, flowering shrubs and trees, dozens of unique day lilies, with gravel paths and both greenery and hardscapes guaranteeing four-season interest. Other garden beds, including a small potager/kitchen vegetable garden, are unique and well-maintained. A small pond, a gazebo, and outbuildings are additional points of interest, and landscape lights keep the grounds alive at night. The property backs up to a creek, beyond which is a a beautiful ridge that catches the extraordinary light of both sunrise and sunset. Mike and Darlene Thompson are in the medical field, and many of their plants were gifts from patients and evoke fond memories of them.
PARKING - Park in the designated area on the west side of the property. Stay on paved areas, and do not climb on water features in the pond. They are very slippery!
ACCESSIBILITY - This garden is level and largely handicapped accessible.
RESTROOM - In the pool house, which has a couple of steps.
