Sneak peek: Kitchen Garden Tour returns today
GARDENING. The highly anticipated tour of local backyard food gardens returns this Sunday, Aug. 13. Past favorites will be on the tour alongside first-time entrants. Tickets are available at kitchengardentours.com.
| 13 Aug 2023 | 04:25
Christina Stephens of Vernon Valley Farms, with her helper Theo, shows her “miracle garden” to attendees at last year’s Kitchen Garden Tour. Her veggie patch was voted as one of the best gardens. Stephens will open her gates up to ticketholders again this year at the Kitchen Garden Tour on Sunday, Aug. 13. Tickets are available at kitchengardentours.com
Gardener Klaas Vogel invites attendees to his backyard veggie patch, where he grows a variety of lettuce, beans, celery, eggplant, peppers, spinach, herbs, onions, tomatoes and more. He is one of the 17 local food gardeners participating in this year’s Kitchen Garden Tour on Sunday. Tickets are available at kitchengardentours.com. File photo.
Your neighbors are feasting out of their backyards, and this Sunday, you’re invited to explore their veggie patches on Dirt’s ninth annual Kitchen Garden Tour.
From 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., ticketholders embark on a self-guided tour of over a dozen gardens. Garden peepers are equipped with a map of the gardens and a guide describing what makes each unique. At each stop, the gardener is on-hand to show and tell, share tips and answer questions: on successful growing techniques, organic fertilization or how to deal with that pesky groundhog colony.
From 5 p.m. to 7 p.m., garden peepers and gardeners gather at Meadow Blues in Chester, N.Y. to enjoy live music and farm-to-table food, beer and wine while votes are tallied. Capping the evening is an award ceremony celebrating the humble kitchen garden and crowning the most popular gardens of the year.
Plotting your day
New gardens will be on this year’s tour alongside old favorites.
The following winners from past Kitchen Garden Tours will be on the map again this year:
• The Andersen family’s garden in Warwick, N.Y.
• Klaas Vogel’s garden in Monroe, N.Y.
• Greenwood Lake Common Ground Community Garden
• West Milford Organic Community Garden
• April Perciballi’s Lafayette, N.J. garden
• The Bower family’s Warwick, N.Y. garden
• Christina Stephens’ Sussex, N.J. garden
Nine additional gardeners, new to the event this year, will also open their gates to ticketholders, including Patrick Moynihan of Vernon, N.J.
In the “piece of paradise” that is his garden, Moynihan is growing his famous beefsteak tomatoes and a giant pumpkin, along with potatoes, garlic, string beans, beets, cucumbers, radishes, peaches, pears and a dozen grapevines. The yard boasts a koi pond and 38 birdhouses, whose residents he feeds daily. A nature lover, Moynihan composts, harvests rainwater and eschews chemicals. He is eager to invite this year’s peepers to his backyard escape. “I am very proud of it as every square inch has my fingerprints on it,” he said.
Self-taught gardener Megan Curry, of Sparta, N.J. is also a tour rookie. In her pandemic-project “raised bed garden of my dreams,” she grows tea herbs, dragon tongue beans and sugar snap peas alongside carrots, onions, zucchini and more.
“Being able to supply yourself with things you can’t get in the grocery store is rewarding and something to be proud of,” she said.
Sunday’s event will be the ninth annual Kitchen Garden Tour, hosted by Dirt, a green living magazine. The event promises to inspire, often influencing ticketholders to pick up gardening, or redesign their existing plots.
“What makes the event so great are the passionate gardeners,” said Karen P., a past attendee. “They were knowledgeable, friendly, and willing to answer any question. We learned something at each of the nine gardens we visited.”
Limited tickets remain. Secure yours today at kitchengardentours.com or by calling 845-469-9000 ext. 325.