Bloomington garden walk returns for 35th year, honors local icon

Whether you're already an avid gardener or merely an aspirational one, you'll soon have a chance to peek into five private gardens across Bloomington. Now in its 35th year, the Bloomington Garden Club's Annual Summer Garden Walk will take place on Saturday, May 31 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and on Sunday, June 1 from noon to 4 p.m.

"The Garden Walk is just a great way to get out and enjoy nature," says Linda Heath, Bloomington Garden Club member and Garden Walk publicity chair. "People can walk through and meet the gardeners and ask questions." Attendees are also free to photograph the gardens during the two-day event and can explore the grounds at their own pace.

"We've had a couple of gardens that have been repeated over the years, but not many," Heath adds. Exact locations of each garden on the tour are printed on event tickets. Detailed, take-home descriptions of the gardens are also provided. "Sometimes you walk into these gardens—and you may read some descriptions [in advance]—but, when you walk in, it's still just such a surprise," Heath says.

Some of the 2025 Garden Walk's hidden treasures include a drought-tolerant, naturalistic garden replete with sages, coreopsis, blazing star, and more. Event-goers will also spy a flourishing bird sanctuary and ornate koi pond, sundry child-friendly plantings, fairy gardens, formal, structured landscapes, and a shady woodland paradise.

Still, at least one of Bloomington's gardening treasures is missing this year. The host of WFIU's "Focus on Flowers" segments and a longtime Bloomington Garden Club member, Moya Andrews, died on March 26. "Throughout her life, right up until the end, Moya was just a guiding force in the Garden Walk and in supporting gardening throughout the whole area," says Juliet Istrabadi, one of the Garden Walk's coordinators.

In fact, Andrews' own garden was among those featured during the very first Garden Walk held in 1990. "Moya's spirit, her love of gardening, her generosity as a friend and as a gardener was so broad," Istrabadi continues. "She will very much be missed."

In speaking about the Garden Walk in 2004, Andrews told "The Herald-Times": "I would advise any novice gardener to take advantage of the annual Bloomington Garden walk. . . . The more you read and the more you see of other people's gardens, the more you learn."

Aside from touring featured gardens and learning from others along the way, Garden Walk attendees also can watch on-site watercolorists as they work to capture the vivid colors, textures, shapes, and shadows present in each of the different gardens.

Tickets for the Bloomington Garden Club's Annual Summer Garden Walk cost $10 each and are available now through June 1 at Bloomingfoods East, Bloomingfoods West, Bloomington Farm Stop Collective, Morgenstern's Bookstore & Cafe, Bloomington Hardware, Ellettsville True Value Hardware, Goods for Cooks, Bloomington Valley Nursery, Mays Greenhouse, and Hall's Greenhouse. (Admission for children 12 and under is free.)

If you stumble upon one of the Garden Walk locations sans tickets, all is not lost. "Sometimes people see something happening in the neighborhood and they're curious and they come up," Istrabadi says. "So, we also do have some [cash-only] tickets available at the gardens."

Proceeds from the Garden Walk support garden-related projects throughout the community. "We have grants and we support children's gardening programs and civic planning and beautification projects," Heath says. Recent grant recipients include the Boys & Girls Clubs of Bloomington, Community Kitchen, Hilltop Nature & Garden Center, Mother Hubbard's Cupboard, New Hope for Families, and Wildcare, Inc., among others.

To learn more about this year's Garden Walk, visit www.bloomingtongardenclub.com.