They scheduled it in early June so that the gardens will be full & lush, just at the peak before the weather gets really hot.

This year the Tour will feature the gardens of...

a Master Gardener

a Rose expert &

a water reclamation expert (Yay!).

The gardeners will be on hand to answer questions, so bring notebooks & cameras!

Plus the Ellis County Master Gardeners will be at the show with a booth for information & suggestions & maybe plants!

Proceeds from sale of plants are used for their educational & public service projects.

A $4 box luncheon (price recovers cost of preparation of homemade sandwiches, chips, cookies, fruit, drink) will be available at the park, & we are invited to bring things to swap & maybe to sell, not real clear on how that works, but I did get the commitment that we can bring stuff as long as we buy the box lunch (no booth fees, etc.)

If we want to set up our swap tables earlier on Saturday mroning, we can skip the Tour or go on the Friday "preview" Tour.

Tickets for the Tour are $12, which is used for the club's many civic & charitable projects, such as the garden at the police station (nicest police station garden you've ever seen!), Veterans' Memorial Gardens, civic garden projects, horticultural scholarships that they sponsor in conjunction with the Garden Clubs of Texas, etc.

Bobbie Mason (remember the fun Swap at her house one Spring?)is president of the Ovilla Garden Club this year, so she's the ringleader for this project.

She gave me permission to give her cell number out so we can call her for more info.

The number is 972 742 0738.

I'm very excited about this:

This type of Tour & this type of educational material has most often been a function of municipal authorities in big cities (Dallas Water Utilities, FW Water Conservation Dept, etc).

To have the educational aspects available in conjunction with a small-town garden Tour is something of a groundbreaking event!

Ovilla is easy to find:

Take I-20 to the DeSoto/Duncanville area between Grand Prairie & downtown Dallas, & turn south on Cockrell Hill Rd.

Go south on Cockrell Hill all the way to the end:

You'll know you're close when you get to the traffic light at Beltline in Cedar Hill.

(If you're coming from Grand Prairie or other westerly areas, it might be easier to take 1382/Beltline south from I-20 & turn south on Cockrell Hill when you get to this same light).

When you pass Bear Creek, start looking at the houses;

there's a gorgeous 2 story with a wrought iron fence on the right, & their gardens are just wonderful.

Near downtown Ovilla, the road starts to wiggle, & the street signs will say "Main St".

Drive by the police station & look at their garden.

Just past the fruit & vegetable stand on the right (located in "Pickard's Store", one of the oldest buildings in town, it's another fun place to visit), you'll see the parking area for the park.

& across the street from the vegetable stand is an antique store in another old building; it's fun to browse around in there, too.

Hope to see everyone there!