Open Gardens Weekend 2024: Explore Iowa City's Stunning Gardens!

Project GREEN offers public opportunities to tour gardens

Nature enthusiasts will have an opportunity to participate in a favorite free activity when Project GREEN presents Open Gardens Weekend 2024 on July 13-14.

Like bees to flowers, OGW draws visitors from throughout eastern and central Iowa. They know these marvelous gardens are worth the trip for beauty and inspiration. Project GREEN has curated more than 20 host gardens — private and public – that will open to the public on Saturday from 4 to 8 p.m. and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

During OGW, visitors may pick up maps to plan garden visits from Project GREEN Gardens, 820 Park Road, Iowa City, and from any of the local business sponsors that keep this activity free of charge: the City of Coralville; Fiddlehead Gardens; Forever Green, Inc.; Hills Bank and Trust; HyVee; Iowa City Landscaping; Lenoch & Cilek Ace Hardware; Rindy, Inc.; and Sanders Creek Co.

The sponsor maps provide a brief outline of each garden but the maps do not adequately describe the beauty and creativity found in each garden. Visitors must tour the gardens to experience the inspiration and resourcefulness of each homeowner.

Project GREEN Gardens is the headquarters for OGW. These splendid gardens complement the historic Ashton House, owned by the City of Iowa City. These gardens reflect Project GREEN founders' gardening interests. At OGW headquarters, visitors will meet volunteers and find an assortment of attractive garden containers and garden art available for purchase with the proceeds from sales benefiting Project GREEN.

Iowa City is a gardening mecca. Project GREEN, an all-volunteer organization, launched in 1968 as a byproduct of an Iowa City subcommittee, Citizens for a Better Iowa City, has been at the forefront of these efforts. The weekend activity boosts tourism to the area. For decades, the all-volunteer, nonprofit organization hosted a Garden Tour for the public which evolved into the first Open Gardens Weekend in 2019. That activity was halted during the COVID-19 pandemic 2020-2021. Organizers say OGW is a marvelous tourist attraction that is sandwiched between the region’s great music and art festivals held in the summer months. The number of gardens on the tour encourages visitors to stay overnight to visit all the gardens listed on the tour map.

Approximately 55% of American households garden, totaling around 71.5 million households and over 185 million people — ranking the U.S. No. 3 in the world for gardening. Of those gardeners, 18.3 million are new to the hobby — a result of the pandemic.

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Photo byCourtesy of Project GREEN