Submitted by The Garden Club of Jackson
With the welcome change in the seasons, Mississippians are eager to go outside and enjoy the first blooms of springtime. To celebrate the season, The Garden Club of Jackson is hosting its 13th biennial garden tour. Featuring four gardens and two homes in the heart of north Jackson, this year’s tour invites guests to stroll through a bit of Jackson’s past while enjoying today’s splendors.
The 2025 tour will take place Wednesday and Thursday, April 9-10 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tickets are $20 each. One extra ticketed event, an Evening Garden Party, will take place at the home of Betsy and Jason Greener in the Fondren neighborhood on Tuesday, April 8, from 6-8 p.m.
All tickets go on sale March 1 and may be purchased through The Garden Club of Jackson website, GardenClubofJackson.com. The Everyday Gardener, located at 114 W. Jackson St. in Ridgeland, will also sell tickets, and tickets will be on sale at each garden during the tour.
Each tour stop offers something different — from springtime blooms to flourishing vegetable beds, from welcoming verandas to stylish interiors. None of these homes was built in this century, thus giving them the patina and grounds of long-established properties, but all reflect the enhancements and cultivation of their current caring homeowners.
In the Fontaine Place neighborhood, tour stop one showcases the home and garden of Sidney and Holt Crews. They recently renovated and added on to their home, built by her grandparents and tucked into a deep lawn surrounded by flowering shrubs and gardens. Tour stop two is nearby in the Fondren neighborhood, where Drs. Nikki and Ken Cleveland’s impressive home awaits. The Cleveland home is set within ancient oaks and expansive grounds that complement its formal French style. Both the Crews’ and the Clevelands’ gardens and homes will be on tour.
Conveniently around the corner from the Cleveland home is the third garden on tour. Betsy and Jason Greener’s home, with its clean-lined modern design, enjoys a park-like setting with varied garden features developed over three generations. The final tour stop is a gardener’s garden just down the street. Master Gardener Cecile Wardlaw’s extensive, art-filled grounds will enchant visitors with their abundance and horticultural variety. In the Wardlaw garden, GCJ members will offer educational information on the importance of cultivating native plants within our gardens, and many can be found thriving at this tour stop.
The Garden Club of Jackson’s Spring Home and Garden Tour offers many delights and also benefits our Jackson community. A portion of the proceeds from this year’s tour will support the LeFleur East Foundation’s work to redesign and enhance Parham Bridges Park, a beloved recreation space for Jackson families. For more information and to purchase tickets, please go to the club website: GardenClubofJackson.com.
