The first GardenWalk Cleveland will take place on Saturday, June 25. It is a free, self guided tour of more thaan 100 gardens, farms, vineyards and orchards in four Cleveland neighborhoods.
Founder Jan Kious was inspired to start GardenWalk Cleveland after reading an article about a similar event in Buffalo, New York. She went on a day trip to the city to go on its tour of 353 gardens featuring blue collar neighborhoods, and was amazed by what she saw.
“It was so inspiring. It changed my perception of Buffalo completely,” she said, reminiscing. She started dreaming of putting up a similar event in Cleveland, and reached out to gardeners in four neighborhoods–Hough, Tremont, Lee-Miles-Harvard and Detroit-Shoreway. She wanted to start small in the event’s first year, but it has generated a lot of enthusiasm.
“We have neighborhoods calling us, saying ‘Hey, what about us?'” she said.
Participants must head for a GardenWalk headquarters and pick up a map of 80 private gardens, 55 community gardens, 45 Reimagining Cleveland gardens, 24 urban farms and special features, such as a sculpture garden.
The event is free of charge, but participants who make a contribution in one of the donation buckets stationed at the neighborhood headquartes will receive a frameable poster.
Kious hopes that the event will be successful enough to become an annual happening and eventually grow into a regional event that will draw garden lovers from surrounding cities. She also hopes to add new neighborhoods each year.
“It’s a way of tranforming a city–one yard at a time. That’s the power of it,” she said.
