Ask a Master Gardener: Gardens To Inspire You
- Jennifer McDonald
- Apr 13
- 3 min read
Vintage Garden at Stonewalk Cottage
By: Mary Townsley, PhD, Mobile County Master Gardener | www.mobilecountymastergardeners.org
Even avid gardeners enjoy seeing how other gardeners create their garden spaces. It's both enlightening and inspiring! Fortunately, the upcoming 2026 Tour of Gardens is just around the corner, when eight Mobile County Master Gardeners will invite you into their gardens. They have been preparing for this event for nearly a year, working hard to make sure plantings and surrounds will show their best and to create educational materials for visitors. The Tour spans 3 days: May 15, 16, and 17, allowing visitors to leisurely explore each garden in any order they choose.
The gardens in this year's Tour are clustered in Springhill/West Mobile, Midtown and Downtown, and South Mobile County.
The two Springhill/West Mobile gardens on this year's Tour differ dramatically in both size and "feel.” The Master Gardener DREAM Garden sprawls over the hilltop adjacent to the Mobile County Extension Office. This garden includes a large section for vegetables, herbs, and fruit as well as a half-dozen additional unique garden spaces, all connected by gravel paths: a great place to wander and contemplate. In contrast, Al's Garden is a tiny courtyard that packs a large punch, with a veranda surrounded by tropical plants and palms, a canopy of old trees, and a delightful fountain.
Five of our Tour gardens are in the historic Midtown and Downtown sections of Mobile. Collections is a large and eclectic urban garden in the heart of Midtown. Collected plantings highlight favorite plant families with variegated foliage and are surrounded by garden art and the soothing sounds of water spilling from fountains. The outdoor bathroom wall mural painted by a local artist is a highlight not to be missed.
Cornerstone Gardens is a hidden surprise in Downtown Mobile, where you will find an English garden paired with a Japanese woodland gardens area, a beautiful koi fishpond, and a greenhouse. One highlight is their very extensive and unique camellia collection. Urban Oasis displays mature citrus trees, palms, native plants, herbs, vegetables, and more, blending harmoniously with hardscaped areas surrounding the pool and the front entrance. Plants climb pergolas and lattice and wood fencing and spill out of containers throughout this soothing garden.
Continuing through Midtown's historic areas, you will find the Vintage Garden at Stonewalk Cottage which showcases vintage and antique varieties of plants organized in a series of garden rooms, interconnected by a hand-laid stone pathway. Unique features include a pocket rock garden offering color and nectar for pollinators, and the KISS Garden (Keeping it Simple and Serene) with its Zen-like setting. Finally, Wonder-Filled, a small, mostly-shade garden, is jam-packed with plants, the usual and the unusual, and “yard art.” Shade-loving plants are contrasted with vegetables and herbs in the sunny front yard. This garden’s wonder results from an eye on recycling and budgeting!
We have the largest garden on the Tour in South Mobile County: Honeypointe Garden on the Bayou, offering many delights, including annuals, perennials, blueberries, blackberries, and ornamental shrubs, a significant longleaf pine forest, and a pollinator garden that supports their bee hives. These garden spaces are framed by the adjacent bayou with its water, wildlife, and grasslands.
Whether you are a novice or an experienced gardener, we are sure you will be delighted with the gardens showcased in the 2026 Tour and find new inspiration for your own gardens. To read more about each garden and purchase Tour tickets, visit our Tour website at https://www.mobilecountymastergardeners.org/2026tour. More specific garden locations will be announced on this Tour website on May 14. We are excited about the Tour and are looking forward to seeing you there!
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