Local backyard food growers will open their garden gates for Dirt magazine’s Kitchen Garden Tour on Sunday, July 26.
Equipped with a map and descriptions of each garden, attendees embark on a self-guided tour, hopping from one local veggie patch to the next. At each plot, they explore the gardens and meet with the green-thumbed owners to learn new tips.
Select ticketholders join Dirt and the gardeners at Meadow Blues in the evening for farm-to-table bites, local craft beer and wine, and live music. Attendees vote for their favorite gardens at the end of the day, and winners are announced at the event.
In addition to newcomers, some past favorites are already on the map for the 2026 Kitchen Garden Tour.
• Larry and Diane Mansours’ Warwick, NY garden: The Mansours’ apiary is a fan-favorite. In addition to harvesting their own honey, the Mansours grow a variety of fruits, vegetables and herbs.
• Aysha Venjara’s Chester N.Y. garden: Her sprawling, award-winning garden features variety of produce, including shiitake mushrooms, which are grown on logs in her yard. Venjara donates surplus produce to local food pantries.
• Patrick Moynihan’s Vernon, NJ garden: Moynihan collects rainwater and compost for his backyard food garden, which features potatoes, garlic, string beans, beets, cucumbers, radishes, two peach trees, a pear tree, a dozen grapevines and pumpkins.
• Klaas Vogel’s Monroe, N.Y. garden: Vogel’s gardening roots stretch back to World War II in the Netherlands, where his grandfather began gardening to become self-sufficient during wartime recovery. The tradition was passed down to Klaas, a retired electrical engineer who now blends those methods with modern planning tools, using spreadsheets to map and optimize his yearly garden layout.
The “mix of veggies, herbs and flowers inspired me,” attendee Sheri VanHouten said after seeing Vogel’s garden on a past tour.
Learn from your neighbors
Each year, attendees leave the Kitchen Garden Tour inspired to start their own food growing journeys; whether that means expanding current plots or starting from scratch.
To buy tickets and learn more about this year’s tour, visit kitchengardentours.com.
To nominate a garden for this year’s tour, visit kitchengardentours.com or email molly.colgan@strausnews.com