Learn how to grow your own groceries at the 11th annual Kitchen Garden Tour

Dirt magazine’s Kitchen Garden Tour returns Sunday, Aug. 3 for a jam-packed day of garden peeping, followed by a farm-to-table celebration at Meadow Blues in Chester, N.Y. While there will be flowers, this is not your average garden tour; Dirt’s event features food gardens exclusively, offering attendees a one-day opportunity to learn how their neighbors are plotting produce, planting orchards and harvesting honey in their backyards.

Plotting the day

From 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., ticketholders embark on a self-guided tour of over a dozen gardens. Garden peepers are equipped with a map of the gardens and a guide describing what makes each veggie patch unique. At every stop, the gardener is on-hand to show and tell, share tips and answer questions: on successful growing techniques, organic fertilization or how to deal with that pesky groundhog colony.

This year’s event features over a dozen local gardens, including past favorites from previous tours and newcomers. Here’s a sample of what attendees can plan to see on this year’s tour:

• Klaas Vogel’s expertly engineered garden in Monroe, N.Y.: Vogel’s gardening roots stretch back to World War II in the Netherlands; his grandfather, who started gardening to be self-sufficient during war-recovery efforts, passed down his skill and passion to Klaas. The retired electrical engineer blends those traditional methods with his own expertise, using spreadsheets to plan and calculate the most efficient way to plot his produce each year. He grows onions, radishes, pole beans, bush beans, romaine lettuce, mixed lettuce, six tomato varieties, celery, eggplant, peppers, endive, cucumbers, spinach, carrots and a variety of herbs.

• Patrick Moynihan’s backyard bounty in Vernon, N.J.: Moynihan collects rainwater and compost for his backyard food garden, where he grows potatoes, garlic, string beans, beets, cucumbers, radishes, two peach trees, a pear tree, and a dozen grapevines, and pumpkins. His yard boasts a koi pond and 38 birdhouses whose residents he feeds daily.

• The Mansour’s picturesque homestead in Warwick, N.Y: The Mansours’ home features a small apiary, and a large cedar-post fenced garden paired with an orchard bursting with apples, pears, peaches, grapes, apricots and cherries. In the garden, visitors will find broccoli, cabbage, tomatoes, bell and hot peppers, green and wax beans, asparagus, red, white and sweet potatoes, leeks, melons, squash, cucumbers, garlic and onions along with a variety of berries.

After the tour, everyone meets up at Meadow Blues to enjoy live music, drinks and farm-to-table hors d’oeuvres.

Tickets for this year’s Kitchen Garden Tour are available now at www.kitchengardentours.com. Questions? Call Dirt mag at 845-469-9000 ext. 325.