When I moved to Mississippi from Texas in 1999, my real estate agent took it upon herself to not only introduce me to the local food (“Today we go to Old Fannin Mart because Thursdays are bread puddin’ day!”), but she also indoctrinated me in all the local garden pilgrimages.
Late April or early May is the time we look for tickets to Madison-Ridgeland Academy’s (MRA) Spring Garden Tours.
For the past seven years, I’ve had a benefactress who has passed along six to ten tickets. It doesn’t matter that my family is almost always out of town for a Bible Quiz tournament and that our Sunday afternoons are extremely short because we love church and go twice on Sundays; we make time for the MRA Garden Tours!
This year, I was particularly drawn to the front porch of one family’s home, and pool/cabana/raised gardens of another’s.
Typically, the garden designers, whether they are the owner or a contractor, are usually available to talk shop as guests meander around the property. There are fancy table setups with the florist doing a demonstration or a chef showing guests how to use a Big Green Egg at an appointed time during the weekend.
It’s a Southern experience that draws the faithful every year, usually in a giant loop from MRA, through Madison and Gluckstadt, and around to Ridgeland. It feels like the families who are part of the tour are opening wide their arms to perfect strangers and saying, “Come on in, y’all!”
It’s so much fun, and we always come home with lots of inspiration. There’s nothing like the hospitable South in the Spring!
