Our Gardens
Gardens we maintain
The objective of the Master Gardener program is to serve the public, providing information on gardening and assisting and supporting the Texas Cooperative Extension in Tyler and Smith County. The program was started in 1994 and today offers a wide variety of projects that disseminates research-based horticultural information that support our community in important ways.
Today, the Smith County Master Gardeners maintain three demonstration gardens at the Tyler Botanical Garden in addition to an historical home garden located at the Goodman Museum. Volunteers have maintained and improved the gardens, providing and engaging, tranquil, and educational setting for local residents and out of town visitors to the gardens.
The Heritage Garden at the Tyler Botanical Gardens
The Tyler Rose Garden has many varieties of roses, particularly hybrids with a varied history. The Heritage Garden is part of the Rose Garden with a concentration of old roses which have survived through the years, growing on their own roots without being hybridized and without many of the problems associated with modern roses.
The Smith County Master Gardeners have maintained this garden, located in the southwest corner of the Rose Garden, for many years. Planted in this area, to compliment the heritage roses, are a number of perennial plants, giving a display of color throughout the growing season.
The IDEA Garden at the Tyler Botanical Gardens
Planned by the Master Gardeners and built with the cooperation of the Tyler Parks Department, this garden is the most extensive demonstration garden in Tyler. Its development has been a major undertaking of the Smith County Master Gardeners.
The Shade Garden at the Tyler Botanical Gardens
Nearly one thousand linear feet of paved pathway meanders through a two-acre grove of mature pine and hardwood trees that connect the IDEA and Heritage Rose Gardens.
Hundreds of azaleas, camellias, and Japanese Maple trees showcase the garden and are complimented by an abundance of woody shrubs and herbaceous perennial plants that will survive with minimal sunlight. Smith County Master Gardener volunteers rigorously maintain and add new plants in the Shade Garden assuring that any plant demonstrated there will perform well in East Texas landscapes.
A bubbling fountain, an array of benches spaced along the pathways, and a bluebird nature trail provide an enchanting, peaceful, and tranquil environment where visitors to the Shade Garden will experience beauty in every season.
