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.
If your group or organization is interested in a free tour of the Tyler Botanical Gardens, click HERE for more information.
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 Tyler 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
Established in 1999, the IDEA Garden is a thinking ground designed to provide an enjoyable experience for the casual visitor and to inspire innovative ideas for seasonal homeowners to use in their gardens. It was created by Keith Hansen, former Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service horticulturist, and Sue Adee, a Smith County master gardener. The name IDEA stands for Innovate, Demonstrate, Educate, and Apply.
Visit the IDEA Garden and discover a backyard setting, much like you might find at any residence. Located in the southeast corner of the world famous Tyler Municipal Rose Garden, this multipurpose demonstration garden is designed to stimulate ideas for use in your own garden. At the front of the garden a large perennial display, the “rainbow border,” presents year-round color. Backed with a black metal fence and arbors, the border display is only the prelude to the garden itself.
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.
The Goodman Le Grand Historical Gardens
This Smith County Master Gardener project was created to organize and coordinate research, planting, and maintenance of the gardens at the Goodman Le Grand historical house.
Our purpose is to advise and assist the Goodman staff to facilitate a landscape that reflects the home’s time period, its importance to the City of Tyler, and its landmark status. We seek to create and maintain a garden that is an accurate reflection of the house and its occupants from 1880 to 1930. We also provide educational information and occasionally tours to visitors about this garden, and early 20th Century Southern American gardens as well.
