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.

The IDEA Garden is a multifunctional garden that resembles a typical backyard and features more than six hundred varieties of trees, grasses, flowers, ground covers, and shrubs. Some of these plants are modern or hybrids, but they’re all well adapted to the East Texas area, so they tend to resist disease and grow taller and bigger than non-native species.

This garden has benches and a pergola so that, as in the Shade Garden, visitors can enjoy the striking landscape that has been created. The IDEA Garden is also a nationally recognized site, having won the Search for Excellence Award from the International Master Gardener Conference.