2026 Habitat Garden Tour Season!

Highlighting Kansas City residents who understand why what you plant matters!

Habitat Garden Tours are a recurring event held at various times throughout the growing season. These events are an opportunity for Deep Roots to recognize the native gardeners in different neighborhoods of Kansas City and showcase their beautiful gardens. The goals are to inspire locals to plant native, share knowledge on gardening maintenance and design strategies, and strengthen the native gardening community by bringing them together for a morning of plant talk, sunshine, and laughter.

All Habitat Garden Tour events are from 9AM to 2PM. Each event will have multiple gardens to visit; the order you visit the gardens and the time you spend at each one is up to you!

May Garden Descriptions

The Backyard Buffet

Nourishing – Balanced – Biodiverse

As a vegetable gardener, this homeowner was no stranger to the crop tax paid to overpopulating insects. Fed up with the plant loss but reluctant to use chemicals, our garden host incorporated native plants in his yard to support biodiversity. He planted seeds and plugs of Black-eyed Susans (Rudbeckia hirta), Purple Coneflower (Echinacea purpurea), and more, hoping these would balance his backyard ecosystem. Spoiler alert: it worked! Come visit a yard that nourishes wasps, chickens, frogs, and humans alike. Learn how the many elements of this garden work together to maintain a balanced habitat.

Beauty and the Bees

Small – Delightful – Everchanging

The intentional design of this charming, fully native front yard in Waldo deserves every “ooo” and “ahhh” a person has to offer. With the goal of beautifying their yard, these residential gardeners teamed up with native landscape design experts to curate a garden that provides an oasis for both people and insects. What began with a few Serviceberries (Amelanchier arborea) grew into an array of bunched native perennials. Herbaceous plants like Golden Groundsel (Packera obovata) and Robin’s Plantain (Erigeron pulchellus) have gifted our gardeners and their community a booming habitat to enjoy and learn from. Looking to expand this impact, our hosts have added new natives to their backyard that are in the early stages of growth.

The Bloom is More Than the Blooms

Naturalistic – Evolving – Enriching

After time spent assisting in the restoration efforts of Roanoke Park, this gardener decided it was time to bring more of this stewardship to his own yard. From the Chinkapin Oak (Quercus muehlenbergii) and soft landing in the front of the house to the one-year-old rain garden that frames the backyard, discover natives with a variety of blooms and growing needs. Lush with plants like Prairie Dropseed (Sporobolus heterolepis) and Rose Verbena (Glandularia canadensis), the new rain garden is already buzzing with life. For this gardener, the true beauty of a garden is not its blooms but the lives those blooms support and the activity they encourage. Come visit this garden to experience the life between the leaves for yourself!

2026 HABITAT GARDENT TOUR DATES
May 9th – Prairie Village & Waldo
June 6th – Midtown
July 11th – Waldo
October 3rd – Location TBD

SIGN UP FOR OUR MONTHLY NEWSLETTER TO RECEIVE UPDATES ABOUT THIS YEAR’S HABITAT GARDEN TOURS AND LEARN ABOUT OTHER DEEP ROOTS EVENTS! 

Pollinator Sign Up

Photos by Maddie Ball and Cydney Ross

Supported By:

What is a Habitat Garden?

A garden with native plants that provides sustenance and shelter for birds, bees, butterflies and other wildlife.

Habitat Garden Tours

Experience a diverse range of native plant gardens grown by Kansas City area residents. Meet other native gardeners and wildlife supporters and find inspiration and information to grow your own habitat garden.

Native Plant Sales

Inspired by the gardens you visited? Find the same plants at our native plant sales and grow your own habitat garden. Do try this at home!

10 Things You Can Do