Listed below are the 2024 gardens. The site will update soon with our 2025 list.
To help you decide which of the 29 gardens to visit, read the garden descriptions, listed in no particular order, below. On the day of the tour, ticket purchasers will receive a map and several possible itineraries. Cross reference the gardens’ names to the map to find your way to your favorites.
Japanese Garden
Purpose: To relax outside, To create art, To spend time with family. Features: Water feature(s), Unique hardscaping, Small space garden. Style: Formal, Shady, Peaceful. Notes: Oasis in the city.
Jewel Box
Purpose: To relax outside, To provide native habitat for wildlife, To create art. Features: Flower bed(s), Fruit tree(s), Small space garden Style: Eclectic, Informal, Lush
Mediterranean in the City
Purpose: To relax outside, To grow food, To provide native habitat for wildlife. Features: Vegetable bed(s), Fruit tree(s), Small space garden. Style: Drought tolerant, Informal, Lush. Notes: Mediterranean-inspired garden with an Olive Tree, Fig Tree and Lemon Tree.
Of Pergolas and Pollinators
Purpose: To entertain, To relax outside, To cook outside. Features: Vegetable bed(s), Unique hardscaping, Native plants. Style: Elegant, Sunny. Notes: Our yard features a lounging area shaded by a pergola that looks out over a native plant garden, a grassy knoll, and unique raised beds.
Gracenter Therapy Garden
Purpose: To entertain, To relax outside, To provide native habitat for wildlife. Features: City views, Flower bed(s), Unique hardscaping. Style: Modern, Rustic, Natural. Notes: Thanks to a fabulous gift from Portola Garden District Tour that awarded funds for a work project to City College of San Francisco (CCSF) to landscape Good Shepherd Gracenter’s grounds, a beautiful garden, an arbor, trellises and “stepping stones” were recently installed.
FrameArt Garden Show
Purpose: To create community, To showcase art, To create art. Features: Beautiful garden-themed art from the community. Notes: Feel like hanging a garden on your wall? Stop by FrameArt to see a garden-themed art show, featuring art from local artists.
E. R. Taylor Garden
Purpose: To grow food, To provide native habitat for wildlife, To educate others. Features: Water feature(s), Fruit tree(s), Native plants. Style: Productive, Drought tolerant, Loved. Notes: Educational, student run, community space.
The Green Between
Purpose: To relax outside, To provide native habitat for wildlife, To educate others. Features: Flower bed(s), Entertainment space(s), Unique terracing. Style: Eclectic, Rustic, Lush. Notes: This garden arose from previously unusable space; walk through a magical gate and visit us to see how we created beauty, community space, and art from what some consider waste.
Warm and Wonderful
Purpose: To relax outside. Features: Flower bed(s), Small space garden, excellent roses. Style: Informal, Sunny, Shady. Notes: My garden brings me great happiness.
Visitacion Valley Agriculture Garden
Purpose: To entertain, To relax outside, To grow food, To provide native habitat for wildlife, To create art, To provide play space for kids, To educate others. Features: Vegetable bed(s), Fruit tree(s), Native plants. Style: Eclectic, Rustic, Lush. Notes: The Room 8 Band will be playing in the garden! Come see live music and how a garden and the arts can work together to build community.
Athens Avalon Greenspace
Purpose: To relax outside, To provide native habitat for wildlife, to provide a greenspace to our local community and a place to gather and work together. Features: City views, Flower bed(s), Unique terracing, Native plants. Style: Eclectic, Drought tolerant, Informal, Sunny. Notes: A community center.
Jardin Maravilloso
Purpose: To entertain, To relax outside, To grow food. Features: Flower bed(s), Vegetable bed(s), Native plants. Style: Eclectic, Informal, Lush.
Modern Elegance
Purpose: To entertain, To relax outside, To spend time with family. Features: Water feature(s), Entertainment space(s), Unique hardscaping. Style: Modern. Notes: This hill used to be unusable; now it is beautiful, and we can and do use each level of the slope.
Color and Change
Purpose: To relax outside, To provide native habitat for wildlife, To create art. Features: Flower bed(s), Waterwise design, Native plants. Style: Eclectic, Informal, Manicured. Notes: Our garden is an ever evolving place that helps capture nature every single day.
Small but Mighty
Purpose: To relax outside, To grow food, To provide native habitat for wildlife. Features: Unique hardscaping, Unique terracing, Small space garden. Style: Productive, Informal, Shady. Notes: if you think the space you have is too small for gardening, see this garden for ideas.
Fruit and Fire
Purpose: To relax outside, To grow food, To provide native habitat for wildlife. Features: Vegetable bed(s), Fruit tree(s), Waterwise design. Style: Productive, Eclectic, Rustic. Notes: We try to grow stuff that we eat and that helps native wildlife.
A Corner for Others
Purpose: To entertain, To relax outside, To provide native habitat for wildlife. Features: Fruit tree(s), Entertainment space(s), Waterwise design. Style: Eclectic, Drought tolerant, Informal. Notes: The most important aspect of this garden space is sharing with others (neighbors & passersby).
For Dogs and Their Friends
Purpose: To entertain, To relax outside. Features: Fruit tree(s), Unique hardscaping, Native plants. Style: Drought tolerant, Manicured. Notes: Dog Friendly garden with artificial grass.
Portola Gardens Assisted Living
Purpose: To entertain, To relax outside, To spend time with family. Features: Flower bed(s), Entertainment space(s), Unique hardscaping. Style: Eclectic, Elegant, Sunny. Notes: Outdoor therapy and serene environment for our residents.
Tropi-cali
Purpose: To relax outside, To entertain. Features: Flower bed(s), Entertainment space(s). Style: Drought tolerant, Manicured
That’s a Plant
Purpose: To entertain, To relax outside, To provide native habitat for wildlife. Features: City views, Entertainment space(s), Native plants. Style: Rustic, Lush, Natural.
More Fun than Parking
Purpose: To entertain, To relax outside, To spend time with family. Features: Unique hardscaping, Small space garden. Style: Eclectic, Drought tolerant, Informal. Notes: This garden is a parking spot that has turned into a place to relax and be outside.
Perfumed Oasis
Purpose: To relax outside, To grow food, To spend time with family. Features: Flower bed(s), Fruit tree(s), Unique terracing. Style: Informal, Lush, Shady. Notes: Our garden has a little bit of everything – veggie gardens, hidden yard art, flowers to smell, and places to lounge.
Poppy Farm
Purpose: To entertain, To create art, To grow food. Features: City views, Vegetable bed(s), Fruit tree(s). Style: Productive, Rustic, Lush. Notes: Our garden fills our bellies with food and our hearts with beauty.
Visitacion Valley Greenway
Purpose: To provide native habitat for wildlife, To educate others, To relax outside. Features: Unique landscaping, Growing fruits and vegetable, Public gathering spaces. Style: Drought Tolerant, Eclectic, Natural. Notes: The award winning six block long Visitacion Valley Greenway is an outdoor classroom artfully designed as a public pedestrian thoroughfare that is a lush green respite providing sun or shade as desired.
SFS Adventure Playground
Purpose: To relax outside, To provide native habitat for wildlife, To provide play space for kids. Features: Fruit tree(s), Unique hardscaping, Native plants, 50 ft. slide and small animal barn. Style: Sunny, Shady, Natural. Notes: The San Francisco School’s Adventure Playground is a garden oasis designed for teaching, exploration, socializing and play.
McLaren Park Native Plant Garden
Purpose: To provide native habitat for wildlife, To educate others, To relax outside. Features: Waterwise design, Native plants, Unique landscaping. Style: Drought Tolerant, Rustic, Natural. Notes: The McLaren Park Native Plant Garden is an outdoor classroom made without any hardscape, which was designed to promote wildlife biodiversity and has a nature play area for children.
Spirited and Edgy
Purpose: To relax outside, To provide native habitat for wildlife, To educate others. Features: City views, Sculpture, Native plants. Style: Eclectic, Natural, Wild. Notes: On the edge.
Nonna’s Roses, Our Homestead
Purpose: To relax outside, To grow food, To spend time with family. Features: Vegetable bed(s), Fruit tree(s), Small space garden. Style: Productive, Informal. Notes: A homestead-inspired update to Nonna’s mid-century rose garden.
Portola Garden Tour 