Noe Valley Garden Tour 2026

***AFTER TICKET PURCHASE, PLEASE CHECK YOUR EMAIL FOR TICKET CONFIRMATION AND SCROLL DOWN TO SEE THE GARDEN ADDRESSES**

If you are having difficulty finding the email, check your spam folder and/or go to the Saturday Noe Valley Farmers Market on April 25, May 2, 9, 16 to collect your ticket. 9am-12pm.
Please note - we will NOT be checking email on the day of the tour.
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The annual Friends of Noe Valley Garden Tour will be held on Saturday, May 16th from 10am to 4pm. Ten featured gardens and seven sidewalk gardens are open that day for you to view. Featured gardens will showcase a variety of styles.

This year is a VERY special year for the Garden Tour. It’s the 20th anniversary!

The Noe Valley Garden Tour is partnering with the Slow Sanchez Block Party making it a doubly wonderful community celebration! Sanchez Street (26th to Clipper) will be closed to cars for a day of family activities, music, food, garden education talks, community and city greening information, a plant swap and a raffle for amazing prizes!

PRESENTATIONS AT BETHANY

10am - 11am
INSIDE PLANTS FOR YOUR HOME

No outdoor space for plantings? No problem! The answer is houseplants. Santiago Esparza, owner of on 24th Street, will give you information and pointers on how to select the right plant for the right location. He will also share tips on how to keep your plants alive! Light, water, drainage, repotting, fertilizing and much more will be covered is this how to grow inside plants talk.

11:30am - 12:30pm
NATIVE CALIFORNIA PLANTS - EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW

Join speaker Steve Cox, founder of , for a beginner-friendly introduction to getting started — from choosing the right plants for your space to creating a garden that’s drought-resilient, pollinator-friendly and easier to care for than anything you’ve grown before. Even a single native plant in your garden is an act of conservation. California natives are beautiful, resilient and ready for a changing climate. Soil, water, sunshine and shade, reading a plant label – these are just a few of the topics that will be covered in this native plant discussion. Learn to understand what your plants want, give them what they need, and see what happens. Learn about San Francisco microclimates and what natives grow best and where.

1pm - 2pm
BEES, BUTTERFLIES AND BIRDS - POLlINATORS GALORE!

What does a pollinator garden look like? What grows there and who lives there? Rethink your relationship with “weeds”. How do pesticides change a pollinator garden and what are safe ones to use? Come meet Cesar Moran-Cahusac from to find the answers to these questions and discover how to create and support your own pollinator garden.

PLANT SWAP-A-PALOOZA

Join fellow neighbors and gardeners at the Noe Valley Plant Swap! Bring your cuttings or seedlings and swap them with plants from your neighbors. Bring healthy cuttings or seedlings, end up with cooler plants than you came with and get to know your fellow Noe gardeners! The The main plant swap at the Sanchez Street Block Party will go from 10-12 so come early for the best selection.

URBAN SANCTUARY

An eye popping display from an orange marmalade bush welcomes you to walk past a small stand of black bamboo up to the rear garden. There you will find an eclectic and wide array of plants that create a serene, modest and welcoming sanctuary. You will find abutilons, cymbidiums, bamboo, purple cestrum, an Australian tree fern, a meyer lemon tree, a pear tree, kangaroo paws, honeysuckle, passion flower vine, a fence covered with peppermint geranium, hardy fuchsia and a collection of succulents.

ARTIST HILLSIDE CITY VIEWS

Climb the stairs to the top of this terraced artist oasis. From the moment you enter, experience an eclectic mix of natives, camellia, rhododendron, ferns, orchids and succulents which guide the way to sunny vegetable beds at the very top. As you climb the terraces you will encounter creative ceramic sculptures and cozy seating areas leading to wonderful city views.

JEWEL BOX GARDEN

This well-established, professionally maintained garden in a back yard setting, directly behind the Noe Valley Ministry, showcases a large variety of plants for its small space. This lovely garden features abutilons in several colors, different varieties of fern, lemon trees, as well as lavender kangaroo paw, heuchera, alstroemeria, and hellebores.

URBAN DELIGHT

Designed by Carolyn Atherton in 1989 and renovated by Malcolm Hillan in 2014, this garden features a rich and fragrant display of roses, wisteria, and fruit trees anchored by tree ferns, a Japanese cherry tree and a New Zealand tea tree. Don’t miss this colorful oasis!

EXOTIC SHADE GARDEN

This is a beautiful homeowner designed and installed shade garden. You enter the garden via a bamboo passageway and are immediately surprised by an outdoor shower with a Mondrian inspired art wall. Beautiful circular brick and sandstone pathways lead you to explore the exotic plants in this well designed shade garden.

TROPICAL PARADISE

A sidewalk pollinator garden with a welcoming stone bench greet you at this ornate Victorian Painted Lady. Climb the front steps past cascading lavender and scented brugmansia to reach the lush tropical oasis in the rear garden which was bare earth only nine years ago! A sheltered sitting area built on salvaged red brick lies below a city-view back porch. A curved brick pathway winds past a bubbling fountain, through brugmansia, flourishing tree ferns, king palms and other tropical undergrowth. Cocooned in privacy within the dense surrounding foliage, the reward at the end of the path is a hot tub “hide-away” open to the stars!

OLD AND MATURE

You will find a very large, beautiful and mature garden that has depth and variety at this site. Abutilons line a fence on the East side of the property. A patch of succulents and several palms, some very large, take advantage of the ample morning sunlight. Two 100+ year old redwood trees provide central shade for ferns, heuchera, fuchsia and cymbidium orchids.

AROMA GARDEN

Climbing roses at the entrance are a hint of what’s to come in this garden. Birds love this tree-filled garden which features boxwood hedge, seating areas, and many lovely in-ground and potted plants. Mounds of hellebores edge the brick pathway, mature camellias border the garden, along with mock orange and other white flowering plants.

GRAND STAIRCASE

Towering yuccas lead up to several steep terraces filled with masses of Pride of Madeira, rare flannelbush, princess flower and New Guinea impatiens. You will find ferns, California poppies, fuchsias and more growing amid the stony terraced walls. The back deck and yard have room for play and entertainment and feature multiple levels of palms, grasses, camellias, mock orange and native plants.
WAVE GARDEN

The homeowner of this peaceful garden uses the space as the “alive/growing” aspect of her work as an artist. She has always been intrigued with the similarities and contrasts in the colors, forms and textures of the natural world. The bold, architectural structure of Australian and South African flora, along with a variety of succulents create a space of both drama and tranquility. The garden has been an ongoing challenge and delight to the owner in working towards those ends at this mature and thoughtfully planned garden.

SIDEWALK GARDENS

In addition to the 10 Featured Gardens there will be seven Sidewalk Gardens along the route for you to view.

THANK YOU to our generous sponsors for supporting the Garden Tour!

The SWANN Group

Dennis Otto - Compass
Sloat Garden Center
Droubi Team - Generation RE
Claudia Siegel
VIVRE RE

Art Haus
Carrie Govan Art
Corcoran Reality
Dirty Hoe Landscaping
Estate Planning with Heart
Flora Grubb
Flowercraft
Holland Gardens
Love and Stem
Noe Valley Books
Noe Valley Farmers Market
Noe Valley Merchants
NOVY
Skinspirit
Small Fry’s
Urban Scout

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Noe Valley Town Square, 3861 24th Street, San Francisco, United States

Concerts, fests, parties, meetups - all the happenings, one place.

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