What makes the tour so “Secret?” First, you won’t find the addresses on Facebook or printed in the newspaper. Your purchased ticket includes the address and map to each garden. Second, the Minot Symphony Orchetra search high and low to find some of the area’s most beautiful unique yards, landscaping and gardens, many which are not visible by driving by the front of the house.

This annual open house style event features seven great gardens. On July 10, with ticket in hand, you can travel on your own to the featured gardens and spend time enjoying a variety of fruit trees, perennial and annual flower beds, vegetable gardens, yard art, water features, a prickly pear patch and entertaining spaces. Your ticket includes the addresses, brief description and a map to each garden. Musicians from the Minot Symphony will be at various gardens providing music for your added enjoyment.

This years’ event features the beautiful private gardens of Les and Joanne King, Ken and Janet Dammen, John Sinn, Greg and Casey Klein and Randy and Joan Bailey. The Minot Symphony Orchestra has also included the North Dakota Master Gardeners and the Magic City Lions’ Pollinator Gardens which feature perennial and annual plants with water and refuge shelters for the pollinators. Master Gardeners will be available to answer questions.

“We all have busy schedules, and this is one night that you literally can take time to stop and smell the roses! Spend the evening listening to live music while enjoying a wide variety of flowers, vegetables, fruit trees, and my favorite, fun yard art. I don’t have a green thumb which makes me appreciate this event even more. Be sure to do some shopping at the Garden Vendor Store featuring local artists and vendors,” said executive director, Ellen Fenner.

Shyanne Belzer/MDN Every garden on the Secret Garden Tour route features something special. These photos taken at the 2018 Secret Garden Tour showcase a few of the flowers seen in the many special gardens featured that year.

Tickets are available for $15 at Lowe’s Garden Center, Visit Mino, Minot Area Council of the Arts and the Mohall Flower House and Garden Center. Tickets will be available the evening of the tour for $20 at each garden or Visit Minot from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. Children under the age of 12 are free.

The event will go on rain or shine.

All proceeds from this event will benefit the programming of the Minot Symphony Orchestra, a university and community orchestra that aims to enrich lives by providing opportunities for musicians and inspiration to patrons through education and the performance of diverse orchestral repertoire.

For more information, contact the Minot Symphony office at 858-4228 or find them on Facebook at Minot Symphony Orchestra.