The St. Louis Area Sustainable Backyard Tour Returns for the 10th Year—Virtually

Since 2011, the free Sustainable Backyard Tour has served St. Louis by intro-ducing people to a range of ways to live more sustainably, create health, and build community.
More than 300 families have served as tour hosts, welcoming over 10,000 people into their backyards and homesteads to learn how they grow food, sup-port biodiversity, conserve and manage rainwater and even generate energy.
Now, the days of crowded yards, full of perspiring visitors seems like a distant memory. The last in-person tour was held on June 23, 2019 in more than 40 yards throughout the region. This year, in light of ongoing health and safety concerns with Covid-19, the tour is going virtual.
Through the magic of video, July 11th will be a day of lemonade and lawn chairs chez you. Distantly but together, we can watch yard tour videos and chat with hosts via social media, all from the safety of our own computers.
Usually set in June, the tour happens later this year to allow time for our host yards to bloom and look their best for the camera. And the best part…No one need drive anywhere. Everyone can stay home, stay put, and leave the fossil fuel in the tank. Not only will everyone be able to see every single yard—an impossibility in years past due to the number of yards and distance between them—but all will be able to connect and share information much more easily.
We hope you’ll join in for a stellar lineup of exciting new and award-winning yards and knowledgeable presenters on July 11th! Register here to get the link to the videos and conversation: https://sustainablebackyard.org/attend-tour/
In addition to this year’s virtual tour, the Sustainable Backyard Network provides eco-minded St. Louisans with opportunities to connect throughout the year.
Media Review is an online gathering where participants share inspiring books, articles, videos, and more while chatting about sustainable living. The conversa-tions, moderated by Network leaders Suzanne Carron and Patty Carleton, meet the third Thursday of every month at 6:00 p.m., via Zoom.
Green Drinks provides folks of diverse environmental backgrounds and interest with a chance to meet and mingle. Now, Zoom provides the means. On the second Tuesdays at 7 p.m, longtime Network organizers Francine Case and Toni Easter facilitate Green Drinks, a recently converted-to-online social gather-ing. There are Green Drinks around the world
(www.greendrinks.org)
Everyone is welcome! For links to Zoom gatherings and to subscribe to our monthly newsletter, visit our website
www.sustainablebackyard.org.
https://www.facebook.com/SustainableBackyardNetwork/

The Sustainable Backyard Tour is supported in part by The St. Louis-Jefferson Solid Waste Management District and the Missouri Department of Natural Re-sources. Additional support comes from the William A. Kerr Foundation, Dr. Bronner’s Family Foundation, Greenscape Gardens, Art & Architecture Inc, and Cackle Hatchery. For information on sponsoring the Tour or volunteering with the Network, please contact
[email protected].
The Sustainable Backyard Tour is a project of The Sustainable Backyard Net-work, a registered 501(c)(3) not-for-profit based in St. Louis, Missouri. Dedicated to growing a healthier, greener world starting in our own backyards.