The 23rd Annual Pocket Garden Tour featuring Portsmouth’s Historic South End gardens was on Friday, June 22 from 5-8 pm, and Saturday, June 23rd 9 am – 3 pm.
The Pocket Garden Tour started as a way to maintain the pocket garden at South Church, Portsmouth, NH. It has become an important regional gardening event drawing visitors from around the state as well as raising money to benefit the Church and the local community.
I had been twice with a friend who has lived in the South End for over thirty years. This year I attended with my granddaughter, and we toured my friend’s garden because her pocket of loveliness (1/7 of an acre) was on the tour for the second time. How exciting!
There were ten gardens to tour and each one was unique. Some gardens included musician, choral group or artist to add to the enjoyment. We walked from home to home so we saw a lot of beautiful Portsmouth and were able to exchange greetings with folks sitting outside enjoying a cup of coffee or with the many people or volunteers on the tour.
There was one thing I noticed this year that I hadn’t seen previously – there were a lot more vegetables growing in the gardens. One garden had been professionally landscaped, but the plants in the beds were all vegetables. Impressive!
In addition to the lovely pocket gardens, we were drawn to some Portsmouth History when we passed the building that housed the first state newspaper, The New Hampshire Gazette. On the wall of this now beautiful home, was a plaque in recognition of service by a slave named Primus who worked as a pressman for the paper for over fifty years.
We saw so many interesting gardens that instead of continuing to write about them, I’m going to post more pictures than usual.
It was a wonderful morning and spending it with my lovely granddaughter was the best part.
Granddaughter’s comments on the Tour: Gardens were beautiful, and my favorite sculpture was the horse. It was interesting that I saw several ornamental apple trees which is my favorite tree at home.

Cute garden dog sculpture.
Thanks for the tour. By coincidence at the same time we were visiting the gardens of a village near our home, so my blog will be a Uk version of yours.
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BEAUTIFUL!! Love that dry creek bed and garden shed. How inspiring!
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Beautiful! Thank you so much for sharing! I can’t even imagine having a garden like that…
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Loved your beautiful garden tour.
Thank you for visiting my blog today. I appreciate the time you took to stop by. May your day be filled with joy and peace.
BE ENCOURAGED! BE BLESSED!
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What a wonderful tour! I like the idea of a pocket garden tour, it opens up the possibilities since many times only large gardens are on garden tours. I’m with you on the tub…what do you think they do with it???
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I like it when WordPress suggests a post from the past (before I was following). This was a lovely tour, great photos. I really like the little garden house.
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Thank you. Portsmouth has that Pocket Garden Tour every June. There are usually about 12 gardens and what these folks do with small yards is amazing. 🙂
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Beautiful gardens ! Sounds like a wonderful tour . Cheers to whoever had the idea in the first place !!!
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I really enjoy Portsmouth and especially Strawberry Bank. The pocket garden idea is great! So cute and really so doable once you think about it. Thanks for the pictures. I look forward to reading more of your posts.
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Ooh, if you enjoy Portsmouth I’m thinking maybe we are don’t live too far apart. Strawbery Banke is just wonderful all year round. Maybe we could go to the pocket garden tour some year?
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I would love that. We are in Southeasten Mass. Not real close but not super far either.
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