JACKSON — Five gardens and four homes in the premier neighborhood of Meadowbrook Highlands will be featured in the Garden Club of Jackson’s 12th biennial Spring Garden Tour.

The two-day event is set for Wednesday and Thursday, April 6-7, from 9 a.m.-3 p.m., rain or shine.

The five gardens feature a variety of gardening interpretations using multiple perennials, annuals, vines, bulbs, shrubbery, trees and kitchen herbs — plus some artificial turf. The gardens range from English cottage to minimalist, from French formal to contemporary. Add a totally organic Japanese garden, the tour is sure to please visitors, whether the serious gardener or casual observer — or those looking for inspiration.

A new event, Fresh-Cut Flowers after Hours, will be held from 5:30-7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, April 6, at the Georgian home and gardens of Christie and George Walker in Eastover. Julia Putt of Fresh Cut Catering, event sponsor, will create floral arrangements as tasty hors d’oeuvres and drinks are enjoyed. A bonus will be artist-in-the-garden American Impressionist Jill Steenhuis who will create a painting during the two-hour event. Jill, who lives with her family in Provence, grew up in Atlanta and remains friends with many Mississippi campers she met while attending Camp DeSoto over the years.

With a strong commitment to gardening with native plants, The Garden Club of Jackson will offer a Go Native plant sale of “tried and true” native plants propagated or grown by GCJ members from seeds in their gardens. The Go Native plant sale will include purple coneflowers, Stokes aster, salvia, buckeye tree, blackeye Susan, phlox, swamp sunflowers, bee balm, and mountain mint.

Tour headquarters on Wednesday and Thursday will be at 4000 Ridgewood Road, outside Covenant Presbyterian Church. Visitors may park and ride the shuttle to Meadowbrook Highlands, a gated neighborhood. Tour tickets ($20) and raffle tickets for an original painting by GCJ member and artist Pryor Buford Lampton ($10 or three for $25) may be purchased at tour headquarters or online at gardenclubofjackson.com. Tickets for the boxed lunch by Newk’s Eatery must be purchased in advance for pick-up or dine-in at the courtyard of a fifth Meadowbrook Highlands home. All ticket sales are final.

Proceeds from the 2022 Tour will restore and transform the 1925 Tudor Revival garage of internationally acclaimed author Eudora Welty (1909-2001) into dedicated classroom space for horticultural activities and workshops. Welty, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author and Jackson native, was an avid gardener who personally tended her gardens in Belhaven, her home for nearly 80 years, and often used elements of the garden in her books.

Since the garden tour’s inception in 1993, the GCJ has donated more than $215,000, in addition to sweat equity, to conserve, beautify, and enhance a variety of Jackson landmarks and gardens, including the Welty property.