Life-Friendly Garden TourS

Naturally Managed Gardens

What is the Life-Friendly Garden Tour?

The Life-Friendly Garden Tour demonstrates that beautiful, thriving gardens can support an abundance of living beings when managed without chemical pesticides, herbicides, or fertilizers.


Each year, we host a self-guided tour of local gardens in Watertown where these chemicals have not been used for at least one year. These tours highlight thoughtful, inspiring examples of how Watertown residents are creating safe spaces for native plants, pollinators, and birds.


Beginning in 2026, the LFGT team joins WCG to strengthen our shared mission. We hope you’ll join the conversation, explore the gardens, and feel inspired to bring more life-friendly practices into your own yard.


If you'd like to be added to the Garden Tour mailing list, sign up here.

WCG welcomes:

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By filling out this form, you will be subscribed to our quarterly newsletter. This is where we will share upcoming dates for events. Events may include pot luck socials, workshops, garden tours, presentations, volunteer opportunities, and more. Upcoming events will also always be posted here on the Events page, Facebook page, and Instagram.



Contact Us

Life-Friendly Garden Requirements

  • The garden is located in Watertown, MA.
  • Chemical pesticides, herbicides, or fertilizers have not been used in the garden for at least one year.
  • You may submit your full garden, your front yard, or just your planting strip.


If you will be available during the hours of the Garden Tour to answer questions and share ideas, you will receive a sidewalk flag or yard sign to help guests find you. If you won’t be available that day, you can still have your planting strip included in the Garden Tour, which guests can view from the street.


Watertown Community Gardens has excellent resources for your planting strip available here.

Past Tour Themes

Fall 2025: Bigger than Bugs

Many of the common issues that arise in gardening are related to bugs, but this year we will share and discuss the challenges presented by the burgeoning populations of rabbits, rats, and others. The health of our gardens depends on thoughtful care for all living things — including the often-overlooked mammals, birds, and reptiles that help balance our ecosystems.


While pollinators like bees, butterflies, and moths remain essential, this year’s tour also highlights humane and non-toxic methods of managing rodents and other mammals in the garden. Rat poison and rodent traps may seem like simple fixes, but they cause harm far beyond their targets — poisoning owls, hawks, foxes, coyotes, and even domestic pets. Learn how to deter rodents by creating healthier ecosystems instead of relying on toxic shortcuts.


Fall 2024: Homegrown National Park

In the 27th Life-Friendly Garden Tour we explored how our gardens are part of Homegrown National Park. You can learn more about how you can expand habitat for birds and pollinators, by reducing lawns and adding native trees and flowers, here.


26th Life-Friendly Garden Tour: Mayor’s Monarch Pledge

The 26th Life-Friendly Garden Tour was our first Summer Garden Tour! We celebrated the Monarch butterfly. You can learn more about how you can help the Monarch Butterfly and support the Mayor’s Monarch Pledge here.

About the Life-Friendly Garden Tour

The Life-Friendly Garden Tour was founded by Henrietta Light to educate about gardening without chemical inputs. Exposure to chemical fertilizers and pesticides can sicken people and cause long-term health issues. The impact of chemicals is even worse in the garden. Most insecticides kill insects, whether they are pests, pollinators, or beneficial insects. Herbicides also kill a broad range of plants, including host plants for butterflies and moths, such as the milkweeds that Monarch butterflies depend on. Chemical fertilizers damage the balance of organisms that create a healthy soil. Through the Garden Tour and other events, we demonstrate that no chemicals are needed to create vibrant, healthy yards.


The first Chemical-Free Garden Tour took place in 2007. Since eliminating chemicals is rewarded by an increase in living beings, the name was changed to the Life-Friendly Garden Tour. It usually is held on the second Sunday in September. This self-guided tour is free and open to the public.

Related Articles

Bees of Spring

By Catherine McQuestion • April 15, 2025
By Pam Phillips

The Environmental Impact of Neonic Insecticides

January 4, 2025
Notes from the webinar "Neonics and Advocacy: Protecting Pollinators and Influencing Policy"

Support Pollinators in Watertown

By Marilyn Salvas • March 7, 2023
Are you interested to learn more about gardening to support pollinators in Watertown?   Do you want to get your hands dirty, even if you don’t have a yard of your own?   Would you like to support wild birds, butterflies, bees, the Charles River watershed, or build climate change resilience? Volunteers with Watertown Community Gardens invite you to join our gardeners this spring as we maintain several public pollinator gardens throughout the city.  WCG’s community connections committee has partnered with the Department of Public Works and a local pollinator awareness group, Friends of Bees, to install several native plant gardens throughout the city since 2021. We are seeking volunteers from the community to help us do seasonal maintenance while learning hands-on about ecological landscaping practices and the biodiversity they support.  No gardening experience is required!   Detailed instructions will be emailed to volunteers, so registration is required.   Please click this link to sign up:    Events Sunday April 23, 1-3pm: DPW Garden & Knowles Delta Garden Maintenance Thursday May 4 Wednesday May 3, 4-6pm: Senior Center Garden Maintenance Thursday May 18, 4-6pm: Boylston St Bump Outs Garden Maintenance Sunday May 21, 1-3pm: Filippello Park Garden Maintenance & Plant Swap And if you are interested in planning future gardening or educational events, consider joining us at our upcoming committee meetings on Zoom: Thursday March 16, 7-8:30pm Thursday April 27, 7-8:30pm Thursday June 1, 7-8:30pm

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