I know, I was ‘Walking In Memphis’ Gardens. It’s a corny headline. but I just could not resist, you can’t help but sing the words of that great song when you visit Memphis, Tennessee. Here’s the song in case you need a refresher.
I recently took a trip to the USA specifically to attend The 2025 Garden Bloggers Fling. I bet that you have been following along through my socials and I hope that you’re enjoying the posts so far.
Most people would think about Memphis and the first thing to come to mind is probably Elvis, BB King, Graceland and Sun Studios and well basically the home of The Blues music genre, but this southern city in the USA offers so much more, especially if you love garden visiting and gardening.
I am going to start with the last day of ‘The Fling’ first. We visited more than 50 Memphis gardens in 5 days, so hang onto your straw hat, there will be lots of posts.
On the final day of “The Fling” we were lucky enough to enioy a private peak at the Cooper-Young Garden Walk, which is an initiative developed by The Cooper-Young Garden Club and is part of a wider garden visiting experience called Experience Memphis Gardens.
https://experiencememphisgardens.org/
Kim Halyak and Sharron Johnson are the powerhouse co-chairs of this event and are well-supported by many other members of this community driven event and yes, both ladies opened their gardens for the event and for our private visit.
2025 marks the 10 year anniversary of the Annual Signature Cooper-Young Garden Walk, and it ran from May 17-18. It featured over 100 gardens, speakers, musicians and garden vendors, throughout the historic neighbourhood. A festival for all things garden!
The Cooper-Young district is about 10-15 minutes from downtown Memphis and is a diverse community filled with smaller homes, painted in the cutest array of colours enhanced with delightful gardens and pretty porches that demonstrate a unique southern- style of garden design.
This community is home to artists and extremely creative gardeners, which becomes self evident when wandering through the gardens. The main street offers heaps of restaurant choices and some fun shopping. Gentrification of this fun district is well under way.
On the day of our visit it was very hot and humid, so an early lunch and lots of unsweetened iced tea (yep, it’s my go to drink when visiting the USA) was a great idea, in between peaking in and out of the gardens which were all easily signposted and within walking distance of the main street. We ate at Soul Fish Cafe which was excellent. I had the most delicious grilled catfish on a vibrant salad (and no fries), proving that not all American food is bad for you. https://soulfishcafe.com/midtown-memphis/
My Best Garden Friend @AZPlantlady and I retired “hot” not hurt, in the afternoon, for a cheeky frozen Margarita with fellow “Flingers” at a fun bar called Cooper’s, just down from the Johnny Cash statue. We were all buzzing with excitement sharing our perspectives on an inspiring day walking in Memphis Gardens.
The biggest take-away was enjoying all of the creative possibilities for folks with small cottages and smaller garden spaces, which was super helpful knowledge for people like me, working with gardeners in urban areas with small cottage blocks .
I would highly recommend this fun May weekend of experiencing Memphis gardens in the most unexpected way, if ever you get the chance, take the time to visit The Cooper-Young Garden Walk.
If you want some ideas for your garden based on some of these photos, get in contact here.
