After a four-year hiatus, the illustrious Mill Valley Outdoor Art Club Garden Tour is back.
This year’s tour, on Thursday, May 4, features four estate gardens with hilltop vistas on Mill Valley’s historic Middle Ridge. The tour includes a four-acre property bordering Mt. Tam State Park with an extensive organic garden and heritage trees, a garden designer’s paradise with locally crafted sculptures and a hidden pool, and an English garden bursting with roses and a varmint-proof lettuce house. The final garden showcases sustainability and state-of-the-art fire-resistant materials. The tour departs from the Outdoor Art Club’s 1904 Bernard Maybeck-designed clubhouse in downtown Mill Valley.
The Outdoor Art Club invites the public to visit the four fabulous Mill Valley gardens, with shuttles departing from the clubhouse from 9am to 2:30 pm.
Lunch will be served at the Outdoor Art Club. On the patio, there will be gifts for sale and a silent auction.
The Outdoor Art Club was founded in 1902, making it one of the oldest women’s clubs in the western U.S. The Garden Tour is the club’s major fundraiser. Over the last 17 years, more than $700,000 has been distributed from the Outdoor Art Club to Marin County non-profits, including the Enjoy Mill Valley Fund. Because the event is very popular, guests are reminded to order tickets early.
Proceeds from the garden tour benefit the charitable community outreach of the Outdoor Art Club and the preservation of its historic landmark building in downtown Mill Valley. The organization’s charitable outreach has had a vast impact in Mill Valley and beyond for decades, including, in recent years. its support of the Mill Valley Chamber‘s Enjoy Mill Valley Fund, which has leveraged OAC Grants and numerous private donations to help repair the Downtown Clock Tower, support the restoration of the replica Gravity Car, make the free Movies in the Park series sustainable and bigger and better than ever and spearhead a number of plantings and beautification efforts around town.