Master gardeners offer tours of demonstration gardens

The Master Gardeners of Southern Nevada will offer monthly tours of the demonstration gardens at the Clark County/University of Nevada Cooperative Extension Lifelong Learning Center, 8050 Paradise Road, Las Vegas. Tours are free and open to the public.

During the tours, volunteer master gardeners will discuss desert-adapted plants that can be successfully grown in the home landscape. The demonstration gardens contain more than 500 species of desert-appropriate landscape plants, including trees, shrubs, perennials, palms, cacti and agaves. Plants are identified by botanical and common names.

Now is the time to plant will be the focus of the Oct. 13 tour, while painting your garden with color will be the focus of the Nov. 10 tour. Both are set to begin at 10 a.m. in the garden's courtyard.

Participants are asked to wear walking shoes and a hat, as well as bring water.

Groups of five or more people are asked to call Ann Edmunds, program coordinator, at 257-5587 at least two weeks in advance.

In addition to scheduled tours, the grounds are open for self-guided walks on weekdays from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

For more information call the master gardener help desk at 702-257-5555 or visit the group's website at http://www.facebook.com/MasterGardenersOfSouthernNevada.