Peep this garden and a dozen others July 26
After winning an award for “Best Garden” at the 2020 Kitchen Garden Tour, Nicole Hixon has continued to expand her backyard oasis, adding a chicken coop and new garden beds to the mix. Her revamped garden will be back on the tour for the first time since her 2020 win this year on July 26, alongside a dozen other backyard food growers.
| 13 Jul 2026 | 02:29
A green bean teepee, a cattle panel trellis lined with flowering vines, a potato tower and the smell of fresh grown herbs — these are just a few of the wonders that Nicole Hixon’s garden has to offer.
After moving from Queens to Warwick, N.Y. in 2018, Hixon began the labor of love that is her backyard food garden. Throughout the years, the garden has gone through many stages. In 2020, she participated in Dirt’s Kitchen Garden Tour and took home an award for “Best Garden.”
She’s showing her backyard oasis again on this year’s tour, happening Sunday, July 26. She’s made some big changes since 2020, adding a chicken coop and transforming her veggie patch into a container garden.
“The year that I participated in the tour was definitely, I think, my best garden year ever,” she said, sipping homemade hibiscus iced team. “But this year, the garden has been my joy. This is my happy place.”
Hixon’s garden provides much of her own fresh produce. From lettuce and tomatoes,to green beans, potatoes, peppers and herbs, she is able to substitute grocery store trips with a trip to her own backyard.
“In the years that I haven’t participated as a garden on the tour, I’ve gone to other people’s gardens, and I’m in a couple of gardening clubs, and I looked around and I saw the things that inspired me that I wanted to do. This is kind of a culmination of that.”
She added a corrugated metal bed with herbs, peppers, and pollinator-attracting flowers after finding inspiration from a fellow gardener on the Kitchen Garden Tour a few years earlier.
As a returning participant in this year’s 12th annual Kitchen Garden Tour, Hixon is eager to show off her garden to those looking for inspiration, and share advice with those beginning their own green-thumbed journey.
“Don’t compare your garden to others,” she said. “Some seasons are going to grow and do amazing, and just like life, some are going to struggle.”
“You can always return to the soil.”
Peep this garden and more
This year’s Kitchen Garden Tour will feature a dozen local backyard food gardens for attendees to explore throughout the day on Sunday, July 26.
After embarking on their own self-guided tour, attendees join the gardeners at Meadow Blues for a farm-to-table celebration.
To purchase tickets and learn more about the tour, visit kitchengardentours.com or call 845-469-9000.