Master gardeners of the University of Illinois Extension Sangamon-Menard Unit will host a Garden Walk on Saturday, June 27, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. This year’s walk includes eight Springfield gardens: Jack and Mary Altman, 700 Teal Drive; Tom Martin, 125 North Illinois; Germann gardens, 3045 South 14th St.; Graham and Ednita Murdock, 937 Feldkamp; Sherri Khile, 732 West Woodland Ave.; Rain Garden at Washington Park Botanical Garden; Dean Home Heirloom Garden at Lincoln Home Visitors Center; and Master Gardener demonstration gardens of the fairgrounds.

During the Garden Walk, master gardeners will be stationed throughout the properties to answer questions about plants. Volunteers will host an “Ask the Master Gardener Table,” to answer garden questions, at the Altmans.

Master Gardeners will also present garden programs. They include: 10 a.m., “The Great Divide” at the Murdocks; 11 a.m., “Roses: To Prune or Not to Prune?” at the Germanns; Noon, “Vegetable Gardening” at the Altmans; 1 p.m., “Water Gardening” at the Murdocks; 2 p.m., “Stepping Stone” at the Khiles; 2 p.m., “Attracting Birds” at the Altmans.

Tickets are $8 if purchased in advance, $10 the day of the walk. Tickets will be available at Lincoln Memorial Garden, Wild Birds Unlimited, Ace Hardware, Noonan TrueValue Hardware, at the University of Illinois Extension offices in Springfield and Petersburg and online. For more information, phone the Extension office, (217) 782- 4617, or visit the Extension Web site www.extension.uiuc.edu/sangamonmenard.

Lincoln Memorial Garden is hosting the first-ever “Art in the Garden” celebration all day Saturday, June 27. (A rain date is scheduled for June 28.) Area artists have been invited to find inspiration in Lincoln Memorial Garden.

“Art in the Garden” is free and open to garden-lovers and art-lovers alike, but the art created for the juried exhibition or created in the garden will be donated by the artists and sold at an evening reception.

Profits from “Art in the Garden” will be used to maintain the historic not-for-profit garden as Jens Jensen and his supporters in Illinois’ garden clubs envisioned it. The day begins at 8 a.m., when artists will begin setting up outdoors. At 1 p.m., younger artists are invited to create their own Andy Goldsworthy-type art using natural materials from the garden. The day will conclude with a reception in the Nature Center for artists and the public from 5 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. A live auction of the art created that day and a silent auction of the juried art will be held during the reception.

Lincoln Memorial Garden is at 2301 East Lake Shore Drive, Springfield. — Jennifer Fishburn