CEDAR FALLS, IOWA ~ Sometimes the most interesting things in town aren’t sitting behind a museum door or hanging in a gallery.
Sometimes, they’re growing beside somebody’s garage.
The City of Cedar Falls is looking for residents and organizations willing to open their backyards and green spaces for future A Practical Backyard Tour events. The focus isn’t simply on appearance ~it’s on practical, environmentally friendly ideas that others can learn from.
In fact, “practical” is really the point.
For more than a decade, the Cedar Valley summer tour has given people a chance to walk through real outdoor spaces and see environmentally friendly ideas that ordinary homeowners and organizations have actually put to work.
At the July 2026 tour, visitors saw everything from pollinator plantings and vegetable gardens to composting, native plants and permeable hard surfaces. Previous tours have also included rain barrels, beekeeping and ways to reduce runoff and chemical use.
Now organizers are already looking ahead.
Applications have opened for people interested in possibly hosting a tour location in 2027 or 2028.
That means the little patch of native flowers growing along a fence, the rain barrel tucked alongside a shed, a backyard full of bees and butterflies, or even a compost pile you’ve quietly been tending, might contain an idea somebody else would love to learn.
Those selected as hosts should expect visitors to walk through the property and should be available during the tour to answer questions about what they are doing and why they do it. Submitting an application is an expression of interest; city staff will follow up before a property is confirmed as a tour site.
The tour is presented through a partnership that includes the cities of Cedar Falls and Waterloo, Black Hawk Soil and Water Conservation District, Iowa State University Extension and Outreach Black Hawk County, Dry Run Creek Watershed, Cedar Falls Seed Library, Iowa DNR, Green Iowa AmeriCorps and SingleSpeed Brewing.
Maybe that’s what makes the idea so interesting.
It isn’t necessarily about having the prettiest backyard.
It’s about having one that might make somebody stop, look around and say:
“Huh. I could do that at my house.”
And sometimes, one good idea really does start right in somebody’s backyard.
Applications are currently being accepted for possible 2027 and 2028 tour locations through the City of Cedar Falls.
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