If you like checking out other people's gardens, mark your calendar for this Saturday, June 20, and the West End Neighbors Garden Tour. It's one of the few free garden tours in the Twin Cities, and one of the earliest this growing season. While most local garden tours are held in July, the gardens of St. Paul's West End are ready for viewing now.

It's also an opportunity to soak up a little history. This year's tour will take visitors on a self-guided walking tour through two historic neighborhoods: Uppertown and Uppertown Triangle, where many of the homes date back to the 1880s and even earlier. These inner-city neighborhoods are bordered by the bluff of the Mississippi River Valley west of downtown St. Paul, by West 7th Street and Cliff Street/Saint Clair Avenue.

The 14 yards and gardens on the tour showcase a wide variety of styles, including Asian- and English-inspired gardens, vegetable gardens and butterfly gardens -- planted in back yards, side yards and on boulevards.

Tour hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. During those hours Saturday, there will also be a plant sale at 974 W. 7th St., St. Paul.

For maps and more information, visit www.fordroadfederation.org.