ELBRIDGE - For more than 25 years, Kathleen Long has been working on the gardens at her home in Elbridge.

“It is a lot of trial and error,” Long said. “You try things and see what works. A garden is never finished; it is something you are always working on.”

While walking around the village, Long realized that other residents shared a similar passion for gardening.

That is when Long was struck with an idea.

Long decided to see if she could get other residents interested in the idea of hosting a garden tour fundraiser to benefit the Elbridge Free Library.

Despite the on-and-off showers of Sunday afternoon, the first Backyards of Elbridge Garden Tour went on.

“To my knowledge this is the first one of these,” said Long, creator and organizer of the tour.

“I know that there have been tours of homes, but I don't think there has ever been a garden tour.”

It didn't take much convincing to get the library or other gardeners interested in the idea.

“Everyone was really receptive,” Long said. “The library was really supportive of the idea and I just talked to different people and they were interested in taking part in the tour and showing their gardens, they thought it was a really good idea and liked that it was going to go towards helping the library and it brought a lot of people together, people that normally wouldn't meet.”

Long said that when she first began, much of the property where her home is located was covered with trees and she was hesitant to do too much to change it.

Since then, her home has been transformed into a beautiful garden featuring a wide variety of plants and flowers, winding up a tiered hill into her backyard, while still retaining the wooded setting of the land.

“It has been a challenge,” Long said. “You just keep working on it and you keep making changes. Once you get started your hands are always in the dirt.”

The tour, which included nine gardens, highlighted the diversity of what the word garden can encompass.

From Long's tiered and shaded gardens to rock gardens with fountains, small gardens, and large agricultural farmlands, the tour had a little bit of everything.

“There really is such diversity,” Long said. “There are so many different types of gardens. I think that is the nice thing about this, you get to see so many different varieties of gardens and they are all right here in Elbridge.”

And despite the rainy conditions, some people still braved the elements, huddled under umbrellas to take the tour, and many said it was well worth it.

“I love to garden,” Dania Frazier said. “It is a really enjoyable thing to do. I've seen a lot of great things today and this has given me a lot of ideas for things I'd like to do with my own garden at home.”