A koi pond is part of this backyard garden on Cherry Street, part of the 25th annual Secret Garden Tour in the Point Section of Newport.

The Providence Journal / Sandor Bodo

NEWPORT Myra Duvally was right. That was 25 years ago, and she has been right every year since: A garden tour could go over big in Newport.

Duvally was driving home from Boston. She had just participated in a hidden garden tour of historic and quaint Beacon Hill. And she was driving to Newport’s historic and quaint Point Section.

That’s when it hit her, one of those Eureka! moments.

But just to be sure, Duvally conferred with a friend. The friend endorsed her idea. And Newport’s Secret Garden Tour, now in its 25th year, was born.

“It has grown over the years,” Duvally says.

That first year, 55 people participated in the self-guided walking tour, which is a fundraiser for the Benefactors of the Arts organization, of which Duvally is the president. Last year, about 1,200 people participated.

This year’s tour is next weekend, Friday through Sunday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the picturesque Point Section.

“It’s very much like Williamsburg except that people are living in these wonderful houses. They are right on the harbor. The views are absolutely marvelous and people are lured here not just for the garden tour but this section of the city that is so delightful.”

The neighborhood features an architectural array of Colonial, Federal and Victorian houses from the 1700s and 1800s. And in the backyards of many are gorgeous gardens.

“They are secret gardens because you don’t really see them until you get inside,” says Ray Bliss, one of the tour’s organizers.

This weekend’s tour involves a dozen gardens, three of which are new to the tour, nine of which have been on it before. However, even the old gardens are new again.

“We’ve had a lot of different people in the same house, but with different ideas for their garden,” Duvally says. “Gardens never stay the same, thought they’re at the same address. They are different every year. They grow and have new plantings.”

Annie Ritterbusch has put her garden on the tour the last seven or eight years, with some new features each year: new plants, new stones, new lights, and a new koi pond.

Right now her garden certainly looks complete, although she disagrees.

“I’m not done. I’m never done.”

Ritterbusch bought the house in 1982 and began creating a garden a few years later. “There was nothing. I’ve been digging marbles and bottles and trash from the dirt.”

In their place, Ritterbusch has planted a white picket fence with red, pink and yellow roses; a couple of trellises; a brick walkway; some hydrangea, rhododendron and clematis; more than 30 types of hosta; and a koi pond that abuts a three-tiered deck.

Every year getting the garden in impressive condition takes time, just in time for the tour. Then Ritterbusch is done.

“I do the garden tour because it gets me finished. For the rest of the summer I just enjoy the garden, maybe pulling a weed here or there. It’s a refuge. It’s like another little world. It’s a sanctuary.”

The tour covers about a mile, with each garden having a tour host to talk about the gardens. All of the gardens but two are private residences: Hunter House, an 18th-century Georgian owned by the Preservation Society of Newport County, and the Stella Maris Inn, an 1853 brownstone with mansard roof. There’s a brick patio in the back with an herb garden in its center and a low stone wall with rose bushes at its edge. A trellised passage way, about 60 feet long, created by overhanging Korean dogwoods, leads to the back of the property and a gazebo. Of note are a couple of really big beech trees.

Elsewhere on the tour other trees create attraction: a Cyprus, some cedars and a large umbrella pine, among others.

You’ll see statuary and water fountains, a variety of plants, of course, and everywhere great horticultural care in creating an inviting sense of space. One garden serves as a setting for a dining table on a circular-patterned brick patio, and a building called the conservatory serves as a support center for the garden.

At another garden, a narrow walkway, only about four feet wide beside the house, features a meandering cobblestone path and shade garden leading to the back of the house and a slate patio with furniture that’s surrounded by a variety of well chosen and well maintained plants, creating the feel of an outdoor living room, where flora and fauna serve as tasteful furnishings.

“It’s amazing what you can do with a small space,” Duvally says.

Proceeds from the tour support cultural programs in Aquidneck Island’s public schools. And the tour itself, Duvally says, serves as an inspiration to gardeners.

“A lot of people come to get ideas and go home and do some digging on their own.”

The Secret Garden Tour is Friday, Saturday and Sunday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., in the Point Section of Newport. Tickets are $25 on the days of the tour, purchased at 33 Washington St., where you also pick up maps and guides; and they’re $20 when purchased in advance: (401) 847-0514. For more information, visit www.secretgardentours.org.