On Tour

Landau, a retired physician and instructor at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, was one of nine property owners invited by the Worcester County Horticultural Society to be a host for its garden tour that year.

“What it turned out to be was a day of glory,’’ he said. “It was wonderful to hear so many people say such nice things about my garden. Everyone was careful where they walked and asked good questions. I thought it was a really fun day.’’

House and garden tours make up a significant part of the spring cultural calendar in the outskirts of Boston. Between now and late June, dozens of homeowners will open their doors — or their garden gates — to the curious who pay for the privilege, usually through a donation to the sponsoring charitable organization, of nosing around.

Landau’s garden won’t be on this year’s tour, though he says he’d be happy to do it all over again.

The annual tours attract repeat customers by promising a new crop of houses or gardens to visit each year. Moreover, the locations are traditionally kept secret until the day of the tour.

“It’s just more fun that way,’’ said Mary Beth Stevenson, cochairwoman of tomorrow’s Carlisle House Tour. “It builds the suspense if you don’t know ahead of time where you’re going. It’s fun to find out the morning of the tour what houses you’re going to see.’’

Stevenson conceded that this also prevents undue stress on the homeowner. “The hosts are so gracious in opening their homes to the public. We certainly don’t want them to be bothered by people driving by ahead of time, trying to get an advance look at what’s on the tour,’’ she said.

Polly Ginn of Acton said she goes on house and garden tours every year.

“I love design and decorating, even though my house doesn’t necessarily reflect it,’’ said Ginn. “The tours offer fresh ideas and stimulate the urge to redo or update my living space.’’

Ginn plans to go on the Carlisle House Tour, which features six homes in a wide variety of styles. The proceeds from the ticket sales benefit the Carlisle public schools.

On Sunday, Ginn and other house tour enthusiasts might choose to visit homes in Newton to benefit the city’s historical society, Historic Newton.

People who love landscaping and botany could explore the gardens of Concord during the Concord Museum’s upcoming tour, or they could satisfy cravings to examine homes and gardens alike by going on the Dover House and Garden Tour, sponsored by the Friends of the Dover Town Library.

The Indian Hill Music School in Littleton sponsors a tour focusing on gardens in Harvard and Boxborough, and the Hopkinton Garden Club offers a view of its town’s gardens, as does the Carlisle Garden Club.

In Newton, the selection committee meets for more than six months prior to the event to identify houses they’d like to include.

Melissa Westlake, the Historic Newton staff member who assists the volunteer committee, says that although the emphasis is on historical homes, her organization has significantly broadened its perspective in recent years as to just what that means.

“It’s not just late-1800s Victorians,’’ Westlake said. “This year we do have one 1895 Victorian with incredible detailing typical of that time, but we also have an 1874 Second Empire mansard, a brick Colonial from the late 1890s, a 1916 Craftsman-style house, a Frank Lloyd Wright-influenced home from the 1950s, and even a cottage-style house built last year.’’

The point of including a home built in 2010, Westlake said, is to demonstrate the way that new construction can be designed specifically to integrate attractively into a neighborhood of historic homes.

For garden tours, just as for house tours, organizers look for variety.

“We include some gardens that have been entirely owner-designed and others that were designed by professionals,’’ said Sally Lanagan, cochairwoman of garden selection for the Concord Garden Tour. “We include smaller in-town gardens as well as those on large estates; gardens by the river and gardens in rolling meadows; different themes and approaches and types of plantings,’’ she said.

“Highlights this year include a wisteria-covered pergola and a chef’s garden.’’

In Hopkinton, tour organizer Ruth Gorman said, visitors will get to see the personal garden of one of the area’s most respected professional botanists when they stop at the home of Wayne and Beth Mezitt, owners of Weston Nurseries in town.

And while having your home or grounds chosen for public display may be flattering, it can also cause some anxiety.

In the case of Northborough retiree Landau, who 20 years ago took a leave of absence from his medical teaching career to earn a master’s degree at the Conway School of Landscape Design, an ice storm tore limbs off half the trees in his yard not long after he agreed to be on the spring tour.

When the snow finally melted and he saw the damage, he was unsure whether the tour still should include his garden. But with a few months left to prepare, he rallied, and when the big day arrived, he and his wife, Sandra, greeted hundreds of visitors with cookies and iced tea.

Kristine Melvin doesn’t remember feeling a lot of anxiety when her house was chosen for Carlisle’s tour a few years ago — she was too busy getting ready for it.

“I decided that if someone was going to pay $25 for the privilege of walking through my house, they deserved to have as much of an experience as they could,’’ she said. “I made sure all the rooms were really nicely arranged. I set my dining room and kitchen tables and put out fresh flowers, as if I were about to host a party. And I drove my family crazy reminding them to put things away and clean up after themselves just before the tour. I felt pretty strongly that visitors not see toothpaste streaks in the kids’ bathroom sink.

“The night before the tour, my family went out to dinner so that we wouldn’t mess up the kitchen, and in the morning I got the kids up early, sent them off to school, and cleaned their rooms again. People who support these events deserve to have me go out of my way for them.’’

To this day, Melvin still meets people who upon being introduced to her say that they visited her house on the tour. “That’s a little weird, knowing someone I’m just meeting has been in every corner of my house,’’ she said.

Most house and garden tours in this region run along a similar model. Properties — usually about six to 10 per tour — are open for several hours. Guests pick up a brochure, which serves as an admission ticket and describes the unique features of each home or garden. The tours are self-guided — visitors are given a map so that they can drive or walk from one stop to the next — and each home is staffed with volunteers to alleviate homeowners’ worries about security. Some of the tours, including Carlisle’s house tour and Indian Hill Music School’s garden tour, offer boxed lunches for sale during the event.

For many participants, it’s not only a way to glimpse other people’s taste in décor or landscaping but also a good way to spend a spring day.

“The tours give me an excuse for an outing with friends,’’ said Ginn, of Acton. “I admire the folks who put in so much hard work to organize the tours, and I appreciate the generous home owners who offer their places for viewing. Most important, the donations go to a great cause.’’