The gates swing open at 10 a.m. today, and for six hours strangers will be welcome where they are almost never allowed: the backyards of Bed-Stuy. The 14th annual Garden Stroll features 22 private gardens on Hancock, Decatur, and Macon Streets, from postage-stamp herb plots to a koi pond that took its owner nine summers to dig.

Odessa Grant, 71, who has organized the stroll since 2015, said the point is not horticulture. "It's about proving the neighborhood to itself," she said, standing beside the fig tree her late husband first wrapped in burlap in 1989. "You walk through somebody's garden, you can't be a stranger to them anymore."

Tickets are $12 and benefit the Hancock Street Block Association, which spent last year's proceeds, about $7,000, on new tree beds and December lights. Grant expects to top that this year, judging by advance sales at Brown Butter Books and the Marcy Avenue farmers stand.

First-time host Delroy Simmons, whose tomato trellis is built entirely from salvaged stoop railings, admitted to nerves. "I mowed twice yesterday," he said. "My wife says I'm being ridiculous. She also ironed the porch cushions."