Sponsor: The Brunswick Garden Club

Tickets: $15; single-site, $5; ages 6-12, half-price

Info: (434) 848-4229; www.VAGardenweek.org

Tour highlights:

Village View at 221 Briggs St. in Emporia is on the National Register of Historic Places. Built in the 1790s, the house has hand-carved mantels, side lights and fan lights. At one time, the property included a grist mill, several brick kilns, servant quarters and other dependencies.

Greycroft, 304 Church St., Emporia (Mr. and Mrs. Robert C. Wrenn, owners), was built in 1910. The three-story, gray stucco home has 20 rooms. Furnishings include an a mid-18th-century Chippendale desk, a pine four-poster 1850s bed, an 1800s hunt board, a Queen Anne writing desk and 1900s Bohemian lamps.

The garden at 402 Meherrin Ave., Emporia (Sara Squire Burton, owner), was created to be a shady, peaceful retreat. Behind the house are terraces of plants, statuary, sitting areas and stone work. Rocks were used for walls, defining gardens and edging beds. Plants and trees include weeping willow, white cedar, tansy, redbud, annuals, hydrangea, hosta, pachysandra, bulbs and azaleas.

Built in 1904 as the Virginia Hotel, 321 Halifax St., Emporia (Hannah R. Barrett and Harvey R. Clement, owners), is now an antiques store. The owners began restorations in October 2004, but were interrupted when the entire back wall collapsed in January 2005. The wall was strengthened and salvaged bricks from the collapsed wall are now used as a decorative feature. Tung oil was used to finish the property's original white oak flooring.

115 Meadow Bank Road, Emporia (Eugene F. Rae, owner), was built in 1982 on the site of the original family home that dates to 1800. An 1890s addition to the original house is now used as a workshop. The dining room has matching, hand-built walnut corner cupboards and an 1816 grandfather clock made in Aberdeen, Scotland.

The Alexander Watson Batte House, 318 Scotland Drive, Emporia (Dr. and Mrs. Peter W. Squire, owners), was originally an overseer's home for a manor house. The house was constructed from 1813 to 1825. The kitchen and family room originally situated on a dirt floor have reclaimed pine flooring from an old warehouse.

More than 200 varieties of plants may be found at 319 Scotland Drive, Emporia (Richard V. Avent and Joyce O. Rae, owners). What was once a red-clay hillside has been transformed into a riot of color. The owners built their log home in 1983 and completed an addition in 1991. Mr. Avent built the kitchen cabinets and doors throughout.

Shady areas feature rhododendron, bleeding heart, columbine, azaleas, wild ginger and coral bells.

*See a 200-year-old pecan tree at 318 Scotland Drive.