Nine gardens — featuring a wide range of masterfully grown and carefully manicured flora — will be showcased in this year’s popular Point Loma Garden Walk, which treks through the wooded area of Point Loma on Saturday, April 24 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The event benefits the Dana Unit of Rady Children’s Hospital Auxiliary, a nonprofit organization of about 45 local volunteers. This is the ninth consecutive year for the event, which is a self-guided walk at one’s own pace, beginning at 550 Silvergate Ave. Walking maps will be available from this location on the morning of the event. “The garden walks have always been held in different areas of Point Loma,” said Dana Unit member Pamela Caldwell. “This year, the walk will have four homes, including a woodworkers shop and a cozy glass bead artist studio that people will be able to see and enjoy as they come in the front door and out through the back to see the gardens.” Caldwell, who has attended every walk since the event’s inception, expects more than 800 people to stroll through as they share an interest in things that grow. “We have gardens for every kind of gardener: the dig-in-the-dirt gardener, the armchair gardener, the catalogue gardener and more,” Caldwell said. In addition to an estate-size coastal garden, a historic home, water features, topiaries, wisteria-covered pagodas and colorful exotic blooms, musicians will play and artists from the Point Loma Artists Association will paint as walkers amble along. Master gardeners will also be on hand to answer any questions along the way. Proceeds from the ticket sales of this volunteer-run fundraiser are donated to the Craniofacial Unit at Rady Children’s Hospital. The Craniofacial Unit evaluates and treats disorders of the face and the skull. It is a unit that applies a wide range of medical knowledge ranging from geneticists, neurologists, speech pathologists and plastic surgeons. Most patients served by this unit require complicated treatments as they develop physically, which often yields long-term relationships between pa-tients and the doctors because of successive treatments, said Caldwell. This year, the stories of two families who received care from craniofacial services will be told through mixed visual media in some of the homes on the tour. “Our goal is to raise money for Rady Children’s Hospital, which is the only San Diego area hospital dedicated solely to pediatric care,” Caldwell said. Lending a hand during the walk will be 5 to 10 local vendors selling a variety of plant products in the garden boutique. For the last two years, one of the featured vendors has been the Point Loma Garden Club, which puts on its popular plant sale. The Point Loma Garden Club was started in 1961 and is 110-members strong. Dolly Hartman chairs the plant sale. “We will be selling patio container plants, fresh flower arrangements and 700 heirloom tomatoes which come from seeds that we have carefully grown ourselves,” Hartman said. “The heirloom tomatoes are our new item this year.” People are encouraged to linger as long as they want at the plant sale or in any one garden. “We have people who arrive at 10 a.m., leave to have lunch, come back and finish at 4 p.m.,” said Caldwell. “There is such a positive energy that day, being outside and walking in gardens.” Tickets are available for $20 prior to the event at Walter Anderson Nursery, Mission Hills Nursery, Green Gardens Nursery in Pacific Beach or Cottage Antiques in Ocean Beach. Tickets and information are also available online at www.pointlomagardenwalk.com.