NATCHEZ — P. Allen Smith has been coming to Natchez for over 30 years because of its beauty. And now he is back in town, but with a different purpose.

On this trip, he will be helping local gardeners make the city even more beautiful.

Smith, an award-winning garden designer and host of the public television program, “P. Allen Smith’s Garden Home” and the syndicated 30-minute show “P. Allen Smith Gardens,” will be speaking at 6 p.m. today at the Natchez City Auditorium as the kick-off event for Natchez’s Symphony of Garden Tour.

Tickets for Smith’s presentation are $10 and available online at www.visitnatchez.org or by calling 1-800-647-6724. The proceeds from the event will benefit Grow Natchez Gardens, a non-profit organization dedicated to beautification through gardening.

The self-guided Symphony of Garden tours will be Saturday and Sunday featuring 11 town and estate gardens.

The gardens that are open for tours are Emrick’s Garden, High Cotton Herb Garden, Cassagne Garden, Van Court Town House, Zurhellen Garden and Edgewood, where entertainment will take place on Saturday afternoon. On Sunday afternoon Oak Hill, Rip Rap, Governor Holmes Courtyard, Purvis vegetable garden and Magnolia Vale gardens will be open. Entertainment will be at Magnolia Vale.

Tickets for the garden tours are $15 each day and $25 for both days. They are on sale at the Visitor Reception Center at 640 Canal St. or by calling 601-446-6345.

Smith’s talk, “How to get more out of your garden than a backache,” will be geared at helping gardeners keep their gardens blooming all summer.

“Natchez is so well known in this part of the world for its spring gardens,” Smith said. “There is no end to the azaleas and camellias and all the beautiful spring shrubs. What I would like to attempt to do is introduce some plants that they aren’t growing here today.

“There is no reason gardens shouldn’t always be as interesting as they are in spring.”

Smith said he will use his own garden in Little Rock, Ark., as an example of creating a garden that is visually interesting. Smith said he has constructed a “new, old garden home retreat” that features a terrace garden that is “the length of three football fields.”

“It is very much in the spirit of Thomas Jefferson’s Ferme Orneé,” he said.

Smith said he will also discuss ways to bring a passion for gardening indoors. He said often times people leave the beauty of the gardens outside, but he said there are plenty of ways to liven up a home’s interior.

One of the best ways is using containers and objects that are already in the home but may have been forgotten.

“I come from a long line of pack rats,” he said. “And it is just a matter of dragging out all that stuff in closets, cupboards and cabinets and co-mingling it with so many of the things we grow in the garden.”

Many of the tips and ideas Smith will present come from his new book which illustrates 65 ways of bringing gardening indoors.

Smith said Natchez is the perfect backdrop for his talk since the community already has a passion for beauty and gardening.

“The history, the gardening culture here and the climate are things that really excite someone like me,” Smith said.