Garden Tour Features Blooming Cranberry Area Homes

To Michael Hunt, it's just his backyard. To his neighbor, Rita Mack, an avid gardener and member of the , it is a “paradise.”

“I live right next door and you would never know that his backyard looks like that,” she said. “You drive up the driveway and can’t see it; you can’t see it from next door.”

Hunt’s garden will be one of the six on display Saturday in the Third Annual Southern Butler County Garden Club tour. The six gardens represent a variety of styles and types of gardens. Among them is Hunt’s backyard oasis, which also features an in-ground pool.

Hunt said that when he bought his Cranberry home eight years ago, it included the in-ground pool and a sloping backyard. There also were several boulders that had been brought in to stabilize and shore up the area leveled for the pool.

“They are huge boulders that the contractor actually hauled in by crane and brought across the yards to the side of me,” he said.

At the time, the backyard was very open, so Hunt planted more than 70 trees and shrubs to offer some privacy.

“They were about 4-feet [tall] back then, and now most of them are well over 8- or 9 feet,” he said.

Through the years, he also has put in other plants, filled in areas between the boulders and added to the backyard.

“It is continuously a work in progress,” he said.

Hunt said he puts in the most yard work during the spring and summer months. At this point, he usually spends a few hours a day outside maintaining the yard.

Mack suggested Hunt that he have the club feature his yard as one of the tour gardens, but Hunt was hesitant.

“It’s just my backyard. I’m not a true gardener or anything, but I like working on it,” he said.

According to Mack, one of the highlights of Hunt’s yard is the continuous surprises.

“You walk in and the first thing you see is this beautiful, sparkling pool, and you just want to sit down and relax," she said. "But then, you keep walking and see the garden below and the fountains. It is all so beautiful.”

The garden tour also will feature a home in Harmony, one in Zelienople, two in Cranberry and one home on Route 68.

“They are all so different, which is what we want,” said Mack, the club's program director. “We want people to look at them and say, ‘I could do that with my hill,’ or maybe, ‘I never thought of putting those plants in, and I bet it would work in my yard.’”

According to Gina Bianchi, the tour's co-chairwoman, the money raised from the tour goes to various projects, including the purchase of gardening books for local libraries, a bench at in Cranberry and one at the , a $250 grant for Glade Run Lutheran Service in Zelienople to assist with gardening projects there, and donations to Phipps Conservatory and the Botanical Society of Western Pennsylvania.

“We keep the money local,” Bianchi said, “We also use it to help pay for our speakers who come to our meetings.”

The club has about 30 members, and many of them will be at the homes on tour to answer gardening questions.

“We also have all the homeowners there, which is great because they can answer specific questions about their own gardens,” Bianchi said.

If you're going:

For tickets, send a check and self-addressed stamped envelope to Debbie McFarland, 114 Hampshire Drive, Cranberry PA 16066 and please include your phone number. The cost of pre-sale tickets is $15.

For more information and for ticket availability closer to the tour day, call Gina Bianchi at 724-772-8904.