Gina Bianchi stands Monday in the entrance of her shade garden in Cranberry Township. Bianchi and other members of the Southern Butler County Garden Club will host the Beautiful Gardens of Cranberry garden tour on Saturday. Bianchi came up with the idea as a result of her association with the Cranberry Women's Club, which hosts an annual home tour.

CRANBERRY TWP — Members of a local group want to showcase the growth in southwestern Butler County, and they're not talking about housing developments and shopping malls.

Instead, the Southern Butler County Garden Club will host The Beautiful Gardens of Cranberry garden tour Saturday, with registration at 9 a.m. at Sample Schoolhouse.

Each participant will receive a booklet at registration containing a map to each of the six gardens being showcased as well as each garden's history and description.

Tours are self-guided, so participants can view the gardens at their own pace.

Club member Gina Bianchi came up with the idea for the garden tour as a result of her association with the Cranberry Women's Club, which hosts an annual home tour. She said garden tours are a perennial favorite in other communities.

"Every other town has a garden tour," Bianchi said. "We were discussing fundraisers, and I thought, 'Why not a garden tour?'"

Once the idea was accepted, she thought registration at Sample Schoolhouse would allow the public a view of the work completed there by Penn State Master Gardeners, of which she also is a member.

"I'm just in too many things," said the energetic Bianchi, whose Cranberry Township property is lined with carefully marked varieties of day lilies.

Bianchi said a plant sale including mainly perennials and herbs will be held during registration for the garden tour, and Penn State Master Gardeners will be in attendance to answer any gardening questions.

The Cranberry Township Historical Society also will have docents on hand with information on the historic one-room schoolhouse.

Raffle tickets for a gardener's delight basket will be sold at registration, and the event's door prize will be rare perennials taken directly from the gardens of club members.

Bianchi said each of the six gardens on the tour display different qualities, so those experienced in gardening can get new ideas and prospective gardeners can decide which type of garden would best suit their homes and personalities.

Bianchi's garden will demonstrate the calming beauty of a shade garden, which includes hundreds of hostas, ferns and perennial shade plants. A flagstone walkway patiently installed by her nongardening husband wends its way through the plantings.

Another stop on the tour will demonstrate an ambitious hillside garden that contains several "pockets" among the perennials where the homeowners can entertain. The garden was chosen to illustrate that a gorgeous, functional garden can be assembled in a short time, as the homeowner completed the sizable garden in just two years.

A garden in Seven Fields showcases a large water feature that cascades down tiers and ends in a pond near a gazebo. The garden also features unusual trees and shrubs.

Alice Krejdovsky, president of the Southern Butler County Garden Club, said all 20 club members are excited about the inaugural garden tour.

"It's a good way for people to see gardens they wouldn't normally get to see," Krejdovsky said. "It could inspire people to garden. The goal of our club is to get the community to appreciate gardening or try their hand at it."

She said good gardeners never reach total knowledge, and the tour could give veterans new ideas. Krejdovsky said she learned the hard way which vegetables to plant when she moved to Western Pennsylvania in 2003.

"There were no deer where I came from," she said with a chuckle. "My first garden here, I was providing a buffet for the deer.

"Gardeners are always learning."

<B>WHAT:</B> Beautiful Gardens of Cranberry self-guided tour of six area gardens. Proceeds will benefit the Southern Butler County Garden Club projects<B>WHEN:</B> Tour begins at 9 a.m. July 18<B>WHERE:</B> Register at Sample Schoolhouse on the grounds of the Cranberry Township Municipal Center<B>INFO: </B>$10 for presale tickets, which can be purchased from the Southern Butler County Garden Club by sending a check and stamped, self-addressed envelope to Toni Matson, 714 Sir Barton Court, Cranberry Township, PA 16066. Tickets will be sold for $12 tickets at registration.