Natural beauty

Saturday’s Pittsburg Garden Tour, which is held every two years by the Zone 6 Gardeners of Pittsburg, was by all accounts a success.

The caretakers of the gardens set out refreshments for the hundreds of tourists, and horticultural enthusiasts from as far away as Kansas City and California quizzed the green thumbs about their designs and handiwork.

This year’s tour featured the Italian-inspired garden of Fred and Judy Spigarelli; the recycling-themed garden of Darlene Brown and Paul Hanney; the Asian-inspired garden of Kathleen and Michael Bishop; the European-style garden of Dick and Faith Coleman; the Pittsburg Community Garden, which last year produced about 17,000 pounds of produce for Wesley House; and Eva Smith’s country-style Garden of Weed’n. Participants also were able to attend a luncheon catered by Angels Among Us at the Timmons Tea Room in the historic Stilwell Hotel.

Brown and Hanney started their recycling-themed garden years ago when they purchased the lot next door after the city tore down the decrepit house. With a background in architecture, Brown took over the gardening, and trained as a carpenter while in the Air Force, Hanney built the potting house, chicken coop and garage. He also built a two-level playhouse for his daughter, Franchesca, but admitted he had ulterior motives while planning it.

“I needed a place to keep my lawn mower,” Hanney laughed.

Hanney said he used as much of the torn-down house as possible in the construction of the buildings. Brown said the lot originally was mostly engulfed in shade, so she started with plants that required little light. But as the lot’s makeup changed, said Brown, who is drawn to pinks and purples, so did her choice of plants.

“I spend hours looking at catalogues, especially in the spring,” she said. “It’s a very relaxing, creative time for me.”

Over at Smith’s Garden of Weed’n in Chicopee, kids toured the small playhouse and visitors marveled at the chickens, bright flowers and vast swaths of rhubarb, among others. Smith said she’s been building her garden since she moved here from Oklahoma in 2000 to close to her grandchildren.

The garden is full of a mixture of flowers and vegetables and isn’t stylized.

“I just love country gardens, Smith said. It’s like controlled chaos. When I was growing up people didn’t mow or have lawns, they grew flowers and other plants to keep the weeds down. My grandmother’s whole front lawn was a flower garden.”

Fred Spigarelli’s Italian villa-themed spread was popular among the many visitors. What passers-by might think is a guest home is actually the house in which Spigarelli grew up. Not wanting to part with the family home when he built the stately stucco villa on W. Leighton Street, he had it refinished to match, and slowly built up the walled-in patio. It features a fountain, swimming pool, statues, an Italian-style arbor for grape vines and a bar at which guests can relax in the shade.

“It just came to me bit by bit,” Spigarelli said. “It was just a piece here and a piece there.”

Pittsburg resident Joan Miller has lived in Pittsburg since she moved here after World War II, when she met her husband, who was in the United States Air Force. She said she hasn’t missed a tour since they started in 1998.

“They’re very interesting and the homes are all quite beautiful,” Miller said.

Miller was touring with her friends, Jean Barber and Flora Miller. Miller moved to Pittsburg from California with her husband, who was transferred here by his employer, Mission Clay, and was on her first tour.

“It’s beautiful, very nice,” Miller said. “It’s like a picture. It’s very professional.”