Garden tours benefit Mifflinburg Buggy Museum
Jun. 14—MIFFLINBURG — Garden enthusiasts toured the vibrantly decorated yard of Jack and Joannah McGregor's Market Street home Sunday afternoon as harpist Erin Rute played nearby.
Six homes in the Union County borough were opened to the public as part of the annual garden tour fundraiser for the Mifflinburg Buggy Museum.
Sunday's event attracted about 200 visitors, many looking for inspiration, said museum board member Eve Linke.
"People like to see what other people are doing," she said.
Maria Law and her two daughters, Izzy, 22, and Emma, 20, all of Philadelphia, came out with Law's mother, Mary Mastascusa, of Lewisburg, and all were impressed with the gardens.
"We've just loved how well they've used the space," said Law.
Izzy Law said the McGregor's outdoor fountain built around a natural spring that was once used by a former homeowner who operated a distillery was particularly inspiring.
"We don't have a natural spring but we do have a lot of water in our yard," she said clutching a camera filled with photographic ideas.
For Emma, the flowers in all the gardens were a show-stopper.
Jack McGregor sat underneath a tree with two sleeping pups under his chair as people milled around the backyard admiring his wife's work.
The home, built in 1840, has been in his wife's family for 70 years and includes a pre-Civil War, two-man jail cell on the property and a blacksmith's cottage built around 1820 that they recently renovated and now use as their main living space.
Lew and Debbie Fitzgerald, of Watsontown, have been gardening for years and enjoyed seeing what others have created.
"This year everything has been growing fantastic," said Lew Fitzgerald, who with his wife has been tending to their flowers during the pandemic. "There hasn't been much else to do."
Visitors to the Chestnut Street home of Nancy Morgan and Craig Miller learned the homeowners came upon their garden by accident.
"Mine is by luck. Trial and error," Morgan told visitors.
Brooklyn natives, the couple and their daughter, CarolAnn Miller, moved to Mifflinburg in 2016 and purchased the home that had once been owned by a garden enthusiast.
The family decided to restore the plants and flowers in the yard and in the past year have been growing vegetables and fruits as well, said CarolAnn who pointed out the Spiraea japonica bush in the side yard as her favorite.
"It reminds me of the bush we had in Brooklyn," she said.
The next major fundraiser for the museum will be a July 24 dinner gala at the Rusty Rail Brewing Company. For more information, visit the Mifflinburg Buggy Museum Facebook page.
