Danville Heritage Festival
Garden Tours
Danville/ Riverside Garden Tours: July 1st 9am - 5pm
Washingtonville/Eyersgrove Garden Tours: July 2nd 2nd 9am - 5pm
Tour public and private gardens located around Danville as part of this year's Heritage Festival. We invite people to celebrate the diversity that gardening has to offer - and we hope visitors will appreciate the passion and vision that has gone into creating these unique gardens and will take away ideas for their own backyards.
The Danville/Riverside garden tours will the primary Danville Heritage Festival, however, will be held September 9th - 11th. We chose the beginning of July for the Garden Tours since it will be closer to the peak flower season, and the gardeners can then enjoy the festivities in September. With the cost of everything going up, the garden tours are FREE! Come and enjoy the beauty of nature, enhanced by the hands and minds of the gardeners. Get away from it all and relax!
Follow the self-guided driving tours in Google Maps here:
DANVILLE: https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=1EZg9HZoSQDs9jR3W7QBwLH7wOk22KxA&hl=en&usp=sharing
WASHINGTONVILLE: https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=1EZg9HZoSQDs9jR3W7QBwLH7wOk22KxA&hl=en&usp=sharing
Danville/Riverside Tours (July 1st):
1. Bob & Marysusan Umbriac – 538 Chamber St., Danville, PA 17821
This beautiful 5-acre property has been a labor of love for over 4½ decades, and the owners maintain that it is still a work in progress - continually revising and adding new plants and trees. Marysusan is in charge of the flowers and does a lot of the weeding. She has been weeding since she was 5 years old, so she’s in the world-class category of weed-pickers. Bob has done a lot of the design and building of the many terraces and structures on the property, which include: covered bridge, a pavilion, water ponds and waterfalls, a root cellar, a large grape arbor, a working wishing well, along with multiple terraces and stone walls. There are evergreens and shrubs, perennials and roses, crepe myrtles and wisteria, fruit trees, a large vegetable garden, and numerous flowerbeds. Marysusan also makes her own hanging baskets, which are hanging throughout the property. The circular driveway in front of the house contains 2 fish ponds, streams, a gazebo, and many plantings. A trumpet vine climbs up the telephone pole. There are two arches that lead to the gardens behind the house. A small one covered with teacup roses and a large one covered with a trumpet vine. The sunroom that houses some of the annuals over winter and to start some of the vegetables, will be open for viewing. It was also built to enhance heating of the home in the winter and contains a fish pond made from an old cistern.
2. Mary Alice King – 881 Powder Mill Road, Danville, PA 17821
This garden features a mixture of deer-resistant annuals, herbs, perennials, shrubs and containers that line a walkway to the front door. The planting illustrates the use of contrasting textures, unusual flower shapes, and foliage plants that attract bees and hummingbirds. A beautiful specimen paperbark maple is the highlight of the backyard filled with mature foundation plantings. To access the gardens, please park along Powder Mill Road.
3. Zamboni Park (Public Garden) – 168 W. Front St., Danville, PA 17821
Zamboni Park greets visitors who come across the Danville Riverside Bridge into Danville. Approximately 50 feet x 200 feet, it represents manicured beauty! There are hundreds of trees, shrubs, and perennials, including tulips. This immaculately maintained park overlooks the north branch of the Susquehanna River, and is a popular picture backdrop proms, weddings, and family gatherings. This award-winning park is under the watchful care of Bill Zamboni (for whom the park is named) and other staff members consisting entirely of volunteers.
4. Riverfront Park (Public Garden) – 22 W Front St., Danville, PA 17821 (across from Zamboni Park)
Riverfront Park was created at the site of an old river bridge. The park has beautiful flowers, a picturesque fountain, and a mural painted on the wall across the street depicting the iron heritage of Danville.
5. Alec Ewing Healing Garden at Geisinger(Public Garden) - 749 Center St., Danville, PA 17822
A hidden gem located at Geisinger Medical Center. Access by way of the parking garage. It contains murals, raised bed plantings, a dry stream bed, terraces, stone work, and parts of the original front pillars of the hospital built in 1915. A beautiful must see garden.
6. Stephanie & Michael Fullmer - 1301 Avenue F Riverside, PA 17868
This garden is targeted to benefit wildlife and is a Certified Wildlife Habitat. It provides food, shelter and water sources for insects, birds, butterflies, mammals, amphibians, etc. The property includes a shade garden, dry full sun garden, butterfly gardens, a maintained wild area, vegetable and herb garden and a bog garden. There are a variety of berry and fruit producing shrubs and trees. The Fullmers plant as many native flowers, trees and shrubs possible for maximum benefit to wildlife.
7. Joel & Laura Burley - 166 Songbird Lane, Northumberland, PA 17857
Garden of Joel & Laura Burley, located at 166 Songbird Lane – just off Route 11, a short drive from Danville, near the Point Drive-in. Driving up their lane, you may get a glimpse of their horses in the pasture. At the entrance to the garden is a plaque dedicating their multiple gardens to their loving parents. It is evident that they have put a lot of love and hard work into their 7+ acres, since they built their house in 1997. Enjoy the wall garden made with repurposed rock-faced block and brick designed by Laura. Also, enjoy their fish pond and vegetable garden. Being beekeepers, they have planted with the bees in mind, and have even built a bee/garden house! Also on display, is a 1953 Chevy Bel Air that Joel is restoring. This is a must-see garden!
Washingtonville/Eyersgrove Tours (July 2nd):
1. Martha Kanaskie – 432 Eyersgrove Rd, Bloomsburg, PA 17815
Martha Kanaskie lives on a picturesque 12 acres along Eyersgrove Road. Her large spring-fed pond is absolutely beautiful and boasts a fountain in the middle. She has been working on her property for over 31 years, and, what looked like a golf course initially, now has trees and perennials strategically placed to make maintenance easier. She has gotten native trees and shrubs from the Conservation District and has managed to avoid push mowing by planting specific areas that would otherwise be hard to mow. Martha has an extensive herb garden, primarily because she loves to cook. She also loves to start new plants from her perennials as she weeds and thins them. They are potted, placed in a sheltered spot outside, and then later sold. Another interesting fact is that Martha’s home is built underground (although it doesn’t seem that way when you look at it). This property is certainly worth the drive to see!
2. Frank & Karen Dombroski – 1130 3rd St., Washingtonville, PA 17821
This home and the surrounding gardens is the former site of Frank DeLong’s “Flower Garden” which consisted of many plants and flowers brought back to Washingtonville from his many travels. The Dombroski home is across the street from the Delong Memorial and was built by a relative of Frank DeLong. The home is surrounded by a variety of annuals and perennials and encased in some beds by stone retaining walls. A potting shed is tucked away under the deck. Among the grove of trees to the rear of the property is a 1000-gallon pond is home to minnows, goldfish, toads and frogs. The pond was hand dug by Frank and son Tyler about 25 years ago. They also did the stonework and built the very natural looking stream. Among the grove of trees is a regulation size quoit pit with lights for nighttime play. Surrounding the pool area are hydrangeas and roses among other plantings with a wisteria hanging over the pergola and dining area at the pool house. The backyard boasts a tree with its trunk encased in a climbing hydrangea. The tree was topped off a few years ago, but the trunk was left standing some 20 feet up to accommodate the hydrangea. Other trees in the backyard are used as supports for jasmine, wisteria, bittersweet and honeysuckle. The vegetable garden is surrounded by a fence that supports hops for beer making, trumpet vines, trimmed to showcase their interesting trunks, grape vines and kiwi vines. The garden consists of some raised beds and includes a variety of annuals and perennials.
3. Washingtonville Community Garden – A short walk from the Dombroski’s property
The Washingtonville Community Garden is located at the entrance to the Delong Park. The Garden is one of the many projects that the Washingtonville Revitalization Committee has spearheaded over the past few years. As you enter the Park, you will see a rock garden to the left with rocks painted with kindness messages by some of the children in town during an activity sponsored by the Committee several years ago. The garden itself has the usual summer vegetable plantings that are shared with community members. Plots are available by application for personal use. Fifty (50) trees were planted in the park area in 2019 by the Committee and volunteers and, this spring, 8 fruit trees were planted to develop an orchard to accompany the garden. Pumpkins have been planted in anticipation of a children’s activity this fall.
4. John & Nancy Marr Farm Museum & Garden –2663 Continental Blvd, Turbotville, PA 17772 (a short drive on Route 54 from Washingtonville)
Stop in, travel back in time, and see this beautiful farm that has been in the same family for several generations! As featured on Channel 16's On the Pennsylvania Road, the Marr Farm features a former wagon shed turned museum that is full, floor-to-ceiling, of items from Turbotville, Washingtonville and surrounding villages. You will see store memorabilia, seldom seen pictures, farm and quarry collectibles, and much, much more. If there's anything you would like to know more about, just ask. First time open to the general public! Also on display will be John Marr’s grandfather's restored 1948 Diamond T pickup truck. The Sesquicentennial Marr Farm is known for its beautiful displays of seasonal blooms surrounding the house and museum. Summer varieties include snapdragons, petunias, geraniums, calla lilies and a large Asiatic lily patch. John, being a local historian, has recently finished three books about Washingtonville. His first book, “Washingtonville: Taking a Step Back in Time" will, as the title indicates, take you back to Washingtonville as it once was, with its four hotels and many shops, and travel was by horse and buggy. Included are many pictures of store memorabilia, postcards from the last century, and other items of interest. This book and hopefully Vol. 2 and 3 will be for sale and will be a memorable addition to what you will see at their farm, museum and gardens.
Anyone who is willing to volunteer their gardens for the tour should call Bob Umbriac at 570-275-5308.
Please stay tuned for updates. Follow us on Facebook @DanvilleBusinessAlliance or @DanvilleHeritageFestival and Instagram @turntodanville.
