Hostas, quilts — even a pergola

These are some of the hundreds of hostas that adorn the landscape of John and Janna Milbradt on Lake Shetek. The Milbradts, no strangers to garden tours, are one of six couples who will show off their work at this year’s Tracy Area Gardens & Quilts Tour. Photo / Per Peterson

Next week’s Tracy Area Gardens & Quilts Tour features Garvin, lakes area

By Per Peterson

Over the past four years, people from Appleton, MN, to Watertown, SD — and even from Texas — have taken time to attend the annual Tracy Area Gardens and Quilts Tour. And on July 10, the fifth annual event, which is sponsored by St. Mary’s CCW, will feature six homes south and southwest of Tracy.

Garden tour sites that will include the Lake Shetek, Lake Sarah and Garvin areas are: Marc and Janna Milbradt; Jim Moldenhauer and Renee Zachman; Don and Penny Peterson; Mike and Darcy Carlson; the Lynn and Rose Goltz lake site; and Steve and Carol Buyck.

“The first year was north of town, the second year was in town and areas to the south; the third year the tour covered Balaton; and last year, it was back in Tracy.

“We consider it all Tracy area,” said Elise Lanoue, one of the original members of the organizing team. “When we started we were going to go north, south, east and west — we did the north and the south but couldn’t find anything to the east. “Then we switched to the west.”

The $15 fee includes the St. Mary’s Pie and Ice Cream Social served at Bitton’s Roadhouse in Garvin (tickets are available the day of the event there and at each site). Besides the landscaping, and all the colorful and robust gardens awaiting all the “tourists,” the event will feature quilts by: Pieces for Heroes, Quilts of Valor; Janna Milbradt; Sharon Lenertz; Cynthia Sabinske; Beth Brewers; and others. There will be more than 70 quilts for viewing.

See this week’s Headlight Herald for more on this article.