Summer Garden Tour Last Stop: 1875 Rural Gothic Gardens

Great view of the back of the rural gothic house from the back of the middle garden. 

Irwin Weiner ASID - It's been a fun summer of sharing design resources and gardens we've admired from this year's New Hope Historical Society Garden Tour. This last Pennsylvania stop featured a lovely 1875 rural gothic home, built five generations ago by the owner's great-great grandmother and grandfather, and you can see some of their plantings in the garden - his great sycamore tree and her rose of sharons. The small town lot is extremely narrow, but every inch is packed with interest and discovery.

The middle garden is modern English style with a border of rose of sharons opposite a line of espaliered apples.

Espaliered apples.

Late-spring peonies and giant allium bloomed for us in June - a real treat!

The three gardens featured trees and shrubs that add color and interest throughout the growing season. There was a simple traditional mixed border garden in the front line bordering a picket fence. The middle garden, shown above, was modern English style. And we headed down the gravel walk to the "hunter's lodge," the greenhouse behind the lodge, and the back garden which sloped down to the Delaware canal - a garden featuring magnolias and his great-great grandfather's sycamore. 

The grass parterre hemmed in by plantings in the middle garden leads to a "hunting lodge" outbuilding.

The hunter's lodge and grass parterre leading down to the great sycamore in the back garden.

Inside the hunter's lodge.

A cozy greenhouse behind the hunter's lodge preps Solomon's seal, ferns, and rose of sharons for planting.