Archive for June, 2011

Paging Dr. Green!

Amid the noisy coverage of high cost health care and high-tech medicine, one inexpensive, low-tech therapy has received scant attention. This approach has proven a highly effective adjunct therapy for a broad range of conditions: mental illness, disabilities, AIDS, autism, orthopedic recovery, brain injuries, substance abuse, depression, cancer, Alzheimer’s, attention deficit disorder, obesity and burn […]

New Fordhook Trees, Part Two

We had the opportunity last year to meet an extraordinary group of conifer specialists and professional arborists: Ridge Goodwin of Ridge Goodwin & Associates and Martin Brooks of Rare Plant Nursery, as well as the team of Fred and Cheryl Vieth of Creative Essentials. Cheryl and Fred collaborated with Ridge and Marty on all aspects […]

Passport to Paradise

The Delaware Valley can rightfully proclaim itself the capital of American public gardens. Our region is home to an unrivalled collection of world class gardens and arboreta, remarkable for their quality, distinctive personalities and specialties. The fortunate residents of the Philadelphia region, can, by travelling a short distance, find themselves in other worlds. One might […]

Army of Darkness: Guest Blog by Nick Rhodehamel

I don’t know why the previous inhabitants of this house kept the yard so wet. “Over watered”, I noted when I originally saw it. But it’s since occurred to me that the purpose might have been to suppress the gophers and preserve the lawn while they were attempting to pass the house off to us. […]

Fish In Happiness Garden

I know: it sounds like an expensive dinner item in a fancy Chinese restaurant menu. Really fancy. After my travels through Asia, I can imagine such a dinner item. However, the subject is a new arrangement of Densaburo Oku’s glass and metal fish sculptures. We decided to bring them closer to the viewers for this, […]

Fordhook’s New Trees

Recently I bought a small collection of large trees and shrubs from a group of local nurserymen and conifer enthusiasts. Over twelve years ago, after purchasing Fordhook Farm, the core of the old historic Burpee estate, from the family, I brought in a series of garden designers and landscape architects—some local, some distant, some famous, […]