Kempton Garden

The Kempton, PA Garden site is uniquely situated on a shale ridge in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania. Looking southwest, the owners are graced with long sweeping views through a bucolic valley framed by the ridge of Hawk Mountain. Lesser Lake, to the north, is nested between the shale ridge of the Garden and a backdrop of the Appalachian Mountain Range. Continuing clockwise east to south are panoramic views of high rolling hills and a picturesque agrarian Pennsylvania landscape. The client requested an immersive planting design, adjacent to the home, that embraced these views and created an visceral garden experiences that enhance the comings and goings of everyday life.

The existing site conditions included a newly constructed home, drive, turfgrass and a few scattered trees on the south end of the property. My responsibilities for Phase I included the design and construction of any feature beyond the walls of the home.

The program began by thinking about the experience of visiting the garden. Reaching the home at the end of the drive, guest parking was sited to lead into a generous crushed stone promenade, revealing views to the western valley and ridgeline beyond. This access leads guests to the front door, veranda or further along to paths in the midst of the garden. Plantings are composed in layers to surprise and delight as one moves around and through the spaces. Blocks of emergent herbaceous plants are used to simplify the composition as a controlled work of art. Conversely, a primary layer of plants will spread, ramble, and seed through the layers to add depth and sustainability to the block plantings. The scale of this planting looks to embrace the grandeur of the surrounding landscape.

These compositions, evocative of an impressionist prairie, are carried throughout the property. At the garage, herbaceous plants rambling through Hop Hornbeam and Crabapple compress the service entrance and scrim the less desirable views to the east. Groupings of Aronia and Calycanthus woven through herbaceous plants compress visitors through a stone walk into a side entrance. To reduce erosion and sediment run-off into Lesser Lake, steep slopes to the north have been stabilized with large boulder outcroppings and aggressive cespitose clumps and stoloniferous roots as well as plants that grow aggressively from seed namely; Chamaecrista, Panicum, Rudbeckia and Scutelleria. The plant material was carefully selected for their ability to thrive in dry shale soils. Plant layers have been chosen to carry color and hold texture through much of the growing season and in the spent foliage of the winter landscape.