by Mary Lou-Wolfe
The Green Scene, July 1993 

Ingenuity, hard work and persistence meet the challenge of slopes to create these two beautiful gardens in Media and Gulph Mills.

The Berd Garden Media, Pa

Man o' War, famed race horse of the 1940's, vacationed here before Morris and DeEtta Berd purchased the champion's country hideaway in 1950.  These 40 acres in Middletown Township near Philadelphia were a perfect place for Man o' War's owner, Sam Riddle, to secrete his valuable stallion between Kentucky races, to avoid possible injury or drugging.  The hilly acres sloped to a ravine traversed by Chrome Run, the last creek ford in Delaware County.

The Berds' purchase included a pre-Revolutionary War stone "bank" house, a two-story house built into a hill bank, so each floor was accessible from the outside without using stairs.  It lacked plumbing and electricity and had been missused by a long series of itenerant workers. There was a hand pump, an outhouse, chicken houses, a spring house, and a good sized barn in good shape, thanks to Man o' War.  The only trees were a large white pine, a juniper, locusts holding up the stream bank and the largest Ailanthus tree in Delaware County, a tree whose trunk looked like an elephant's foot.  

When city apartment dwellers Morris and DeEtta, with 5-month-old Jared saw the property, it whispered possibilities.  TO reach it they had driven past a whole acre of trailing arvutus on nearby Alverno Road. They could sell part of the acerage to help with the financing.  They fell in love with the propery, camped on the tiny lawn, cooked on a campfire and took the plunge.

 Morris, a painter, was teaching at what was then the School of Industrial Arts (now University of the Arts) in Philadelphia.  It took five years of vacations, weekends and the help of an old German carpenter to make the house livable for the family that had grown to four with the birth of Caleb in 1955.  Berg dug the 7-ft.-deep septic system and , early on, bulldozed a terrace in the hillside above the house to control the water that poured down the steep slopes when it rained. 

The slope between the house and the road was where Berd learned the hard way to build walls. He gathered stone from Chrome Run, trundled it in a wheelbarrow up the 100-ft. hill and proceeded to build his wall on two levels, one 7 ft. high and then , set back slightly , another 3 ft. high.  Part of the wall crumbled and had to be rebuilt because he had not mastered drainage; on the second attempt he backed the wall with rubble and larger rocks so water would not collect, freeze and force out the stones.

With the necessities coming under control, Berd started acquiring plants and trees to help hold the slope and provide shade. The old Hildemere Nursery (long gone) on Rt. 1 near Lima was a great source of perennials, but it was from Doretta Klaber in Quakertown in 1952 that he brought his first rock plant, Thalictrum kiusianum. It was a 6-in. specimen from Japan with tiny purple flowers and fernlike foliage.  An American Rock Garden Society exhibit at the Philadelphia Flower where a rock wall garden had been planted with tiny alpine farinose-type Primula, Androsace,  and Saxifraga  inspiried Berd to build what would become a long series of rock walls.

 Since the property had been used by cows and horses for centuries, there were fairly logical, well-defined cow paths leading to pasturage on the top of the hill.  Deciding to develop thse paths for planting, Berd gathered local granite stones from the property, arranging them in wide, casually spaced stepped areas above the paths.  His construction allowed space for generous plantings of columbines, campanulas, sempervivums, phloxes, and other native woodland plantings.  These developing walls were based more on logic than masterplan and were built and planted one section at a time as summer vacations and weekends permitted.

Berd was and is a great reader of plant books and journals, He had read an article in Horticulture Magazine about Henry Hohman, proprieter of Kingsville Nursery in Kingsville, Md. Berd visited often and found Hohman to be a slightly cranky but very honest and accurate nurseryman who appreciated and encouraged Berd's interest and growing knowledge of obscure plants. Hohman sold him a small rooted cuttings of Buxus microphylta 'Kingsville,' Japanese Gumpo Azaleas and dwarf conifers that have grown into handsome specimens backing the stepped stone wall plantings.  One of the walls built in the 1970s is a curving sitting bench topped with flagstone and backed with flat stone, much appreciated by visitors who pause on the long interesting climb to look out over valley.

Building a wall

When Berd plants a vertical wall he pays strict attention to the plants' soil, sun and drainage requirements. He plants as he builds, covering each course with a mix of loam, coarse sand, and peat or leaf mold. He can modify this mix to suit the nneds of individual plants by adding lime or peat.  The roots of plants are spread out on this soil and another layer of mix sprinkled over them before the next course of rock is laid.  To add plants to a finished wall, Berd rams the soil back into the recess using a 3/8-in dowel.  He knocks a young plant out of its pot, compresses the root mass into an elongated shape and carefully maneuvers it into an opening. He presses more soil around the roots until the opening is filled. He says in the ARGs Bulletin  of spring '82: "It is crucial in wall planting that the plant should never become dry while the roots are being established.  Individual plants may be watered directly with a fine gentle spray, but better still is to give the top of the wall a long, thorough, slow soaking to permit the water to percolate down to the plants roots."

Unfortunatly, Berd had to do this painstaking building and planting of a wall under great pressure in 1986. Morris and DeEtta opened their garden for an American Rock Garden Society May tour.  A few weeks before the scheduled tour, two old sugar maples crashed destroying a crucial wall next to the driveway.  Berd rebuilt it, carefully replanting niches with alpines chosen for the wall's northeast exposure and good drainage. The day before the tour a portable toilet was to be delivered to accommodate ARGS members invited to picnic here as the tour finale.  The truck driver, attempting to back up into the curving cobblestone driveway, misjudged the turn and demolished the newly rebuilt wall.  Berd said he was speechless and apoplectic. He spent the rest of the day and evening rebuilding and rescuing his carefully chosen plants.  We visitors thought the wall looked wonderful. 

Creating a driveway at the summit

The first thing one notices these days approaching the Berds' property is the handsome y-shaped Belgian block driveway whose curve evaded the deliveryman's backing capabilities.  Getting to the house or barn, both perched high above the road, had been a scrabbly, muddy challenge since they acquired the property. In the summer of 1959 Berd tackled the steep dirt access road in what DeEtta dubbed "The Battle of Dunkirk." After a lot of scrounging, Berd bought 4,000 granite cobblestones from a coal yard at 25th and Pine in Philadelphia, a steal at 7 cents each. The delivery truck dumped them on the front lawn. As Berd began excavations, cars had to be parked down on the main road, groceries carted up the hill and battleground conditions coped with all summer.

Berd removed 2 ft. of soil from the whole 75ft of driveway, replacing it with nut-sized ballast, then covered it in 2 in. of sand. He placed the 4,000 cobblestones in the bed of sand, angling them slightly upward to provide traction.  Then he laid sand and mortar over them, brush drying the surface.  A 15-ft. cobblestone circle at the driveway's summit provides a backing and turning space. It's a work of art.

A special tour for special gardeners

The Berds have shaped this steep hillside into a plant person's discovery tour. We see native northeastern plants, western alpines, dwarf conifers now 30-40 years old, stands of unusual rhododendron, all planted with an artist's sensibilities and the energy of an ox, that seems to have no end.

We follow the now shady cow paths up thress levels, rest on the stone wall seat, poke into the barnyard with its protected propogation areas and fern planted north wall.  We admire the boggy area planted with primula and hart's tongue fern uphill from the barn studio where Berd paints.  His son Jared uses the area on top of the hill for plants he sells in his rare plant nursery (wholesale) and design business named Chrome Run Nursery.

Should the ghost of Man o' War pay a visit, he could still drink from Chrome Run creek, follow paths that would seem familiar and rest in the shade of the ancient Ailanthus with the elephant foot truck that measures 11 1/2 ft. around at the base. The pasturage would definitally be different but the barn would be as sheltering as ever.

The Schumacher Garden  

Gulph Mills, PA.

When a small stream appeared in the laundry room oozing through the wall and flowing out through the garage, Liz and Ralph Schumacher knew their newly acquried split-level home had a problem. They bought it in 1967 because they could afford it and because they liked the lot's pleasant south sloping site in the new Gulph Mills area development.  On their one-acre site, the tract house was at the bottom of a steep hill, once meadow sparsely covered with weeds and rocks. Water rushed down after every rain, finding its outlet through the house and eroding the driveway.  

The Schumachers had neither experience nor interest in gardening but knew they hadn't bargained for living in a springhouse.  The water had to be controlled.  The previous owner had built a low stone wall to seperate hillside from backyard and had  installed a severe wooden staircase that led uphill to a semi-level area scooped out during the installation of the development's sewer system.  These features and one martin birdhouse were the only hillside "improvements".

The Mistake

Both Schumachers delight in sharing their early mistakes, and the tale begins with groundcovers.  Realizing they should plant something to absorb the flow of water, they followed a nurseryman's well intentioned advice to plant as groundcovers Rosa wichuraiana  and a brand new "high-way" plant, crown vetch. Although these plants did hold the slope, the were unruly, invasive and unattractive.  Ralph describes them as "10 times easier to put in than to dig out."

The Overall Plan

An overall plan was late in coming, developing slowly year by year until accelerated by Liz's 1974 enrollment in the Arboretum of the Barnes Foundation classes.  In the best of all worlds, the plan would have been undertaken the first year after they discovered the water in the laundry room.  The plan would have made drainage control a priority and then would have plotted access paths, special uses areas like children's play space and adult sitting areas, provided for shade and privacy plantings.

The Schumacher team had accomplished all these objectives, but in "real life" learning by doing rather than in the disciplined sequence of a professional landscape designer.  During those early years babies were born, a medical practice established, and, along the way, a strong interest in gardening steadily grew.

As Liz learned about trees and shrubs under Dr. John Fogg's expert guidance at the Barnes Aboretum, the Schumachers began to choose specimens whose bark, bloom, foliage and fruits offered multi-season interest. Gordon Eadie, a nurseryman, then working for Hansen Nurseries (Sassamansville, PA) was a great help in finding these special trees. Ralph not only provided a strong back and powerful shovel, but delighted in photographing in all seasons, the shrubs and trees they were planting. He is fascinated with the fall of white cherry tree petals on thd dark green of Andorra junipers, with the winter glisten of Acer griseum bark and the apricot glow of fall Stewartia leaves.

They accomplished drainage control by installing french drains on the flat area behind the house and by a series of stone retaining walls on the hillside.  The rowdy groundcovers have been replaced by Andorra junipers, Euonymus fortunei, cotoneaster, ivy, periwinkle, Russian arborvitae (Mircrobiota decussata), and other dwarf conifers.

The considerable effort involved in all of this is what Ralph calls "good exercise, great for the quadriceps and cardiovascular system."  More "great exercise" is provided for Ralph by the occasional thoughtful Christmas present of a truckload of wood chips dumped in the driveway topped with a red ribbon and "Merry Christmas to Ralph" label.  Moving mulch uphill in a wheeled trash can or wheelbarrow is a strenous job.  Mulch is the gift that keeps on giving (exercise, that is ) becaue with every major rain, some of it washes downhill again.

The Accomplishments

As I walked through the garden I was struck by the accomplishements of these very energetic gardeners.  The hillside, though heavily planted, has airy vistas up and down.  In the use of space you sense a Oriental understatement that may have germinated in Liz's childhood experiences.  She celebrated her ninth birthday on a ship bound for Tokyo where her Dad served in the Army for four years.  She remembers vividly climbing with her younger sister over the forbidden wall of the Meiji shrine when the city of Tokyo was closed down agter a huge snowfall.  It was very quiet; the stone figures dusted with snow, the elegant trees bowed and beautiful. She says, "It's one of those times that sticks in your head."

Those years in Japan and later travels with Ralph in Korea, Vietnam, Malaysia and China developed Liz' s appreciation for far eastern art and for garden ornaments in particular.  When developing her own garden, she couldn't find the kinds of beautiful things she had seen in the orient, and began, in 1979, to import them herself.  This has become her now flourishing business called "Garden Accents".  Though oriental objects were a first love, she offers a multinational collection.

The Schumachers hillside acts as a stage for some of these beautiful pieces. Sited perfectly at the turn of a stair, we see Butterfly Girl, a small bronze by Rachael hawkes. It's backed be a well pruned butterfly bush (Buddleia davidii) whose fragrant blooms from July to late autumn do attract butterflies.  A small granite figure of Tuti Kung, god of the earth, was chosen to guard a vegetable garden that failed to flourish.  Ralph says they also discovered that Tuti Kung's domain also includes care of minor children and airplain pilots so they lightened his load by assigning him to a Dwarf Conifer planting.

The Water Line

The Schumacher's installed a water line to the top of the hill, early on. That made possible the creation of their first pool, which looks like the collection of water from a small hillside spring.  It's a 3-ft.-deep concrete basin, stone edged, with a recirculating pump hidden under a front ledge.  Water trickles in from above, rhododendron and ivy frame the goldfish basin and it looks completely natural.  They have installed an underground watering system on the whole hillside with "pop-up" emitters, much needed during the dry summers on teh south facing slope.

Walking up the hillside, enjoying the view from each of the four terraces, the striking feature, expecially in winter or early spring, is the expert pruning that has been accomplished.  Liz and Ralph have had help over the years from a talented young man, Tom Jackson, who is now a landscape design student at the University of Delaware.  An example of their combined skills can be seen in a group of three multistemmed stewartias shaped to show off their handsome mottled bark and to provide afternoon shade for the sitting area around the little pool  A row of hemlocks has been topped at 15 ft. to provide privacy from an adjoining property.  The Pinus Bungeana and Acer griseum have been pruned to highlight their intersting peeling barks. In this exuberant garden there are definitely pairs of controlling hands.

At the summit, we follow a rhododendron path to a structure that almost had to be built, give Liz's early love affair with things Japanese.  It's a tea house, a lovely teak structure designed by Liz where she and Ralph often take their summer breakfasts.  This building affords a superb view of the hillside and valley in any season. Ralph, whose medical specialty is rheumatology, entertains his University of Pennsylvania students here each fall, pointing out to them ancient plants Colchicum and goutweed which have been used medicinally to treat rheumatism. I imagine, however, that it's the view from the tea house that they'll never forget.

Both the Berds and the Schumacher's have conquered the challenges of steep hillside gardening. Each has used the special advantages of a hillside to grow the plants they enjoy most.  If you have a chance to visit either of these gardens you'll see the challenges and advantages of a steep site, and as the physician Schumacher reminds us, "it's great for the quadriceps."