This Chestnut Hill garden is filled with colorful flowers — and a couple quirky surprises
The Greens have adorned their garden with countless plants and creative lawn ornaments.
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Pink and white hydrangeas, maroon coleus and caladiums, burgundy-leaved coral bells, ferns, miniature Japanese maples, and numerous hostas fill the front, side, and rear yards of the Greens’ Chestnut Hill twin.
Owners Beth and Marshall Green cultivate familiar plants on their quarter-acre property and include some surprises.
An enormous gray-green bud rises above a cluster of perennial hostas in the front yard. Nearby, a gold lily glistens. A large wooden gray bird with a red head is perched on the trunk of a Norway maple.
In the rear yard, bright purple flowers with copper stems look like psychedelic hyacinths, and neon yellow, green, and red saucer-shaped blooms appear to come from an alien planet.
The Greens have adorned their garden with lawn ornaments fashioned from wood, metal, plastic, and other materials. They acquired the whimsical objects from nurseries, antique shops, and as gifts from friends, from the blue glass fish out of water to the oversize plastic flowers and brightly colored wooden birds.
The couple enjoys drives in the country, stopping at yard sales along the way. “Something will catch my eye,” Beth said. “I tell her we have no more room,” Marshall said.
Beth “couldn’t resist” the vintage sousaphone — ”it was only $40″ — she filled with white-striped hostas.
The plants were purchased at Hosta Hideaway Nursery & Gardens near Harrisburg, which advertises 400 varieties of the low-growing plant.
Beth estimates she has more than 20 varieties in her garden, including a shade-loving blue-green variety, and chartreuse, yellow, and green striped hostas, which tolerate more sun. One of her favorites has shiny leaves that Beth said resemble patent leather. It was among the few plants the Greens kept from the previous owners’ yard.
When the Greens moved to their three-story Victorian in 2015, the yard was grass with bedraggled shrubs and poison ivy, which professionals removed. Beth replaced the grass with slate pavers, river stones, and plants.
A new kitchen was more of a priority than a garden when the couple was looking to relocate from Washington, D.C., after they stopped working. Marshall retired in 2015 as executive director of a private school in D.C. Beth retired in 2013 as coordinator for the talented-and-gifted program for public schools in Prince George’s County, Md.
They chose Philadelphia because it was equidistant from three of their four children. Beth and Marshall each have a son and a daughter from former marriages.
They were drawn to the six-bedroom, 2½-bath Victorian, conveniently located across the street from a train station. The house had a renovated kitchen, new windows and wiring, and refinished oak floors.
The Greens upgraded the heating and air-conditioning systems and painted the exterior, keeping the same blue-and-buff color scheme. They replaced rotting back porch flooring with a composite material.
Recently, they installed a greenhouse to overwinter plants on the second-floor porch. There is still room on the porch for a seating area with a great view of the rear garden. The Greens’ more fragile lawn sculptures are stored underneath the first-floor porch.
Beth concedes fake flora and fauna make her garden “quirky.” When the pink blooms of the hellebores and white Solomon’s Seal flowers fade after spring, faux blossoms provide bright splashes of color. They complement real blooms such as the platter-sized hibiscus, yellow daisy-like ligularia, and deep pink Jeana phlox.
After two knee replacements, Beth lets Marshall dig the holes in the garden, and he installed a sprinkler system. A self-described “tinkerer,” Marshall created the garden’s two water features. Water from an old spigot runs down river rocks, and a bird bath has a gurgling fountain.
Beth, who tended a tiny garden in D.C., enjoys the larger space and opportunity to experiment. Just one experiment: Every year in late fall, she cuts a tall paulownia with huge pale green leaves down to two feet, and it shoots up to 15 feet again by August.
In retirement, Beth said, she has found “a new passion and utter bliss” in gardening.
Do you have an amazing garden? Tell us about it by e-mail (and send some digital photographs) at properties@inquirer.com.
Correction: This story has been updated to correct the location of the home.