Hi GPODers! Today we’re escaping the midsummer heat with a visit to a beautiful Pennsylvania shade garden, submitted by Eric Sternfels. Between the lush ferns, colorful containers, blue garden accents, and quiet seating areas, this garden feels like a cool retreat on a hot summer day. Eric says:

I am submitting photos from a friends garden which is located in Wyndmoor, PA. Her name is Lucretia Robbins.

Turquoise chair pads are related to a series of glazed pots positioned throughout this long thin garden with a serpentine path of wood mulch.

Here is the side of a single car garage that owner Lucretia has turned into an art studio or gallery for local painters to exhibit on special weekends. The large ‘Sum and Substance’ hosta (Hosta ‘Sum and Substance’, Zones 3–8) adds scale difference to the smaller pots filled with geraniums (Pelargonium cvs., annual) and tuberous begonias (Begonia cvs., Zones 9-11)

Here is a view into the art studio. Years ago, Lucretia held art making sessions in summertime for young girls from a nearby private girls school. But now, a local artist is showing small unframed landscapes.

A thin bed on the left with varied ferns including sensitive fern (Onoclea sensitiveZones 3-9), Japanese painted fern (Athyrium niponicum var. paintedZones 3-8), hay-scented fern (Dennstaedtia punctilobulaZones 3-8), and autumn fern (Dryopteris erythrosoraZones 5-8) and fastigiate yews (Yew cv., Zones 4-7)  helps shield the table and chairs from the broader path to the left.

At the front of this home, cobalt blue pots reflect the front door color and welcoming pale blue-hued wicker chairs with navy and white striped pads.

Shells gathered not from the beach but from a nearby seafood market offer an intriguing visual path to the Madonna sculpture.

Four to five foot tall Madonna trumpet lilies (A white lily cv., Zones 6-9) are interspersed with cobalt blue bird decorative stakes.

Pots with annuals dress up the bed filled with ferns and yews. A stone path to the left and wood mulch chips frame the scene.

Thanks for sharing this cool, calming summer retreat with us, Eric!

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