"Edgewood" is a private garden which has been evolving since the family's move from the UK to the north-east USA in 1995. The garden is not open to the public for visits or for plant sales. Plants can be purchased online, at plant sales and at presentations. The garden is home to several thousand hardy plants, trees and shrubs, grown in a variety of microhabitats including raised beds, xeric beds, bog gardens, woodlands, and cold greenhouses.
“Edgewood” is situated in Exton, 35 miles west of Philadelphia, in SE Pennsylvania in USDA zone 6b. Winter low temperatures have reached -5oF (-20oC); summer highs can be over 100oF (38oC). Average rainfall is around 41” (105 cm). Humidity is low from late fall to early summer but is very high in July and August. Around 24" of snow falls in a typical winter, although most of the winter is without snow cover.
Weather systems come and go very quickly and 4 or 5 days a week are sunny. Seasons are well-defined, fall colors are spectacular and the growing season is long, from February through November. Trees and shrubs appreciate the long, hot summer and flower abundantly.
The 1.6-acre garden is situated just below the ridge-line on the northern side of the Great Valley, 300 feet above the valley floor and 600 feet above sea level. With perfect drainage, a southerly aspect and shelter from the worst of the prevailing winds, the garden is ideally situated to push the hardiness limits of many plants that would traditionally be considered impossible to grow here. The garden is enclosed by a deer fence, without which everything edible in the garden would be destroyed. The soil is slightly acid and rocky, and the garden is traversed by a 40-degree slope around 400 feet in length and rising 75 feet. The hill and the acre at top of the slope is native deciduous woodland. With the exception of the raised beds along the driveway and around the house, none of the soil has been modified. Some supplemental water is given when conditions demand, via overnight soaking from sprinklers.
Sharing over 20,000 digital images of the plants and garden at 'Edgewood' was the primary driver behind the development of this web site. The ‘Garden Overview’ album includes images annotated with descriptions of major garden areas. The ‘Plant Images’ album displays photos of individual plants, categorized by botanical hierarchy (which doesn’t necessarily follow the latest ’trends’). The ‘Garden Images’ album takes you to a collection of images showing more general views, captured during the various seasons since fall 2000. The latter includes a ’Homeland Security’ album which contains pictures of all the family pets which are vital to keeping away all those critters which would otherwise consume the plants.
The image albums are generated using JAlbum, an excellent Java-based program which is available for download from http://jalbum.net.