Rock garden flourishes in old quarry site

By Virginia A. Smith | The Philadelphia Inquirer • Published August 23, 2008

PHILADELPHIA – Think of all the tough places people garden: on traffic islands and tree stumps, between pavers and logs, along highways and sand dunes.

How about this: a rocky cliff 60 feet high and 120 feet long. Some rock garden!

Mark Isaksen and Daniel Walth weren't sure what to expect in 2001 when they went to see a house for sale in Wyncote, Pa. Turns out, it had what they were looking for — less house and more yard than their place in the Germantown area of Philadelphia — and two other pluses. It's close to the train station and part of a nationally designated historic district.

But these guys are gardeners. What really grabbed their attention was the cliff. What treasures lay beneath its blanket of overgrown trees and snarling ivy, they wondered? And something else, admittedly pretty crazy: Could they plant up there?

Absolutely, though not easily. With help from a 40-foot extension ladder belonging to a neighbor, Isaksen and Walth have created an original garden that's architecturally, artistically and, as it turns out, archaeologically rich.

Running along their western property line, the cliff was part of an old quarry that dates to the 1800s. The street was carved out in 1894 along the original cartway leading into the quarry, according to local historian Tom Wieckowski. A second quarry, behind Isaksen and Walth's house, provided stone for Philadelphia's City Hall, he says.

Which means the cliff these new homeowners inherited is literally full of history. Also poison and English ivies, which took an entire year to eradicate.

Several Norway maples got the boot, too, guilty of blocking the sun, propagating mercilessly, and inhibiting the growth of what turned out to be beautiful native flora.

In time, the cliff's deep shade turned to dappled, allowing a lustrous American beech to emerge and an overshadowed elm to find room in the canopy. The cliff-side rhododendrons and hydrangeas, seemingly sprung from sheer rock into blue and white bloom, are thriving now.

The couple has added a lower layer of ferns, including Christmas, maidenhair, ostrich and royal. They lend feathery texture and Victorian extravagance to the cliff's spare gray face.