Classic Tranquility

Evocative of formal gardens of the early 20^th century, the landscape design at Tarp Farm employs innovative problem solving, resulting in complex yet graceful garden rooms that reflect Carter van Dyke Associates’ (CVDA) adeptness and the clients’ passion for nature. Located in Upper Makefield Township, Pennsylvania, the project presented a number of challenges, as the front of the house overlooked a large pile of soil, and the rear of a house faced a nine-foot drop-off.

CVDA’s solution was to move soil from the front of the house to the back, creating in the process a series of gardens on multiple levels—including a rose garden, a water rill that leads to a koi pond with Amazonian water lilies, an orchid-filled greenhouse bordered by perennials and cypresses, and a vegetable garden.

While Tarp Farm’s locale is known for the predominant use of stone in landscaping, CVDA took a different approach for this Edwardian-style garden. Following in the footsteps of Henry Chapman Mercer, a local designer who created a number of poured-concrete structures, firm president Carter van Dyke succeeded in expressing his distinct take on the region’s history and materiality. “I thought for a change it would be fun to do garden walls out of concrete, so I stained the walls with a one-percent black mixture and sandblasted them to look like old limestone,” van Dyke says.

The creation of the garden at Tarp Farm has been a transformative experience, not only in the physical sense but also in a personal sense, as it has enhanced the lives of the couple who commissioned it. As the project progressed, the enthusiasm of the clients grew, expanding the original master plan to include more spaces for entertaining, alcoves for dining, garden sculptures, and exotic plants. The dynamic, interconnected garden rooms now play host to fund-raising tours and philanthropic events, as well.

Cloister Healing Garden

Another project on which CVDA showed its dedication to the thoughtful development of the natural world is the Cloister Healing Garden, where the eloquent merging of tranquility and practicality is quite evident. The garden, located at St. Mary’s Medical Center in Langhorne, Pennsylvania, was designed with a Japanese motif, including a healing garden with a koi pond, both of which are separated from an eating terrace by a Japanese fence.

The healing garden’s plants, many native to Japan, include bamboo, cedars, white pine, maple, weeping cherries, iris, pachysandra, and liriope. An important East Asian ground cover, liriope is particularly known for its extremely resilient nature, its ability to withstand both arid and wet conditions, and its erosion-prevention qualities.

One of the most visible elements of the garden is the use of different stones, most of which were supplied by Delaware Quarries, Inc. Sedimentary rocks create a rustic edge to the koi pond, whereas sitting areas with rounded boulders line the walking paths. The dining terrace is bordered with Mexican black stones to complement the color of the black basalt boulders, which are dispersed throughout the terrace and imported from Japan. “Within the terrace, each of the basalt stones reads like a separate sculpture,” van Dyke says.

According to van Dyke, landscape architecture should clearly communicate its design to all parties, both during the process and after. Design capability is based on talent, but the success of a project rests on the architect communicating his or her vision in a relatable design language. To that end, “listening and patience are two of the most important components of becoming a really good architect,” van Dyke notes.

The Cloister Healing Garden and Tarp Farm may seem like entirely different approaches, but there are fundamental similarities. “With my background in art history, our company is well versed in all architectural styles,” he explains. “This allows us to develop diverse architectural landscapes that meet the needs of the site and the interpretive requirements of the client.”