Philadelphia Gardens: Part 1

Think of Philadelphia, and one conjures up images of the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall and maybe Benjamin Franklin. But this past fall, some 500 garden communicators from throughout North America toured Philadelphia for just one reason: it's gardens.

This is the first of a two-part series on Gardens in the City of Brotherly Love. In this first part, we'll provide an overview of Philadelphia and take you to gardens within the inner city. Next week, we'll visit Longwood Gardens, a 1,050-acre botanical garden 30 miles west of Philadelphia in the historic Brandywine Valley.

"Historic" is a good word to describe Philadelphia. After all, it is truly the birthplace of America where our forefathers wrote the Declaration of Independence. Today, Independence National Park, complete with the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall, is located downtown in what is called Old City. Nearby is Christ Church, where George Washington, Betsy Ross and Benjamin Franklin worshipped. Betsy Ross' house still stands. Interestingly, history is so important in Philadelphia that, until the 1980s, no skyscraper was allowed to be built taller than the statue of William Penn, which stood atop City Hall.

Such history is hard to contemplate for us Californians. Here, we tear down structures that are 50-years-old. Philadelphia was the most populous city in the Colonies. During most of the Revolutionary War, it served as the revolutionary capital. In the early days of America (1771-1800), Philadelphia was the capital of the U.S. Today, Philadelphia is the fifth largest city in the country. The garden writers received a great tour of the gardens of many federal-style rowhouses in Center City. These rowhouses tended to be built on postage stamp-sized lots that were very narrow. Thus, they built up. Some of these rowhouses still had Colonial adornments, such as boot scrapers and three-way mirrors that Benjamin Franklin invented so one could see down the street without opening the window!

Several rooftop gardens were on the tour. One involved climbing four stories of stairs to get to the roof. Imagine having to haul 50-pound bags of potting soil to this rooftop garden! But raised container beds, tubs of flowers and trees, and even fish ponds were found at the top.

Other gardens featured delightful courtyard gardens, tri-level gardens, small patio areas, cobblestone paths and fountains. Mixed annual and perennial flower beds, rose gardens, clematis vines and trees were viewed. There was even a tour of a mosaics/sculpture/garden extraordinaire.

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