A SHADY CHARACTER

David Benner of New Hope, Pennsylvania has been cultivating his shade garden since 1962. As a lifelong environmentalist he believes grass is wasteful, requiring constant watering and cutting, creating barren tracts of land that might otherwise be rich in plant and animal life. So when he moved into his house, he treated his lawn with aluminium sulfate to make the soil acidic; in three weeks he was raking up the remnants of his dead grass, never again to return. After that he left the ground bare--unsure how to proceed, but also curious as to what might happen. Months passed. A year later, nature made its decree known: he was to have a moss garden--the first in the United States.



Nearly fifty years later, his home is a mecca to shade gardeners. Mr. Benner has about 25 varieties of mosses on his property, none of which he has intentionally planted. Today he rarely has to do anything to maintain his garden, as it has naturalized and now sustains itself--even weeds are not a problem, as the soil acidity and moss offer little purchase. He has several rare specimens of flowers and plants, a couple of which no one else in North America has: a Chinese boxwood, a wildflower that only grows on a single cliffside in Eastern Pennsylvania, and a rare Japanese jack-in-the-pulpit. He used to have a few rare yellow lady slipper orchids, but they were eaten by deer, sadly.

A dead ringer for Joseph Cornell, Mr. Benner gives private tours of his grounds during late April and early May, when everything is in full bloom. His small, green house is completely engulfed by massive trees and lush, cool vegetation. The air about his home is moist and sweet from the blossoms. Mr. Benner does not micromanage his garden; he firmly believes that the best policy is to stay out of nature's way, and to be patient. Nearly half a century after starting his garden, the results are self-evident. Here be paradise.

After the tour, I asked him if he ever tried to grow Franklinia, but he shook his head ruefully, admitting defeat. This didn't surprise me. His home is on a steep slop above the Delaware River, but the drainage is rather poor because of the clay. Great for moss, but very bad for Franklinias.

I told him about the ecologically-minded grafitti artists who spray a moss/beer concoction onto urban walls, and of the vertical gardens of Patrick Blanc. This brought a chuckle and a smile.

The canopy in my back yard has turned out to be quite shady, and moss grows in the back areas. Perhaps it is time to roll back the grass.



For those of you in NJ and PA, here are his garden tour dates and times:

May 8: 10AM, 1PM, 2:30 PM
May 9: 9:30AM, 11AM, 1PM, 2:30 PM
May 12: 9AM, 10:30AM, 1PM, 2:30 PM 4PM
May 13: 1PM, 2:30 PM, 4PM

Mr. Benner can be contacted at this number: (215) 862-5388. No pets or children. Tours are limited to sixteen in number. Fee is $10.


Orchid experts, antique bicycle collectors, carnivorous plant cultivators, moss gardeners...old folks are so much more interesting than young people!

~W