Written by: William and Jane Allis
The Bower: A Native Plant Landscape and Sculpture Park, a new member of the public garden community in Pennsylvania, features land restoration, horticulture and sensitively placed, creative sculpture in a way not commonly combined within the public garden community.
Within the ridge and valley ecoregion formed by south-central Pennsylvania’s Appalachian Mountains, The Bower is located in Perry County, a rural county enclosed by Appalachian mountain ridges and the Susquehanna River. Despite its rural locale, The Bower is only a 25 minute drive from the state capital and 2 to 3 hours from major mid-Atlantic metro areas. The Perry County southern border is formed by Blue Mountain, a major component of the Kittatinny Ridge, a 185 mile long forest corridor and 2 million acre state designated “conservation landscape” stretching across the entire state. The ridge is a critical section of a globally important migration corridor along the extent of the Appalachians. It is along the northern slope of this mountain ridge corridor that The Bower resides.
Figure 1: The Bower is located along the north slope of the Kittatinny Ridge, a Pennsylvania conservation landscape that extends from Maryland to New Jersey
Figure 2: Sculpture is combined with native plantings and biomass assemblies formed from little bluestem in this temporary sculpture installation.
This 36 acre conservation project, started by Bill and Jane Allis after their retirement, doubles as their residence. The site comprises a north-facing, six-acre open area and a thirty-acre dry heath oak forest landscape that encloses their meadow and savanna environment. According to the founders, “Living nearly 50 years on this land spawned an emotional sense of place that drives our caring for the land. This land ethic has become the foundation for the story of The Bower and our drive to protect the land and share public access.”
A love of art and the emotions it can evoke became entwined with a desire to restore, enhance and diversify the landscape. Considering the magnitude of what they were setting off to do, the concept of sharing this project with the public evolved. And with the leap of faith thinking that they could accomplish all this within a few short years, it became clear that this project would need to proceed carefully and purposefully. With the idea fully hatched about a year before the pandemic, The Bower miraculously opened to the public just two years later in May of 2021.
As lifelong educators and consultants, the owners embraced expertise from a team of landscape architects, native plant horticulturists, designers, art advisors and artists. Beginning in 2019, they engaged Oehme Van Sweden Landscape Architects (OvSLA) to develop a master plan. Reflecting, Bill states “The master planning process guided us in determining how to combine a private residence and public landscape without impinging on each other. But more importantly, it focused us on the importance of embracing our context, the Ridge and Valley ecoregion of the northern Appalachians, ultimately helping visitors understand the unique geologic and essential ecological aspects of this place became our goal.”
Jane adds, “Simultaneously with master planning, we engaged an art consultant to help put out a call to art. We received 130 applicants, shortlisted a select few, and began site visits and discussions.” The design team selected artists most appropriate for the site, and the sculptors were given a year to create their work for a summer 2020 installation.
Jane says the artists who visited the property took direct inspiration from the landscape. “There’s a really strong connection here that I think is not always true in other sculpture parks—between our location, the landscape of this particular property, and the art itself.”
Without being didactic, each art piece tells a part of the story that the owners hope to convey. At the garden entrance, visitors pass by and through a dry stacked stone wall and arch created by Vermont artist Thea Alvin. This sinuous structure, The Kiss, echoes the folds of the nearby ridges and is created of sandstone reclaimed from a local barn foundation originally quarried from the Kittatinny Ridge.
Figure 5: Visitors enter the landscape through the arch that is a focal point of this sculpture by Thea Alvin of Vermont
Figure 6: Sculpture connected to the landscape takes on differing characteristics as the seasons change
Figure 7: A dry stacked stone archway forms the garden entrance
Figure 8: The sinuous form of this wall and arch reflects the form and materials of the Kittatinny Ridge
Upon arriving, visitors are immediately drawn to Ridge & Valley by Philadelphia artist Rebecca Rutstein. According to freelance writer Helen Walsh, “Ridge & Valley is a majestic departure from Rutstein’s large body of work. It’s composed of three 23 feet long monolithic Corten steel panels, plasma cut with topographical reference to Pennsylvania’s Ridge and Valley. Rutstein’s work, which often reinterprets and re-figures scientific themes, shines conceptually through the use of the heavy industrial material in a rural setting, and the metal’s weathered expanse evokes the rust of the train cars traveling from coal-bearing beds of the Appalachian Mountains.”
Figure 9: Ridge & Valley is complemented by orange butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberosa) drifts in mid-summer
Figure 10: In this winter scene Ridge & Valley reveals its mapping of the ecoregion
Figure 11: The plasma cut Ridge & Valley catches the sun along its varied edges
Figure 12:Ridge & Valley is complemented by orange butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberosa) in midsummer
Figure 13: The sculpture’s plasma cut negative spaces harmonize with the native plants in this meadow matrix
Figure 14: Sunlight highlights the plasma cut delineations of the ecoregions on Ridge & Valley
Beyond place, several sculptures evoke thoughts of ecological services provided by plants and animals. Mariposa by Philadelphia artist Mark Pettegrow is a bronze abstract butterfly mounted to hover above the meadow. Pollen by Jersey City-based Robert Koch consists of large, welded steel spheres modeled on microscopic imagery of pollen.
Figure 15: Mariposa hovers above an early summer meadow
Figure 16: Pollen, comprised of five spheres, invites visitors to walk amidst it through meadow grasses
Figure 17: Life imitates art as this monarch cruises in for a landing
Figure 18: The sculpture “Pollen” invites discussion on the importance of native pollinators
The Allises and their land stewards also created two pieces that illustrate the creative ways one can manage biomass and store carbon, including “The Stumpery” and “The Seven Ghosts: Life After Death”. The Stumpery is comprised of 130 stumps which provide a planting environment for native ferns and flora, and The Seven Ghosts evokes haunting shapes created from dead branches, vines, and invasive plant material.
Figure 19: Biomass assemblies distributed throughout this pioneer forest provide habitat and sequester carbon
Figure 20: Biomass sequestration sculpture “The Seven Ghosts” looking ghostly in winter
In early 2020, with ecology as a focus, the founders sought out noted native plant experts at Larry Weaner Landscape Associates to create and implement the native plant horticultural design. “We attended one of the NDAL conferences and knew that this was who we wanted to educate and guide us so that we could have a showcase for the public on the benefits of native plants and really enhance the biodiversity of our property.” After nine months of design, an initial fall 2020 installation of thousands of trees, shrubs and herbaceous native plants were introduced within the extant wild plant communities. From gardens to wilds, the introduced native plants flourish in garden beds and naturalized drifts within the wilder six-acre existing meadow and part-shade savanna along the woods’ edge. Large drifts of shrubs and trees create important wildlife habitat and separate the public and private spaces. Visitors gain insight into the importance of each environment for sustaining the ecosystem, as well as the beauty of different native plant communities.
Another significant habitat that tells a story is “The Pools”. This sequence of six cascading vernal pools with interconnecting dry stone streambeds provides a wetland habitat not originally on site. Supplied by surface water runoff, The Pools represent a creative form of stormwater management to retain and infiltrate all surface water. Tucked into the woods, The Pools’ plant palette includes wetland and understory plants. These are complimented by a bronze Heron sculpture by Budapest based artist Bertalyn Andrasfalvy, which stands watch in the midst of moisture-loving native forbs, rushes, and ferns. Additionally, as homage to the concept of re-use and water flow, the negative spaces cut from the Ridge & Valley are formed by Rebecca Rutstein into a ground plane land art sculpture, Interstices, embedded within indigenous mosses.
Figure 21: Heron watches over the upper pool of this six pool sequence of interconnected rain gardens
Figure 22: A view up through the pools with Heron sculpture watching over
Figure 23: The lower pool harbors life as it retains a near constant water level due to its bentonite clay lining
Figure 24: Interstices is comprised of all the cutouts from Ridge & Valley forming a mossy walkway to the upper pathway through The Pools
“We visited lots of gardens and sculpture parks in the years prior to planning The Bower. We knew we wanted to do something a little different from all the places we visited. We wanted the landscape and native plantings to be as strong a feature as the art. What we hoped to achieve is, as I often say, art leveraging nature and nature leveraging art”, says Bill.
The sculptures seem nestled into their own niches throughout the property, enhanced by the trees, shrubs, or plants in their immediate neighborhood. Naturally occurring swaths of orange butterfly weed in early summer, for example, lead the visitor to the bright orange sculpture Phases by Philadelphia based sculptor Melanie Serkes.
Figure 25: The bright orange Phases is complimented by this monarch pollinating a Cirsium discolor
Figure 26: Lively goldenrods (Solidago ssp.) make a colorful surround to the sculpture “Phases” in late summer
Figure 27: A view through the meadow in early fall with “Phases” sculpture in the distance
Figure 28: Phases is a wonder as it is complimented by the orange butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberosa)
Figure 29: Phases arouses interest and wonder in all seasons
“We are also one of only two public gardens we’ve found in the mid-Atlantic region that steward their properties without the use of chemicals. We manage the entire property with just two additional “stewards” two days a week, March through October, so we are demonstrating that it can be done, “ notes Bill. “And we are excited about using new technologies such as GIS and drone mapping to help us understand how the native plant communities change over time and our successes with managing invasive species.”
Free to the public, The Bower is open four days a week by appointment only through the website thegardenbower.com from May through mid-October. “You reserve either a morning or afternoon slot during which you will have the whole place for your group alone. We started that way during the pandemic and found that it made for a truly special and peaceful experience for visitors, so we have kept that practice in place. It also limits the human impact on the land, “Jane states. “We’ve met some wonderful people in the past five years. It’s been an exciting and very rewarding adventure for the two of us.”
About the authors:
William and Jane Allis
gardenbower@gmail.com
Thegardenbower.com
@gardenbower
