Although a Hanselman Landscape-designed pool garden is a delight to swim in during the warm-weather months, it is our passion to create pools that will bring joy, beauty, and tranquility into your lives every season of the year!
Let us know if this is your dream…we’ll be delighted to help you make it a reality for your loved ones!
Shared by Betty Hanselman
Gardener’s wife
Once a neglected, weed- and barbwire-infested parcel of farmland, this five-plus acre property in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania (pictured below) is being gradually but lovingly being transformed into a verdant woodland estate. From the start, the property owners understood that after ensuring the presence of good topsoil, the installation of appropriate trees must initially supersede all other needs, since trees take a relatively long time to develop. To this end, since purchasing the property in early 1999, the owners have enlisted the help of Hanselman Landscape to select and plant hundreds of trees. As you can see, the return on investment keeps growing in value and beauty!
Contributed by Betty Hanselman
Gardener’s wife (& grateful tree owner)
“The garden, historically, is the place where all the senses are exploited. Not just the eye, but the ear – with water, with birds. And there is texture, too, in plants you long to touch.”
~ William Howard Adams (contemporary garden design historian and author)
Hanselman’s passion for traditional design is reflected in our work on Japanese garden walls, as well as in our custom water features, handcrafted stone pathways, and artistically pruned plantings. Learn more about our landscape design services here >
“One of the strange things about living in the world is that it is only now and then one is quite sure one is going to live forever . . . . One knows it sometimes when one gets up at the tender solemn dawn-time and stands alone and throws one’s head far back and looks up and up and watches the pale sky sky slowly changing and flushing . . . until the East almost makes one cry out and one’s heart stands still at the strange, unchanging majesty of the rising sun . . . .And one knows it sometimes when one stands by oneself in a wood at sunset and the mysterious deep gold stillness slanting through the branches seems to be saying slowly again and again something one cannot quite hear, however much one tries . . . Then sometimes the immense quiet of the dark blue at night, with millions of stars waiting and watching makes one sure; and sometimes far-off music makes it true; and sometimes a look in someone’s eyes.
And it was like that with Colin when he first saw and heard and felt the Springtime inside the four high walls of a hidden garden. That afternoon the whole world seemed to devote itself to being perfect and radiantly beautiful and kind to one boy. Perhaps out of pure heavenly goodness the spring came and crowded everything it possibly could into that one place.”
~ Frances Hodgson Burnett (In her classic children’s novel, The Secret Garden)
Jubilantly shared by Betty Hanselman
Gardener’s wife (& seeker of Eternity in the everyday)
On our family hikes, our little granddaughters are fascinated by the varied textures, colors, and appearances of the mosses we find along the trails. We like moss so much that we now enjoy it daily in our own garden! In addition to its sensory beauty, I am discovering that moss is noteworthy (and valued) for a number of interesting reasons:
– There are close to 10,000 species of moss which can be found on all seven continents, even in ice-covered Antarctica.
– Although most commonly seen in moist, shady locations, some species of moss are found in deserts.
– Many species of moss draw moisture from the air through leaves, rather than through roots. Desert mosses use tiny, pointed mechanisms on the leaf tips to gather any hint of humidity from the surrounding air.
– In the past, native tribes across the globe used moss to line skin or fur underwear in lieu of disposable diapers for their little ones. Because moss can absorb 20 times its weight in liquid and is disposable, “it was the perfect choice for ancient tribal parents on the go,” writes Bruce Maisy (in Ranker; see website below).
– Ancient people groups also used moss to cleanse and heal wounds. As recently as WWI, surgeons resorted to moss when cotton was in short supply. Apparently, Europe and America produced millions of moss bandages to treat their wounded over the course of the war, taking advantage of peat moss’s absorbency and antiseptic qualities.
– In Japan, moss is a highly-prized garden feature. In fact, Saihoj-ji, Kyoto’s famous 35,000square-meter moss garden, features 120 species of moss and is a UNESCO World Heritage site. Japan’s continuing love affair with moss is now evidenced by moss-themed drinks and jewelry.
Shared by Betty Hansleman
Gardener’s wife (& moss enthusiast)
Interesting facts credited to: https://www.ranker.com/list/amazing-moss-facts/bruce-maisy?fbclid=IwAR1LFOlKJgvC8QryjMjA0akG1_PAgqekOCdscxeNjFXzx7SHFvMlqpSZLEQ
