Arcadia - Ronald Wagner & Timothy Van Dam

About

Our 1840 Greek Revival farmhouse is set in a pastoral landscape of 28 acres. An avenue of sweet gum trees lining the formal driveway is planted in a forced perspective to visually extend the approach to the house.

The gently rolling hillside behind is punctuated by a magnificent grove of black locust trees and a grove of

deciduous conifers, including bald cypress, metasequoia, and larch trees. A wildflower meadow rises to the north, in which a pentagon-shaped planting of gingko trees can be reached by a mown path leading through the meadow. Another path leads through the forest beyond.

Many informal planting beds around the property include lilacs, rhododendron, mountain laurel, and hydrangea. A

large pond is the focus of surrounding naturalistic plantings of Japanese primula, skunk cabbage, Japanese iris, ferns, and rudbeckia giving to views of the wetland beyond. A formal yew crescent acts as an architectural folly in contrast to the naturalistic pond.

Symmetrical terraces at the house feature a wisteria arbor over a large stone dining table on the south and a perennial border of peonies and roses on the north. A new stumpery border of ferns and shade loving woodland plants has been created to line the service drive to the south.