National Fame for Local Garden

August 16th, 2010

You know you’ve earned your gardening wings when a Better Homes and Gardens publication features your landscape.

Take a look in this month’s issue of Country Gardens magazine — on newsstands now — and you’ll see the half-acre landscape of Kathy and Don Engle of Southhampton Twp., just outside of Shippensburg.

Country Gardens editors waded through entries for the magazine’s garden-award competition and picked the Engle gardens as one of their featured gardens for 2010.

Garden photographer Rob Cardillo photographed the gardens last fall, and author and contributing writer Nancy Ondra interviewed Nancy Engle for the article.

The yard’s mixed borders and island beds contain 400 types of trees, shrubs and perennials.

Nancy is the head gardener and chief designer. Don is more the structure-builder, compost-hauler, bed-tiller and golfer.

“Twenty-two years ago we built our home on what was once a cornfield,” says Nancy. “The topsoil was about 3 inches deep, under which was clay and limestone fill.”

Truckloads of compost later, the Engles had their first 8-by-25-foot bed.

In the early years, the yard was primarily a playground for the Engle girls and their neighborhood friends — swingset, pool, sandbox, etc.

But as so often happens when gardeners lurk, lawn space shrunk little by little, and garden beds began appearing everywhere.

“My husband has been amazing,” says Nancy. “He built the garden house and arbor for me… and he golfed. I would ask him to rototill a new garden for me. He would say, ‘No more gardens,’ and head out the door to golf. I would head into the garage for my shovel and dig a new garden. I haven’t dug any new gardens recently, but mysteriously they have gotten larger.”

Strange how that happens.

Gardeners also will relate to how Nancy is constantly moving plants around. She says she’s been doing that since she was little and prone to transplanting her dad’s plants more to her liking.

“What’s funny is that as soon as they were done with the photo shoot, I got out my shovel and started moving things around,” says Engle.

Just goes to prove that when you’re an obsessed gardener, even perfection isn’t perfect.

Congratulations on making the big-time, Nancy!