We’re Moving. Want Our Gardens?

September 18th, 2018

   Sue and I are doing the migrant-grandparent thing and moving to the Pittsburgh area to be closer to our grandkids.

The front of our Hampden Twp. house.

   We’re both semi-retiring, too. We’ve just had our offer accepted on a century-old, Craftsman-style, farmhouse on 3½ acres of land in Monroeville, so if all goes well, we’ll be moving there later this fall.

   That means we’re about to sell the house in Hampden Twp. where we’ve raised our kids and lived and gardened for 32 years.

   Are you looking for a two-story Colonial on a one-third-acre lot with a whole lot of plants? Know anybody who is?

   Let me know at george@georgeweigel.net or 717-737-8530 if you’re interested before we hire a Realtor and go through that whole complicated process.

   We’re hoping to get $295,000 for the 2,100-square-foot house, which was built in 1981 and is in the Cumberland Valley School District.

   Actually, I look at it as selling my gardens with the house tossed in as an extra.

   Sue and I have been digging, planting, “editing,” and lovingly caring for our plant family here since 1986. Beds are everywhere. The lawn is primarily the paths for walking through the gardens, although it would be easy to unplant some of the areas for those who want more grass.

   I’d even be willing to dig unwanted plants and take them with us… or come back next spring to turn beds back to lawn.

Our gardens include a water garden in the back corner.

   I figure all of the plants are going to scare away some potential buyers who see gardens as just a lot of work. But for a gardener – and especially a plant-geek, avid gardener – this place is a botanical jackpot.

   I’ve planted a lot of cutting-edge and trial plants over the years – some of which aren’t even available in garden centers.

   I’ve also gravitated toward interesting specimens and under-used beauties, such as the 12-foot-tall Japanese umbrella pine in the backyard, the 15-foot weeping Alaska cedar in the front yard, and a beauty of a Korean stewartia tree that’s very happy in the sandy soil where our kids’ sandbox used to be.

   There’s also a water garden in the back right corner, a large, highly productive, four-square-style vegetable garden in the back left corner, and an Asian shade garden with a pair of hardy camellias along the eastern foundation.

   One of my favorite plants that I’ll have a hard time giving up is the tasty and winter-tough ‘Chicago Hardy’ fig that I’ve espaliered along the west-facing brick garage wall.

   Oh, yeah. The house.

   We’ve kept care of it over the years, so it’s in good shape. The basics:

   Size/Style: Two-story Colonial, built in 1981; brick and no-paint beige vinyl siding with brown trim; 2,100 square feet of living space.

Our house is a two-story Colonial with brick and beige siding.

   Location: Quiet subdivision (Creekview Estates) with homes on third-acre lots. We picked Hampden Twp. because I used to cover local government in my early journalism days and found Hampden to be the best managed municipality I’d ever seen. Township services are excellent and costs are low. It’s also in the CV School District. Our kids went to Sporting Hill Elementary, Good Hope Middle School, and CV High School. House is within five minutes of Pinnacle Health Hospital, Wegman’s, Target, Giant, I-81, and more via Creekview Road and/or Good Hope Road.

   Heating/Cooling: Heat pump and central air. All electric house with recently expanded/upgraded electric box.

   Utilities: Public sewer, Verizon FIOS, private well with UV light (included). Well has never gone dry. I was leery about moving here from a house with public water, but I’d take our well any day over public water now. It’s nice not having a water bill! Water quality has been excellent.

   Upstairs: Master bedroom with en suite full bathroom, two other bedrooms with shared bathroom, large hallway.

   Main Floor: Large front living room, dining room, kitchen with eat-in space (and nice view into gardens), TV room with working fireplace, half-bath. Refrigerator, stove, dishwasher, garbage disposal included.

   Basement: Huge and under whole house. Two-thirds is finished and divided into three carpeted rooms, one of which I’ve used as my office. Back part is unfinished and has workbench, lots of storage, washer/dryer (included), chest freezer (included), and furnace and water heater.

Our paver patio out back.

   Garage: Attached two-car garage with work bench (included) and attic access with more space for storage.

   Patio: We added a big paver patio out the back door with half-walls on either side and a pair of columns flanking the two steps down to the gardens. Nice for entertaining, lots of pots, and for what I’ve mainly used it for – writing and overseeing the gardens.

   Honestly, we’ve loved this house, the neighborhood, and the location, and would’ve stayed here until the bitter end had our kids not moved away.

   Work is what has kept us here in recent years, but with the chance to semi-retire looming, that last rope is being cut.

   I plan to keep doing this website and running garden trips from the Harrisburg area through Lowee’s Group Tours.

   I also hope to keep writing for the Patriot-News and Pennlive.com for a few more years (if they’ll have me), and I’ll keep doing a limited number of gardening talks and seminars.

   But I really hope to be able to spend more time in the garden and devote more time to playing with little Leona and Georgie. They don’t know their botanical names very well yet… although 5-year-old Leona can say, “Hydrangea paniculata.”

   Also on the agenda is a slower pace and more rest, which I’ve found is a must for rapidly aging, old-fogey garden writers.