When Cynthia Lynn notes that her Wyomissing abode is just a mile or so from her childhood home in the borough, you might think she’s not ventured far in life.
But, oh, how wrong you would be about this Wyomissing High School Class of ’69 grad.
Cynthia’s roots in Berks expanded exponentially over the decades. She raised her children on a farm in St. Alban’s, VT, near the Canadian border. Then, she spent years circumnavigating the globe in her apartment aboard “The World” cruise ship. Now she divides her time between homes in Wyomissing and Florida when she’s not in transit visiting her many far-flung friends.
For this outgoing and always-on-the-move woman, it might seem that spaces for quiet reflection and relaxation are an anathema to her peripatetic personality. But the opposite is true.
A Thing of Passion
Cynthia’s key passions – travel and gardening – are not necessarily complementary in character, but they are complimentary to her character.
Despite the modest size of the lot, her Wyomissing residence is a study in how to group plantings into designated areas with more than a nod to nutrition and wellness, also primary forces in her life.
In Vermont, Cynthia’s 21 acres contained specific gardens dedicated and designed for meditation as well as areas planted with species to assist in upper respiratory and gastrointestinal healing. The homestead also included a labyrinth.
But raising and nurturing plants in far northern Vermont could be challenging.
“We were in the 3 and 4 zones, three or four miles from Canada, often with gale-force winds,” she says. Indeed, Vermont has five different zones for plant hardiness – classified as 3b, 4a, 4b, 5a and 5b. Generally, the lower the numbered zone, the briefer the growing season as the frozen soil takes longer to warm.
Contrast that with Pennsylvania with a zone in the 5b to 7a range. And then there’s southern Florida, where her residence in is a growing zone of 10b. There, she concentrates on container gardening, favoring varieties of basil, thyme, lavender and Phaedra that thrive in the subtropical climate. All told, understanding those zones and the plantings they can support has made Cynthia a seasoned gardener.
She left Vermont and re-established her life in Wyomissing at her mother’s residence in 2013. Three years later, Cynthia began her noble quest to transform the property into a one-of-a-kind garden compound.
Bringing in an Expert
Essential to the creation of the many garden areas was renowned local landscape design expert Bruce Dingeldein of West Reading.
Dingeldein has designed and created some notable public landscaping, including the median on Hancock Boulevard adjacent to — as well as — the private lot of Tom Masano Inc. on Lancaster Avenue in far southwest Reading, the side yardage of Gage Personnel in West Reading, and the frontage of In-Home Oxygen on Lancaster Avenue near the Route 10 intersection. For years, he provided landscaping services for the Boscov’s stores and for the residence of the late Albert Boscov.
Dingeldein undertook the assignment for Cynthia in 2016, creating the first garden a year later in the front of and to the west side of the house. In 2019, he completed designs for what had been the backyard as well as Cynthia’s treasured secret garden.
“And then he retired on me,” she laughs.
The natural designs, executed by Garden Keepers of Myerstown, became reality.
Dingeldein’s signature river birch trees are components without dominating the compositions. Also, reminders of her St. Alban’s gardens are incorporated.
“I tried to do what I did on 21 acres in Vermont in my postage stamp here, using every square inch of space,” she says.
Good Medicine
She was determined that each area contain compatible plantings. When the pandemic hit in 2020, Cynthia, who is certified in therapeutic essential oils, was even more determined that the garden be one dedicated to health and healing. She says that her knowledge of the elements and their functions determine in which specific planting areas to spend time depending on how she’s feeling.
“During early COVID, I took it upon myself to fortify my space, inside and out, with as many medicinal plants as I could,” she says. “For exercise, I could do a route around my property and escape any errant spike proteins by staying on site. My upper path is a chakra path with bulbs in their respective colors in March and April — red, orange, yellow — and pink and green at the bend.
“Roman chamomile blankets the property. It’s an herb known to relieve stress, anxiety and fear. Planting it seemed appropriate for COVID. Plus, it’s a pretty May little daisy. I like it dried as tea.”
While the sounds of birds and the presence of smaller creatures like rabbits and squirrels are part of the garden constituency, the presence of deer are quite another story.
Cynthia’s house is in a residential neighborhood, and the deer seem to feel right at home in established suburbia.
“Deer come through Wyomissing all the time,” she says. “Peppermint worked to keep them away in Vermont, but not here.”
The garden includes some electric wires embedded in the ground that serve as mild but unexpected deterrents. Most of the deer seem to reside in nearby Jack Rabbit Hill, she says.
A Matter of Containment
Many of the plantings are done in two dozen artfully placed large Corten steel containers.
“They rust naturally, and the veneer can be maintained,” Cynthia says. The raised containers also offer convenience and less stress on knee joints, she adds.
There are also raised beds around the perimeter of her courtyard where she grows 15 types of lettuce, peppers, several varieties of tomatoes and other vegetables.
“The plants here all have protein,” she says. “My intent is to feed myself, and I pretty much did.”
What food she doesn’t grow, Cynthia prefers to buy at the Hershey Harvest on Kutztown Road in Laureldale.
“My mother and grandmother shopped there,” she says. Cynthia explains her customer loyalty is tied to the natural and organic quality of the meats and prepared foods. Among her favorite treats are the homemade opera fudge and ice cream.
Familial and Familiar Paths
Family considerations also factor into the garden design.
What had been a simple grassy side yard was transformed into an intriguing curving graveled trail defined by rock borders and river birch planting areas boasting natural grasses and other greenery. Greeting visitors at the entrance is a free-form sprite, one of many metal sculptures positioned throughout the gardens.
“The lower path is a quick route to my young grandsons’ sandbox, the KIVA and the secret garden, where I do zoom yoga in the morning and read on the daybed when it’s too sunny and hot in the courtyard,” she says. “Throughout this area are Angelica (believed to have cured the plague), anise, lemongrass, thymes, dill, hyssop and lavender pretty much everywhere, too.”
The KIVA area was to be the setting for a fire pit. However, borough regulations regarding fire pits and placement distance from the house were not workable with the design and site.
“I called the fire chief, and it just couldn’t be approved,” she says. An interim solution was placing fake logs and lighting in the pit. The long-term solution – giving the fire pit to her daughter whose family recently purchased a new house on a two-plus-acre lot near Hartford, CT.
“California bluebells line the path down to the KIVA (pretend fire pit area) that is ringed with lavender (Munstead, Hidecote and Provence varieties),” she says.
The whimsical metal sculptures that add to the gardens’ already blooming character were sourced from an artists’ studio in Boyertown that since closed its doors.
Splish, Splash
Four water features are interspersed throughout the lot. The largest one with three lateral spouts is a key feature of the pergola-shaded courtyard. A nearby cozy round chaise lounge beckons.
In the secret garden where Cynthia likes to do yoga a couple of times each week, the gurgling water is more subdued.
“It’s a very private and special area,” she says.
Garden Keepers constructed the fountains. The firm, owned by an Amish family, also performs much of the maintenance for the gardens. Reuben Stoltzfus, the owner, originally worked for Dingeldein. Cynthia says Reuben and his wife, Martha, will occasionally garden barefoot in the summer months.
Reuben and his son Mark, then aged 12, also designed and constructed a panel of mirrors that float with the wind, as Cynthia poetically notes, and catch the colors of the azaleas when they are in full bloom.
Garden Keepers also installed an irrigation system that dramatically cuts down Cynthia’s time with the watering bucket and hose.
“I can get all the watering done in an hour,” she says.
Interestingly, despite her extensive global travels, she cites only one particular garden as being the most spectacular: The Bahai Gardens in Haifa, Israel, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The terraced gardens in nine concentric circles are filled with flowers, small trees and sculptures, water fountains and pools. On the sides are wooded areas for wildlife and a barrier to urban noise. Iranian architect Fariborz Sahba designed the gardens that comprise 200,000 square meters.
“There is nothing more inspiring,” she says.
Still, she says, it’s been her own personal inspirations and years of experience that have made her the gardening enthusiast she is today.
Cynthia encourages others to explore the benefits of home gardening, no matter what the size and/or scope of their efforts.
“I’d say plant what you like and keep it alive,” she says. “Once I bought a plant called a horsetail. There are challenges with that, and it took some work. Remember: If you buy it, you need to tend to it.”
