The Grounds

 

Above: Maples on 18th-century retaining walls, beside the log farmhouse.

 

When the log farmhouse was constructed in the 1740s, the adjoining hillside was terraced to allow the house to be constructed near the slope. The hillside was faced with limestone walls. These beautifully-constructed walls remain an enduring feature of the homestead's landscape.

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Above: Modern interpretation of a Bauerngarten (farm garden). 

 

This garden was created in the 1980s during the homestead restoration.  The garden is a modern suggestion of the homestead's earlier garden. The original garden would have been much larger than this example, and would have been designed primarily for food production rather than for aesthetics.

Many Pennsylvania German gardens had raised beds, which were sometimes edged with boards. Yucca filamentosa was a traditional plant for the garden's center. The pickets are hand-split from oak logs.

 

Above: Modern interpretation of a Bauerngarten (farm garden). 

Above: 18th-century retaining wall.

 

Above: Lititz Run Creek and the 1930s spring house. The bridge leads from the log farmhouse to the mill.

 

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