Rich and Angela McCracken of Elkins Park were featured this week in a Philadelphia Inquirer article titled “An Elkins Park Garden Sanctuary“.

According to the story, the McCrackens have created a “lush backyard garden, filled with blue hydrangeas, orange and yellow daylilies, and purple catmint” which includes a gravel patio and a rock garden.

An excerpt:

Instead of grass, Rich has planted a variety of perennials, including fragrant white Asiatic lilies, Joe Pye Weed, pink coneflowers, black-eyed Susan, winterberry, feathery astilbe, hollyhocks, Japanese anemone, hibiscus, tall purple New York ironweed, and more.

Gravel paths radiate like a pinwheel from an abstract metal sculpture in the center of the garden. Birds and bees are frequent visitors year-round with berries and seed heads providing food in winter, Rich said.

Containers of showy pink gladiolus, blue lobelia, and deep red dahlias flank the twin home’s front porch, where old-fashioned rocking chairs that belonged to Rich’s mother sit.

In the backyard, orange honeysuckle blossoms cascading down the side of the detached garage lure hummingbirds. Water from the garage roof is collected in a small stone-rimmed pond, which attracts frogs.

Angela, an Elkins Park native and graduate of Cheltenham High School, first met Rich at the McKinley Tavern where he was working, the Inquirer said. She is a licensed Realtor and a financial-aid officer for Salus University. Rich is the owner of McCracken Landscaping in Elkins Park.

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