Barb Krasuski and Peter Swan didn’t think they needed sinkhole insurance. Actually, they moved back and forth several times before paying the $40-a-year premium. Several decades after a giant storm rolled through central Pennsylvania, resulting in flooding and extensive damage throughout the region. Let us just say the insurance came in handy.
Join me today as we have a tour through the backyard that has been reinvented and reconfigured after the big storm. Could you have guessed there were sinkholes during this beautiful space?
Garden at a Glance
Who cares to this: Barb Krasuski and Peter Swan
Location: Hummelstown, Pennsylvania
Amy Renea
Welcome to the backyard of Barb Krasuski. A nurse by day and a gardener by night, Krasuski has created a haven of peace and abundance in a small city in central Pennsylvania.
Amy Renea
The first thing hits you once you walk into Krasuski’s backyard is calmness, in the kind of 34 green velvet boxwoods, grown into this emblem over the duration of five decades.
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This Krasuski munches on cherry tomatoes as she walks through the garden as part of her day routine. Neighbors and friends are always welcome to join.
Krasuski’s favored edible backyard combination is nasturium, cherry tomato and a small basil rolled into a and munched fresh and warm from sunlight.
Amy Renea
Krasuski’s favorite tomato variety is a small yellow cherry tomato called ‘Sungold’. In my own experience in her backyard, I can tell you these small berries would be the sweetest, thin-skinned variety of cherry toms.
Krasuski’s secret for those mounds and mounds of tomato plants: Giant compost bins throughout the property are filled through autumn, spring and winter. Then tomato plants are planted in the compost bins every spring. By summertime, the compost piles are invisible.
Amy Renea
Another huge manufacturer from the backyard is the blueberry bushes. Screened from critters, a variety of blueberry bushes, such as a brand new ‘Pinkie’ variety, are clustered together.
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Krasuski’s backyard isn’t just effective but whimsical and fun too. Lettuces and herbaceous plants fill an assortment of containers out of planters and baskets to wheelbarrows and sneakers.
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Yes, shoes!
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In fact, Krasuski has been proven to grow plants in just about anything. Her favorites are succulents. They require very little water and are tough as nails. It is not just any plant that can survive in a shoe or teakettle!
Amy Renea
Krasuski’s backyard has ever been a source of pride for her, so it was devestating when enormous storms rolled through the region and created giant sinkholes. The street buckled, the terrace caved, and there were neighbors standing neck deep in Krasuski’s vegetable gardens.
Sinkhole insurance paid off, and a year after the garden is back and better than ever before. A brand-new terrace was on the to-do list.
Patio: CZ Landscapes
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A smaller terrace cuts through the side garden for additional seating.
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The garden wasn’t the only part of the property that suffered. The driveway was devastated. When the garage has been torn down, it was time to get a serious remodel. The house was repaired and enlarged, providing Krasuski with a brand new giant master bedroom suite, quilting space and additional space for her husband’s model trains.
Amy Renea
Krasuski was determined to not let the sinkhole hurt slow down her backyard this spring, so that she was busy starting seeds all night at the greenhouse, preparing to reclaim her backyard.
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The greenhouse is a community effort, with neighbors attracting over plants to overwinter or seeds to start each spring.
During summer, the greenhouse is used less often but still houses a couple of succulents and tropicals.
Greenhouse: Sunglo
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Among Krasuski’s major successes, thanks to the greenhouse, is the stunning blooms of this plumeria. This fragrant flower took decades to bloom.
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Blooms are not the sole layers of colour within this backyard, though. Coralbark Maple is a favorite of Krasuski’s because of its superbly peeling pinkish bark and red-tipped foliage.
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Krasuski is a master at blending textures and colors. Colors pile up on one another with a casual ease, building layer upon layer of interest.
Shown: Coneflower and Phlox
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Trumpet vine creeps up and over one of numerous arbors in the backyard.
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Trumpet vine can be an aggressive grower, but it attracts hummingbirds, so maybe it’s well worth the trade?
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The pièce de résistance of the garden is its latest addition. This place was yet another giant sinkhole in ancient 2012. Krasuski quickly erected a fenced backyard and filled it up with edibles. Most of these plants were grown straight out of seed and began in the greenhouse.
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Mandevilla creeps up and over the veggie garden arbor, a welcome greeting that traces of those vibrant colors to come.
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Pots of thyme and other herbs are sprinkled throughout the vegetable garden to supply seasonings at your fingertips without overrunning the vegetable beds.
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The vegetables range from broccoli to chard, and every mattress is mulched thickly with mushroom compost and straw.
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Seen from above, the vegetable garden is a nicely organized explosion of green. It’s difficult to believe this was a pit months ago.
Amy Renea
From cultivating vegetables to ornamentals, turning into a natural disaster to organic beauty, Krasuski has proven she is a master at her craft. Full of whimsy, humor and colour, her backyard is just one of a kind.
Amy Renea
Krasuski and Swan are featured on the community wall mural of neighbor Jo’s house. It is no surprise they’re shown gardening.
Next: Watch more of this neighbor’s home