Fresh Terrain

Higher Garden Center Ground

In the late eighties, I walked into a nice garden center looking for a job.

The gift and garden shop behind the nursery was filled with Americana.  Back then, I was charmed by the displays including hoosier cabinets overflowing with scented candles, stacks of country style quilts and red, white and blue knick knacks.  There was cinnamon scent in the air.

I hadn’t worn color in a decade and collected fifties modern, so the country-esque scene clearly wasn’t my thing.

It was fresh to me.  Back then.  So I enjoyed the experience.

Honestly, even today, and even though we have wonderful garden centers in the mid-state,  there isn’t anything much different in style from that garden center where I worked in a past life.

But Terrain at Styers is special.  I was welcomed with overwhelming  beauty that I wanted to take home with me.  I was not bombarded with clutter competing for my attention.

Terrain is a gardening lifestyle store in Glen Mills, PA.  It’s near both Philadelphia and Longwood Gardens. And close the Winterthur as well.

At Terrain, I was treated to dish plantings that inspired me.  I was introduced to gardening utensils as art.  I noticed that repetition of shape and color in their displays made me want to linger and look rather than head as quickly as possible out the front door.

Weathered gray wood covers the buildings.  Sophisticated and simple gardens are anchored with twig fencing.  Galvanized metal and stainless contrast nicely with the aged stone pots properly softened with great plants. Clean, peaceful style paints the walls of each of their buildings.  Unique containers sported rhythmic plantings.

I sensed the folks running the place understood why I garden.

Mixed with all the beauty and style were earth conscious offerings. Fresh local produce was offered next to neat tables of books on cooking from the garden.  There were primitive antiques. There were cool plants. The café serves only locally produced foods.  I sensed the designers knew me.

I put down my notebook and started loading a cart with fantastic containers.  I purchased an antique Hungarian butcher table for use on my back porch.  Several unique annuals now have a home in New Cumberland.

Money flew out of my wallet.  And I was happy about it.

Terrain caters to consumers interested in an eco-friendly gardening and lifestyle incorporating horticulture and design. 

Founded by Philadelphia’s Anthropologie and Urban Outfitters parent company URBN in 2008, Terrain at Styers is the first.  As with Urban Outfitters, the company hopes for measured expansion.  In addition to their home and garden offerings, and the café, they also provide landscape design and installation services.

They’ve tapped in to a number of trends and are on to something exciting.  There are garden centers closer to me that I love.  One particular favorite, doesn’t do the country thing and offers an unrivaled selection of plants.

But as far as completely getting the under current and interconnections between beauty, the earth, past and present, and local food, Terrain is higher ground.

I’m going back Sunday and hoping to take a couple friends with me.