While tomatoes from her garden stewed on her stove, Chadds Ford neighbor Sam Reiner and I chatted about the expansive garden she and her family have been diligently curating since moving to Chadds Ford many years ago.

Sam wasn’t always a gardener. Before moving into her current home, she and her young family were caretakers for the Thomas Leiper House. During that chapter of her life, a local garden club that helped care for the property’s gardens taught her a great deal about gardening and maintaining green spaces. Some of the “wonderful older ladies,” as they were to her at the time, showed her things like which herbs to plant around the house to repel fleas and pests.

She carried the burgeoning interest in gardening from home to home. When they moved to their current home in Chadds Ford, she and her husband got to work transforming the yard into luscious year-round gardens. They brought plants like peonies, iris, and other heirlooms from Sam’s grandmother’s garden to get started.

In the ensuing decades, Sam and her husband have tended the acres around their historic home, thoughtfully building on what already existed. They designed garden beds using hoses to mark the winding edges, traded plants with friends and fellow gardeners to share the unique bounty of each cherished green space, and invited friends over for meals, coffee, and to enjoy the breadth and beauty of their gardens.

One of the things she loves most about her garden is that it reflects the friendships and connections she’s made with fellow gardeners over decades. Sam loves to trade plants and seedlings with other green thumbs (from beginners to superstars). Over the years, she’s collected a range of unique plants from other gardeners. It’s like a little piece of each other becomes rooted somewhere new, and each garden is a kaleidoscope of favorites.

Growing with the garden

As her passion grew, Sam earned a Longwood Master Gardener Certification. She opened her own nursery where she sold plants grown on her own property. Sam and her family loved all the wildlife that thrived in the gardens: butterflies, chipmunks and squirrels, and so many birds! They even submitted their garden as a Certified Wildlife Habitat.

Passing seasons brought new techniques. She learned from mistakes, saw surprises and successes, and grew with her garden. She loved to showcase the unique blend of hostas and unusual trees and shrubs she gathered and cared for over the years.

In 2020, Sam and her husband entered their garden into the Pennsylvania Horticulture Society home garden competition. Because it occurred during COVID, the judges didn’t visit the garden but relied on photos. She learned how to take gorgeous photos of her garden spaces and won a Blue Ribbon!

With all her experience, I asked Sam what a beginner gardener might try growing in our community. She said magnolias, lilacs, and purple beautyberry were among her favorites that thrive in our climate and are easy to maintain.

Nourishing bodies and souls

For the Reiners, gardening nourishes their family and has been a source of connection. When they were young, her children dawdled in the garden and helped when they felt inspired, eventually becoming gardeners in their own right around their own homes.

Then and now, Sam and her family grow food to eat together and share with friends. They harvest pounds and pounds of cucumbers, peppers, basil, eggplants, and more. She eats fresh peas, strawberries, and blueberries with her grandson. Free of pesticides or synthetic fertilizers, they can eat the produce right off the stems.

A few days after we chatted about her garden, she sent me a photo of homemade pesto she made from her garden’s harvest. It was the literal fruits of her labor of love, and as always, she shared it with friends. That pesto was the perfect emblem of how gardens nourish our bodies, our friendships, and our souls.