Sculpting out a Woodland Garden

By Margaret Gilmour

The backyard used to be a dense forest, but that was over 30-years ago, before Inta Krombolz and her family moved in their West Chester home.

Unlike other new homes wrapped in vacant lawns screaming for plantings, Krombolz’s landscape loomed large right from her back steps where huge trees swelled above her.

Undaunted, Krombolz’s “fairly monumental” affair with her garden is an evolution the sculptor embraced just as she does her metal work: with energy and insight, and plenty of time for “accidental happenings.”

“I love surprises in my life,” Krombolz says. “I don’t always plan everything out. That way I have ‘open time’ for things to evolve.”

Her unpredictable approach combines well-intentioned views and wide, grassy paths leading to a variation of designs and plantings intended for admiring up-close.

“I wanted to take my guests in and around my yard, and back again,” Krombolz says. “It’s really a pleasure garden made for viewing.”

Indeed, there are a medley of plants grown for their texture and foliage with varying leaf-sizes and shapes, replacing the once tree-covered terrain with blanketed layers of diverse vegetation. All the beds spotlight prized tree specimens up-limbed to make room for smaller shrubs and spring blooming bulbs so that something is always flowering.

With time on her side, Krombolz appealed to her adventurous nature and began her woodland transformation by carving open spaces into the huge trees mushrooming overhead.

Then she created a lawn in the center of her yard and gardens along its edges. “Each site has its own challenges that you have to pay attention to or else you end up going against the grain,” Krombolz says. “Mine included a forest, inclined terrain and wetlands.”

While many of us may have shied away from such an undertaking, Krombolz boldly embraced the challenge, all the while moving at her own pace.

After all, with 30 years in which to play, look at what you can achieve.

The three and half-acre lot now stretches along the property bordered with rocks that outline garden beds and outdoor spaces meant for strolling. Almost all of the stones were taken from the forest floor or the rocky berm Krombolz discovered during one excavation.

Krombolz’s sophisticated palette “color echoes” just a few select hues that weave throughout the garden in different forms. “There’s not one color calling your attention,” she says. “It’s a whole garden harmonizing together. And by repeating colors, the entire space relates to itself.”

Her choices include variegated leaves of green and white, and flowering pinks and lavenders. Chartreuse is also used in abundance because it “stands out against all the green.”

It seems that Krombolz has always had a passion for plants. She remembers bringing home cuttings as a young girl growing up in Brazil, which is perhaps where she got her taste for the exotic, or unusual.

Take her use of upright, or fastigiated, shrubs for example.

Rather than placing her favorites: boxwood, ‘Gram Blandy’ (Buxus), barberry, ‘Helmond Pillar’ (Berberis) and Japanese holly ‘Sky Pencil’ (Ilex crenata) at a border or in the back of a bed, Krombolz used the naturally narrow-growing shrubs as punctuation marks in her landscape.

In addition to her columnar, living sculptures, there are, of course, her welded creations also adding color and movement to the garden backdrop. Most are images of nature standing tall and once again echoing the surrounding colors.

Sculptures in any form are appealing to Krombolz, actually, especially ones made from stone or steel, their permanent natures appealing to her more resolute side.

Interested in design, whether out in the garden or inside her home, she started sculpting about 12 years ago after taking her sketches to an Amish welder she met unexpectedly (of course) during a trip to Lancaster. The welder eventually became her mentor, encouraging Krombolz to create metal sculptures all her own.

She continued to forage metal parts from Amish machine shops in Lancaster, and recycled the pieces of used equipment into various art forms depicting nature, and also functional pieces like trellises and birdbaths. At first she allowed the parts to rust for an older-looking patina, and later added color by spraying two different shades of paint at the same time.

“It’s all quite random,” Krombolz says. “You end up with colors you wouldn’t regularly get in one can of paint. I spray until I like what I am seeing, then I know I am done.”

It’s the synergy between Krombolz’s two opposing characteristics––casual happenstance and intended order––­ that, ironically, bring harmony in her paradise.

“My garden is an execution of my passion for plants,” Krombolz says. “It’s a wonderful, spiritual endeavor that I enjoy sharing with others so that they may find the same kind of joy I have in the garden.”

Nowadays Krombolz is simplifying certain areas, making them easier to maintain by planting natives and herbaceous borders of small trees, shrubs, ground cover and perennials so there’s little need for cutting back and splitting. Her easy-to-care for combination includes hosta–-of which she has over 250 varieties and hybrids-– false indigo (Baptisia australis) and Goatsbeard (Aruncus dioicus), a perennial with arching, feathery plumes of cream-colored flowers.

As Krombolz shows us, a garden happens over the years, not overnight.

“It’s not an end to a means,” says Krombolz. “Gardening is an ongoing process, an engaging, creative process that is very satisfying.”

In fact, she admits to never being finished, because, after all, she is always open to chance.

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To purchase any of the sculptures featured, or to have one custom-made, contact Inta Krombolz at ikrombolz@comcast.net