More than 20 years ago, having bought a house and six acres, Robert and Joyce Byers visited the Philadelphia Flower Show in search of a landscape contractor. They liked the Gale Nurseries display the best, but when Joyce called Charlie Gale after the show, he told her, “Well, we’re booked for the next two years, I don’t know if we have time.”

Somehow Joyce persuaded Charlie to come out and have a walk around the property. Afterwards he surprised her by asking, “So, when do you want us to start?” Charlie’s instincts for picking good clients, honed over many years in the business, were dead on in this case. From that first meeting he and Joyce got along well, and he designed a series of gardens for the property.

About ten years ago, after Bob and Joyce tore down their house to build a bigger one on its footprint—a process that destroyed most of the original gardens—Chuck Gale got a chance to make his mark on the landscape. Their favorite new space, Joyce says, is a secluded flower garden Chuck designed just of a porch, where she and Bob enjoy the views during al fresco dining in warm weather. This intimate garden is home to one of many sculptures on the property, all of which Chuck helped place and many of which he created special landscaped settings for.