The Mansion Garden at Kings Gap in Carlisle

In 1908 James McCormick Cameron built a stone mansion in Carlisle, Pennsylvania to serve as his family's summer home. The mansion contains 32 rooms and is styled after an old Italian Villa. In addition to the mansion you'll find several other structures located on the property: Caretaker's House, Ice House, Water Tower, Generator Building, Carriage House, and Garden.

Although we've never stayed overnight (see their website online on how to make reservations), we enjoy visiting the gardens for some physical exercise and fresh air. In our honest opinion...the best times for visiting are during the late spring and early fall seasons. 

The Mansion Garden at Kings Gap is maintained by the Penn State Master Gardeners of Cumberland County and Friends of Kings Gap Volunteers. It was established in 1992 as a cooperative educational project and is surrounded by a stone wall. The original garden on the property provided supplemental food for the mansion's first owners. 

When visiting you'll find four main garden areas: The Herb Garden, The Native Habitat Garden, The Shade Garden, and the Compost Demonstration Area. 

The Herb Garden

Offers a wide variety of different herbs in four beds surround a sundial in a traditional symmetrical layout. You'll find edible and medicinal herbs grown in the garden.

The Native Habitat Garden

Plants in this garden are native to North America, mainly the northeast. They're great for attracting wildlife onto your property and make beautiful landscapes for your own home.

The Shade Garden

This garden highlights the best plants to grow in an area that lacks a lot of sunlight. 

Compost Demonstration Area

This section of the garden has a variety of composting units showing how to convert organic waste into compost. Composting is something we can all learn how to do.

When visiting you'll find to follow the signs and park in the designated area. The gardens are open from sunrise to sunset. If you're unfamiliar with the layout of the gardens I suggest you pick up a map at the educational center which will show you where each garden is located.

You'll want to wear comfortable walking shoes and dress appropriately for the weather. You're permitted to bring along your own non-alcohol beverages while touring the property. Cameras are allowed. 

While walking through the gardens you'll see a large variety of different trees, shrubs, and plants. Here's a few of the ones that we saw on the day that we were there: climbing roses, hawthorn, white currants, mountain laurel, tulip tree, oakleaf hydrangea, flowering crabapple, dogwood, river birch, northern bayberry, butterfly bush, Japanese holly, sour cherry...etc. 

Property Location and Information

Kings Gap Environmental Educational Center
500 Kings Gap Road
Carlisle, Pennsylvania 17015
717-486-3799
Website: http://friendsofkingsgap.org/home/garden
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KingsGapEEC/

Harrisburg Mural Fest - Beautiful Things Can Happen Wall Mural on Paxtang Ave

We enjoy outdoor street art and wall murals and have been documenting the ones that we find on our travel blog. These pieces of artwork often go unnoticed and unappreciated by locals and travelers alike. We're hoping to bring more attention to them by highlighting them on our blog and social media channels.

Part of the 2019 Harrisburg Mural Fest in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania was this new addition located on 99 S. Paxtang Avenue near Derry Street. It was painted on the cement wall of an underpass. It's really hard to get a nice photograph of it due to all of the traffic in the area. It's inscribed with a beautiful saying "When you rethink waste, beautiful things can happen." So true!!! 

Artist: Nathaniel
Sponsored By: LCSWMA

We couldn't find any place to park and get out to walk to the wall mural, so we went out the following day early in the morning to photograph it (several times) while driving by. We would pass by and go down a bit, turn around and come back through. It was the only way to get decent photographs of the 200 foot wall that the artist painted.

A few months ago we had the opportunity to photograph another wall mural that was part of the 2019 Mural Fest that was located at 416 Forester Street in Harrisburg that was painted on the side of the Capital Joe's Coffee. You can check out our previous blog post to learn more about that one.

Sprocket Mural Works will be sponsoring another mural fest in 2021 and is looking for artists, sponsors and volunteers. You can check out their website to learn more about it and how you can help.