A Garden 280 Million Years in the Making
Geologic events, which occurred early in the Mesozoic, the Age of the Dinosaurs, laid the groundwork for a future garden oasis. A series of parallel ridges west of the Atlantic coastal plain, the Watching Mountains were formed as extrusions of molten rock during the Triassic period, some 280 million years ago. Of the same geologic age and origin as the Hudson River Palisades, the Watchungs are also composed of rock of igneous origin, primarily basalt.
After being buried under hundreds of millions of years of soil accumulation, this basalt would make a reappearance here at Greenwood in the 21st century. In late fall of 2020, during our Phase II restoration, our plan to build a new parking lot east of the Carriage House met with unexpected and unyielding opposition. As a private swimming pool, old tennis court and soil were being removed, contractors ran hard up against the ridge line of an ancient lava flow known as the Second Watchung Mountain.
A determined assault was made on the exposed rock. A giant machine resembling a pile driver was brought in to crush the rock prior to removal. When broken apart, the basalt, normally tan on the outside due to oxidation, reveals a bluish grey interior. Despite the need for more parking, this natural feature — the only exposed bedrock at Greenwood — deserved a better fate.
Peter P. Blanchard III, our late Co-founder, and Allan Summers, principal of RAS Landscape Architects and the lead architect responsible for the design of the parking lot, were passionate about saving the ancient rock outcrop as a powerful reminder of the garden’s geologic foundations and of the very basis of the garden’s existence. Were it not for the steep topography of the Watchung Mountains — South Mountain attaining a height of some 500 feet above sea level, while Second Mountain is some 50 feet lower — this area would undoubtedly have been lost to development long ago.
