The pond’s dark water reflects the forest’s tall trees. More water spills over rocks into small pools.
But what appears to be a forest is actually a densely planted backyard behind a two-story Colonial in suburban Norristown’s Jeffersonville area.
Nia Eaton, the homeowner, painted her swimming pool black to resemble a pond. One of the small pools is a hot tub.
The pond-pool is surrounded by trees and shrubs of various hues such as white pine and green-and-yellow-leafed aucuba. Some plantings produce colorful flowers and berries, including Chinese dogwood cornus kousa and yellow flowering Oregon grape holly mahonia, whose purple berries resemble grapes. Containers around the pool and on the patio are filled with crimson cannas, coleus, caladium, vinca, begonias, and clusters of yellow and orange lantana.
Deer devoured Eaton’s hosta and showy hibiscus, and groundhogs chomped her lily of the valley.
Still, Eaton enjoys the wildlife, and she’s not alone. One neighbor, who apologized for not cutting his grass, explained that he could not access his lawnmower because a fox was tending a litter of kits in his storage shed.
A creek down the slope from the pool divides Eaton’s property from an adjacent golf course, so the greenery appears endless. She finds snagged golf balls in the pachysandra.
When Eaton and her former husband, Gil Eaton, purchased the 1½-acre property in 1976, there was grass, a small flower bed, and weeds including “world-class poison ivy” she has been battling ever since.
In 1985 the Eatons hired James Sankey to design the 40-foot pool in the shady backyard.
“Jim gave it its curvy natural shape,” Eaton said.
“The black was my idea,” she said. “A neighbor came by during the build and declared the only black pool she’d ever seen was the hippopotamus pond at the San Diego Zoo.”
In recent years, Eaton has turned to JC Pool & Spa in Phoenixville to maintain the pool, enabling Eaton to take advantage of changing technologies. “I can operate everything from an app on my cell phone. No more turning valves in pre-defined sequence.”
When Eaton and her former husband bought the property, the four-bedroom, 2½-bath house had “good bones,” she said, but needed updating. In the early 1990s the couple built an addition for a new kitchen and sunroom.
Eaton, whose Quaker ancestors came to Pennsylvania in 1682 with William Penn, furnished the house with family pieces, some dating to the 1700s.
Most prized are drapes from the early 20th century she had altered to fit her living room windows. The embroidered gold and maroon drapes were a gift to President Woodrow Wilson from the city of Paris in gratitude for his founding the League of Nations. A family friend purchased them at an auction.
The rose sofas complement the drapes. So do the pink flowers in the window box visible from the living room.
The plantings by the front porch are an attractive arrangement of coral roses, oakleaf hydrangea, Japanese maple, weeping pine, purple sage, portulaca, and a hemlock pruned into a globe shape.
Eaton has learned a lot about plants from her involvement with the Norristown Garden Club and Halford Garden Club. Gardening is also in her genes. She remembers her grandmother weeding while wearing pearls and her mother researching plants and getting dirty, wrestling root balls.
Eaton grew up in Rydal and graduated from Sweet Briar College in Virginia. She and Gil were married for 25 years before divorcing in 2000.
Since retiring in 2020 from a career in computer sales, she has been a docent at Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library, which she calls, “My Happy Place.”
For about 10 years she had assistance maintaining her property from George DeSilva, a neighbor and landscaper who had “a great eye for texture, color, and balance.” After he retired, Eaton hired Manuel Amandor of Camelia Lawn Care in Royersford for lawn mowing, mulching, and collaborating on landscaping, including hauling and planting trees she brings home from plant sales.
Eaton, 78, hopes to continue to exercise in her pool, dust her family heirlooms, and tend her plants for a long time.
“I love my neighbors, and I am comfortable here,” she said.
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