Some of the most beautiful gardens I’ve ever seen are located on the exquisite grounds at the Maymont estate in Richmond, VA. The house and surrounding land was owned by James Henry and Sallie Dooley, who resided on the property from 1893 through 1925. After their deaths, the lands were bequeathed to the city of […]
I am a gardener and veteran garden guide at Monticello. I was inspired by my grandfather Harry, who was a first generation Italian American. My grandfather always maintained a wonderful garden. I have fond memories as a young boy climbing high up in his apple tree and dropping apples to him below. I remember the […]
Hard to believe that my mother has been gone thirty-four years now, she was born in 1911 and seemed as though she could grow anything. She would be 103 years old this October. I was born her youngest child when she was forty-five years of age. She loved all of her children individually as if […]
I’ve been thinking about my mother, as Mother’s Day has just passed. And I’ve been thinking about the Smithsonian Gardens’ new project Community of Gardens. And now the two are intersecting, as things often do in unexpected ways. My mother loved working in her yard. She was an adventurous gardener and did not stick to […]
This organic garden at Thomas Jefferson Middle School in Arlington, Virginia was created as a Girl Scout Silver Award project by Cadette Troop 557. The garden was built over the course of a few years, with the bulk of it constructed in 2012-2013. A portion of the produce supports the Arlington Food Assistance Center (AFAC) […]
The Poquoson Learning Garden is located at the Poquoson Museum, the former sixteen acre William Freeman Dryden farm in the City of Poquoson, Virginia. The museum campus contains a circa 1900 farm house, agricultural out buildings, frontage along the marshes of Topping Creek and a country store known as ‘Miss Becky’s Store’ that served local […]
A wet Saturday morning dawned for the May “Saturdays in the Garden” lecture recently. “The Garden” in the lecture title is Loudoun’s Extension Master Gardener Demonstration Garden at Ida Lee Park and Recreation Center. In this space, our volunteer organization to grow both ornamental and vegetable gardens using the most current research-based techniques from Virginia’s land […]
Shamans say plants have spirit medicine. They have for me, helping me find solace, solidity, and silence when it felt like everybody else was screaming. Perhaps during my teen years, before my father threatened to put me in Military School, I discovered a large Juniper that held me gently in presence. Grace, my maternal grandmother, […]
Stories from the Students of Campbell Elementary School At Campbell Elementary School in Arlington, Virginia, our students are fortunate to have wonderful outdoor spaces which serve as places to to extend their lessons and provide a natural environment in which they can learn. We also have an Outdoor Learning Coordinator, Ms. Christy, who has spearheaded […]
I live in a small city in the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia. We are lucky enough to have an enormous public park with baseball diamonds, a football field, basketball and tennis courts, a skate park, three dog parks, picnic areas, ponds (stocked), and walking spaces. Early on during Covid Time, just as we began to […]
We chose native plants because they provide ideal habitat for countless species of wildlife including birds, insects, and pollinators such as hummingbirds and monarch butterflies. Because they are perfectly adapted to local conditions, particularly compared to turf grass, native plants require far less water, less maintenance, no mowing, and less or no chemical pesticides and […]
Building a post work life took years, but this March that life disappeared seemingly overnight. My upheaval paled in comparison to health threats and loss of life, but the prospect of losing purpose was the scariest part those early Covid days. No more classroom time reading and playing with small ones at the elementary school; […]
The Anne Spencer House and Garden Museum in Lynchburg, Virginia, preserves the home of Anne Spencer (1882-1975), the first African American woman to publish a poem in the Norton Anthology of Poetry. She’s remembered as a poet of the garden; many of her poems deal with floral or natural subjects. Her home garden served as […]