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[Mount Vernon has] good gardens, and if I am a judge[,] fine and elegant ones. Delightful walks, straight, circular and serpentine handsomely and tastily shaded with the best chosen trees. Among them the Lombardy poplar, or the poplar of the Po of which Ovid sang many hundred years ago is found and much admired. William Blount, 1790 G eorge Washington was passionate about natural beauty, and he personally oversaw the aesthetic development of the gardens at Mount Vernon. (We use the word “gardens” broadly here to describe, as early viewers did, both the extensive improved landscape and the smaller walled gardens at the estate.) It is striking how intensely he attended to the most minute details of the gardens at Mount Vernon. The day before he died, perhaps causing or exacerbating the fatal infection of his epiglottis, he went out in the cold and snow of December to mark trees that were to be cut down in order to improve the view.1 Mount Vernon’s landscape and walled gardens, along with the famous house itself, formed George Washington’s great work of art. He aesthetically linked the estate grounds, beautiful in themselves, to the mansion house and its site, and carefully calculated the views from the house and portico. Washington enjoyed a range of artistic interests in his life, but none of them were as sustained over time or as personal in character as his improvement of the land around his mansion house. Evidence is scanty concerning what gardens might have existed before Washington took up residence at Mount Vernon in 1754, leasing it from his half-brother Lawrence’s widow. Archaeology has determined that early on, perhaps in Augustine and Lawrence’s time, the road leading to the front (west) door was straight and direct, probably bordered by a symc h a p t e r f o u r Washington as Gardener Creating the Landscape 84 ' George Washington’s Eye metrical planting of trees.2 Lawrence’s family was at Mount Vernon from 1743 to 1754, and they certainly maintained some kind of vegetable and herb garden near the house. Lawrence likely planted a fruit orchard and perhaps kept some kind of small flower gardens in regular arrangement, following the taste of the time in the colonies. From what little we know or can surmise, there is no evidence that any elaborate or important gardens existed at Mount Vernon before George Washington’s time. Over the years, Washington expanded the mansion house, added outbuildings, and altered the agricultural lands at Mount Vernon. Along with these changes, his gardening schemes at Mount Vernon—all (as far as we know) concentratedattheMansionHouseFarm —becameevermoreelaborate . In giving form to the layout that existed at the time of his death, the greatest campaigns occurred in the early and mid-1770s during a large-scale renovation and expansion of the mansion house, from about 1784 to 1789 between the war and the presidency, and from 1797 to 1799 during his final retirement.3 By far the most important period of the gardens’ development was from 1784 to 1789, when Washington came up with a new master plan and turned much of the estate into a rambling, natural garden, with curving, graveled walks and abundant, varied plantings. He was present at Mount Vernon during much of that time, so he was able to implement his ideas vigorously and firsthand. Even when he resided away from Mount Vernon while carrying out his military and political duties, Washington played a guiding role through letters of instruction to those in charge of the grounds. In the brief post-presidency period, Washington added significantly to the gardens, building on his scheme of the 1780s. By 1798, he had decided to grow no more substantial crops at the Mansion House Farm but continued to do so at his other four farms. On the land not far from the mansion, however, he kept some sheep, mules, poultry, and other animals, continued the production of corn and grasses, and grew herbs, flowers, fruit, and vegetables , largely for use at the estate. By 1799, Mount Vernon contained a complex arrangement of walled gardens, shaded gravel walks, open grassy parkland, woods, farmlands, and orchards. As Washington developed the beauty of the gardens , they increasingly served as a major attraction for visitors to the famous estate. We would do well to preface our modern account of Mount Vernon and its gardens with a concise and elegant description by military officer, aide de camp, foreign minister...

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