Pleasure Garden

Among the curved beds of the brick-walled "Upper Garden," you'll find bulbs, annuals, and perennials for every season: hollyhocks, peonies, primroses, heliotrope, larkspur, and dozens of other specimens, all of which were grown here by the Washingtons. You'll also find fig and flowering cherry trees and century-old boxwood hedges.

The garden's most formal element is a well-documented, recreated boxwood parterre in the shape of a French fleur-de-lis. Landscape scholars at Mount Vernon speculate that Washington's use of the parterre was a way both to honor his friendship with the Marquis de Lafayette and to pay tribute to the French for helping America win the Revolutionary War.

Kitchen Garden

On the other side of the Mansion's west lawn from the Upper Garden, is the "Lower," or kitchen, garden, where you'll discover a delectable variety of of fruits and vegetables. Much of the produce that appeared on the Washingtons' table was raised in this brick-walled, sunny spot located directly behind the stables and their unfailing supply of manure. Today rows of asparagus, beets, beans, spinach, and peas grow in beds edged with low-growing herbs. Apple and pear trees pruned to form waist-high, stout fences line the paths between beds of artichokes, onions, and lettuce. The garden is a wonderful example of a formal English kitchen garden. It also showcases the abundance of "vegetables indispensable to the kitchen," that so pleased Martha Washington.

Botanical Garden

Tucked away between the upper garden and the north lane is a small, enclosed plot of ground, where Washington quietly experimented with growing a variety of plants, including pecan and hickory nuts and root crops for animal fodder. He fondly called it his "little garden."  Washington would himself sow the untried seeds, tend them during the growing season, and record the results. Many of the seeds were sent by friends and admirers from foreign countries. 

Fruit Garden & Nursery

George Washington spent much of his life experiment­ing with plants and crops. He first used this four acre garden in 1771 to experiment with grapes.  He planted over 2,000 grape cuttings, however, they became neglected and overgrown in his absence during the Revolutionary War. After the war, he used the garden as a nursery, and planted a variety of grasses, wheat, grains, and vegetables to produce seeds for his farming operation. George Washington wanted his farming operation to be self-sufficient. He believed it was “disreputable” for a farmer to continue to buy seeds year after year.

In 1786, he designed an orchard, which covered two-thirds of the garden’s area. He planted dozens of saplings that had been sent to him by family and friends, and transplanted mature trees from his own gardens. The orchard supplied the Washingtons with fresh fruit nearly six months a year. Washington kept detailed records of the trees planted, which included 11 different varieties of pears, four of apples, three of peaches, two of cherries, and a number of plums. Washington also experimented with honey locust, a thorny plant, as a living hedge to fence his gardens and nursery. The use of living hedges, or dense thorny shrubs, to keep animals from destroying plants was a way to conserve timber.

Garden and Landscape walking tours start at the Mansion Circle at 11:00 a.m. daily, April through October. Walking tours last approximately 30 minutes.