Fruit Garden & Nursery

This area began as an experimental vineyard, but, as in most early American vineyards, a soil disease killed the European grape-root stock. After George Washington’s landscape alterations in 1785, some of the Upper Garden’s fruit trees were transplanted here and laid out in squares. Some of the trees moved included pears, cherries, peaches, and apples. In this enclosure, Washington also situated a nursery where he grew trees, shrubs, berries, vegetables, and grasses.