As we approach the 250th Anniversary of our country, I can’t help but feel a sense of pride and excitement as we celebrate such an important milestone. There’s something about the Fourth of July that brings back such nostalgic memories of summer and time spent outside. Lately, I myself have spent a great deal of time outside, beginning to establish my new garden and landscape here in Wilmington. I’ve been thinking about what garden items we should plant and what dishes I intend to share with friends from these harvests. I wonder if my neighbors will think my seasonal displays of color in the front yard are up to snuff. I’m thinking of time away from the bustle of work and emails to spend some quiet moments outside with those I love. I would never consider myself to have anything in common with our founding fathers; however, these gentlemen were doing some of the same things we were just a couple of hundred years earlier.
Our founding fathers are forever known to us as “farmers”. It’s often a point of contention that the American Revolution was won by mere farmers. What we tend to forget is that these men were far more than just farmers; they were also some of our first horticulturists. Did you know that George Washington, right before the Battle of New York, was writing to his estate manager to discuss an upcoming planting project? He envisioned Mount Vernon becoming something new and exciting with so much potential, just as he hoped for the future of our young country. George Washington was one of the first to collect and landscape with American native plants. He wanted no British species to be included in his new landscape. He wrote to friends, family, and acquaintances to collect species from all of the former 13 colonies.
