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Great Day Trip: River Farm and Mount Vernon

For out-of-town visitors or just for yourself, a fabulous day trip from anywhere in the DC area is River Farm, headquarters of the American Horticultural Society and former home of George Washington himself.  He recently added the following shots, proving that the gardens at River Farm are visit-worthy even the first week of March:

Visiting in May, as I did for the photos below, you’ll see visions like this:

Below is their instructive “Green Garage”, which educates visitors about permeable paving and other features of sustainable landscaping.

Green Garage’s green roof, photo by Jim Sohn

And below are some photos I snapped in late summer.

Front to back: daylilies, caryopteris and butterfly bush.

 

Caropteris and ‘Autumn Joy’ sedum in front of the AHS book store.

Like meadows?  You’ll love the famous four-acre meadow at River Farm.  Armchair meadow admirers can click here to see it throughout the year and learn all about its plants and the hundreds of species of wildlife it supports.  Below is how it looked during my late-summer visit.

Mount Vernon

Mount Vernon, the most famous of Washington’s homes, is just 5 miles down the George Washington Parkway from River Farm.  Photos from the Mount Vernon website.

Hey Marylanders, if you haven’t visited these gardens yet, they’re definitely worth crossing the Potomac to see!

Stephanie Fleming was raised at Behnke’s Nurseries in Beltsville. Her Mom, Sonja, was one of Albert & Rose Behnke’s four children. She was weeding from the moment she could walk and hiding as soon as she was old enough to run, so many weeds, so little time. Although she quickly learned how to pull out a perennial and get taken off of weed pulling duty.

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