The Hermitage Garden -- The Hermitage, Hermitage TN - Signs of History on Waymarking.com

This sign of history is located at the entrance to a beautiful recreation of Rachel Jackson's garden on the east side of the Hermitage mansion.

The sign reads as follows:

"The Hermitage Garden
An ever-changing delight

As with all living things, the Hermitage garden cannot be wholly defined by any particular moment in time. Gardens grow and change. Few records tell us about the appearance of the garden Andrew Jackson enjoyed. Jackson hired Gardner William Frost to establish the garden at the same time he began construction of the Hermitage mansion in 1819. That first garden may have extended closer to the mansion. The garden evolved over many years, and the family made many changes in the 1840s. The basic layout of garden you see today may date from that time.

Although Rachel Jackson and other female family members love the garden and did light work, enslaved workers provided most of the labor. Along with flowers and herbs, they may also have grown vegetables and small fruits such as strawberries and figs in the present grassy plots in the center of each quadrant. Like much else in those times, the ornamental Hermitage garden was worlds away from the gardens grown by the slaves near their own quarters.

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Extra long bricks that taper at one end surround the center beds. The added length may have been an attempt to keep burrowing pests out of the flowerbeds. These bricks were made at the Hermitage.

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The four-square garden design with center beds dates back to the Middle Ages. The Hermitage garden plan reflects this English tradition.

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in 1867, C. C. Giers took a series of stereo graphs of the Hermitage including this image of the Jackson tomb. His photographs show that The Hermitage as a whole was in a state of disrepair, especially the garden. After Jackson's death, his families fortunes continue to dwindle leaving little money for garden work. The enslaved labor who worked the garden also disappeared as the family sold slaves to cover debts and as the slaves fled for freedom during the Civil War.

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The Ladie's Hermitage Association put reestablishment of the garden high on their priority list when they took over The Hermitage in 1889. With few paper records to consult, they had to rely on what remained of the garden, family memories, especially those of Jackson's granddaughter Rachel, and their own ideas of what the "old-fashioned" garden should look like.

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One of the earliest ornamental plants brought to the southern United States, crape myrtles line the walk in the Hermitage garden. Because the Jackson's left very few lists of their garden plants, Hermitage gardeners now simply plant flowers, binds and shrubs available in the United States before the Civil War. This means you won't find modern hybrids such as tea roses or more recently introduced plants such as impatiens here.

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Archaeology has demonstrated one of the major changes in the garden -- over 150 years of adding soil has raised the height of the pass and beds almost 6 inches. Paths have been realigned as well."

Group that erected the marker: The Hermitage Address of where the marker is located. Approximate if necessary: The Hermitage Hermitage, TN URL of a web site with more information about the history mentioned on the sign: Not listed

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Date Logged Log   03/11/2019 Benchmark Blasterz visited it