Watershed Texas

Drummond Phlox

Reflecting on America’s beginnings as a nation is always timely. Thoughts of rebellious colonists standing united against an increasingly tyrannical British rule would hardly seem to relate to time spent in a garden. Yet, it was through a connection to the land and a common passion for gardens, that our nation began its journey toward self-reliance and independence.

As an avid gardener and history buff, it was will great relish that I immersed myself in a book by Andrea Wulf, “Founding Gardeners” (1). Here we learn how closely our founding fathers remained connected to nature, to the land, and to their gardens—with gardening metaphors paralleling political ones. 

For years, colonists had been dependent on British goods like paper, glass, clothes and luxury items like silverware and porcelain, while England looked to America to grow the profitable crops of tobacco, corn and indigo on endless expanses of fertile soil. Agriculture became the main source of income for most Americans. However, in the eyes of our founding fathers like Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, George Washington, James Madison and others, all of whom shared a passion for gardening, farming could lead the way for colonists to become self-sufficient. As tensions mounted and revolution seemed more certain, Franklin began feverishly collecting seeds during his time in England and shipping them to America, the seeds now symbolizing the path to political freedom and the creation of a new world.

Ironically, since the beginning of colonization of the new world, Europeans had become fascinated with the variety and abundance of American native plants. Many of the seeds Franklin and later Jefferson and Adams collected in Europe came from the lush and famous gardens they so envied. Touring the grand landscapes, they realized that the revered English gardens were not really English at all. What they observed was a proliferation of American trees and shrubs. So it was that as time and political tensions mounted, returning native plants to American soil symbolized the growing patriotic spirit that would eventually unite the colonies.

It was our founding fathers’ love of the land and the natural and designed bucolic surroundings that fueled their views of independence and resilience. These same areas were refuges to which they escaped during the turbulent times. While enduring the harsh winter at Valley Forge, Washington escaped in his mind to his home at Mt Vernon, and dreamed of gardens and trees to be planted. He corresponded regularly with his estate foreman, instructing him to plant only American natives.

Once the battles were over, the colonies found nature to be a unifying force, celebrating in the vastness of the country’s beauty and the bounty springing from the soil. During the hot, steamy summer of 1787 as the debates wore on to forge a constitution, fifty-five delegates, more than half of whom were farmers, often found time to discuss farming techniques, the latest tools and the best manure to nourish their crops. One particular day, several left the deadlocked debate and stifling confines of the State House in Philadelphia for an excursion to Bartram’s Garden. Here, William Bartram, well known as a naturalist and botanical artist, had followed his father’s horticultural path and passion by filling the grounds with purely American native plants. After seeing the abundance and richness of the native specimens representing the thirteen colonies, the delegates turned to their task with renewed zeal. The Great Compromise which cemented the Constitution of the United States might very well have been inspired by what the delegates experienced in those ”American” gardens.

As each of our founding fathers retired from public life, they cherished returning to their land. As the years passed, Jefferson remarked, “Tho’ an old man, I am but a young gardener.” Along with a nation envied by many, these men, whose ideas were shaped by a connection to the land and their gardens, left a legacy of self-reliance, independence, patriotism, and pride in what it means to be uniquely American.

(1)    Founding Gardeners by Andrea Wulf, Alfred A. Knopf, 2011.