LDG Fall Garden Tour in Washington

The most recent LDG tour was with Jane MacLeish in her own private garden on Saturday October 13th at 3743 Upton St. NW Washington DC. The tour also included the garden of one of her neighbors, designed by Landscape Architect Thomas Church.

Jane Krumbhaar MacLeish Landscapes has designed and constructed some of the most well-known and highly celebrated gardens in the area including Ondine, a new garden at Dumbarton Oak,  Historic Old Town Lee Mansion in Alexandria, and two gardens at One Observatory Circle — the Vice President's official residence.  Jane is a co-founder of the Dumbarton Oaks Park Conservancy.  She is well known for her ability to restore old gardens and collaborates with a broad network of garden artisans and craftsmen. She currently serves as a member of the Washington DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities' DC Creates! Public Art Program.   http://janemacleish.com/ .  

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Jane and her family moved into the house in 1968. It was mostly surrounded by grassy lawn. Jane decided to change the front yard to create a journey where you did not know the destination. She added patio areas and a walk that meandered towards the steps to the sidewalk. In later times, when her son decided to get married at the house, she added an arbor over the path. In the back yard Jane had many lovely destinations including a temple brought over from England, multiple statuary, and a beautiful picture window in her kitchen. She wasn't interested in having a garage that was on the property so converted it into an orangery.

 The group toured  the private garden located next to the McLeish home, which was designed by Landscape Architect Thomas Church, "one of the pioneers of the mid-century Modernist movement." The original drawings of this garden highlight this pioneer in landscape design. “Mr. Church created nearly 2,000 gardens, in addition to several major large-scale public commissions... his voice was unique, distinct, and influential.  His two books, Gardens are for People and Your Private World, serve as easy to read manuals on modern residential garden design.”  https://tclf.org. The photos below show some of the highlights of that garden.