06/17/2017
During a visit to Washington DC, I was able to visit Dumbarton Oaks Gardens. This inspirational landscape designed by Beatrix Ferrand makes you forget you're in an urban environment and seems to transport you to a serene English countryside. It's a great combination of long, rolling views and close-up details that cause you to linger and look more closely at the genius of her design. Our timing in mid-June was great since the gardens were peaking before the oppressive summer heat.
The photos are by David Davenport, and include shots of our friends Paul Baranowski and Joan Smith.
Here's a snippet from the garden website, "In 1920, after a long and careful search, Mildred and Robert Woods Bliss found their ideal country house and garden within Washington, DC. They purchased a fifty-three-acre property, described as an old-fashioned house standing in rather neglected grounds, at the highest point of Georgetown. Within a year the Blisses hired landscape gardener Beatrix Farrand to design the gardens. Working in happy and close collaboration for almost thirty years, Mildred Bliss and Beatrix Farrand planned every garden detail, each terrace, bench, urn, and border."
