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Gardens

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The center beds of the Hermitage garden.
Andrew Jackson hired an English gardener, William Frost, in 1819 at the recommendation of a friend to plan and lay out the garden at The Hermitage. The new brick Hermitage mansion was going up and the Jacksons needed a new garden. Very few early descriptions of the garden at The Hermitage are recorded, for unlike some of his presidential predecessors, Andrew Jackson was apparently little interested in horticulture. However, early visitors noted that the garden was Rachel Jackson’s special interest. “I never saw anyone more enthusiastically fond of flowers” In 1825, Rachel purchased flowering plants including geraniums, daisies, wallflowers, and polyanthus from Cincinnati.

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Andrew and Rachel Jackson's tomb occupies one corner of the garden.
When Rachel Jackson died in 1829, Andrew Jackson had her buried in the garden. Originally, a small grave house covered her burial place and in 1831 architect David Morrison designed a tomb modeled after a Grecian monument for Rachel. Later Andrew Jackson was buried beneath the tomb as well and other family members were buried in an adjoining plot.

The garden may have been re-designed several times. In 1988, archaeologists noted two brick edged beds under the library wing of the mansion. These may have been flowerbeds, covered over by the enlargement of the house in 1831. In 1849, after Andrew Jackson’s death, Andrew Jackson Junior and his wife Sarah undertook several improvements to the garden including fencing and adding brick edging around the beds. At that time small fruits, such as raspberries and strawberries were noted in the garden in addition to flowers and shrubs.

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Looking toward the mansion from the garden
When Andrew Jackson Junior’s financial situation became difficult in the late 1850s, the garden went into a decline. By the time the Ladies’ Hermitage Association was formed in 1889, the beds were weedy, fences broken, and shrubs and trees were dead or dying. The LHA devoted great effort to the rejuvenation of the garden. They interviewed people who had visited The Hermitage in early years to learn about plants and they also had Andrew Jackson’s granddaughter Rachel Jackson Lawrence as a source. Old roses, peonies, iris, crape myrtles, and other older varieties of plants filled the garden

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