Sydney Eddison’s “Gardening for a Lifetime: How to Garden Wiser as You Grow Older” is a book of practical, common-sense advice. “Founding Gardeners” was published by Alfred A. When Jefferson sent Meriwether Lewis to explore the Missouri River after the Louisiana Purchase, part of his mission was to observe “the soil & face of the country, it’s growth and vegetable productions” and to note “the dates at which particular plants put forth or lose their flower, or leafs.” Yes, he wanted the Missouri River explored, perhaps a passage to the Pacific found, but the plants were equally important. That trip is reported to have helped forge a compromise. When tensions rose during the Constitutional Convention, a group of delegates, including Madison and Alexander Hamilton, went to the nursery of John and William Bartram, where Washington and Jefferson had purchased many of their trees. Washington and Jefferson regularly had visitors to their estates who wanted to see how they had created stunning landscapes out of American trees.
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