Urban Landscape, Native Landscape: May 2018

Friday, May 4, 2018

Enid A Haupt Garden

Boxwood fleur-de-lis in a Victorian-inspired parterre

The Smithsonian Castle in 2 photos above.

Smithsonian Arts & Industries Building

Statue of Spencer Fullerton Baird. These photos were taken in April 2016.

The Enid A Haupt Garden is located among the oldest of the Smithsonian museums at the National Mall in Washington DC. It is an eye-catching & varied array of planting beds, shrubs, trees & plants in pots. There are paving, decorative urns, a pool & a statue of Spencer Fullerton Baird. Baird was the first curator named at the Smithsonian Institution & later became its second secretary. There are lots of benches here. This is the perfect place to rest when walking around or near the National Mall. The garden covers 4.2 acres adjacent to the Smithsonian Castle. It was designed as a modern version of an American Victorian garden. The garden opened in 1987, replacing the existing Victorian Garden which had been built for the Bicentennial. Enid A. Haupt provided $3 million for its construction & maintenance.

About This Blog

This blog began in 2008 as Metropolitan Gardens to provide information on gardening in Seattle & places like it. Click on Gardening in Cascadia. The blog expanded to include Parks P-Patches Public Gardens in the US, Canada & Europe. Then Nature was added. (The difference between nature & gardens is intent. Nature happens. Gardens are planned.) Many recent posts are not about Seattle, or even Cascadia. They are Urban Landscape: streetscape & architecture. Cascadia is the region including the Cascade Mountains of Washington & Oregon. If you want to contact the blogger, leave a message in comments. Comments are moderated & private messages will not be posted.

Our Land & Climate

The city of Seattle rests between 2 bodies of water: Puget Sound & Lake Washington. Puget Sound is a substantial part of the Salish Sea & a very small part of the Pacific Ocean. The Salish Sea is set apart from the Pacific by the Olympic Peninsula in the state of Washington & Vancouver Island in the province of British Columbia. The dense, wet clouds of the Pacific Ocean travel as far as the Cascade Mountains, near the Salish Sea & not very far from the ocean. East of the Cascades lies the desert of the Columbia Basin. The moist, temperate climate of Seattle extends south to northern California & north to southeastern Alaska. The Pacific Northwest Coast from San Francisco Bay to Cook Inlet shares a flora dominated by evergreen coniferous forest. The central portion, west of the Cascade Mountains, is called Cascadia. The climate is cool & wet from fall to spring, warm & dry in summer. The Olympic Mountains block Seattle from much of the Pacific rainfall. Seattle is drier than the Atlantic coast of North America & northern Europe, cooler in summer & warmer in winter. It lies near the latitude of Paris & Quebec City.