Marshall’s Garden

The Episode

Welcome to this episode of “Now & Then at Dodona Manor.”

In this episode, we will explore the wonderfully green world of George and Katherine Marshall’s back yard, where they enjoyed one of their favorite pastimes: gardening.

Questions for Thought and Discussion

One of the great attractions of this home for the Marshalls was the four acres that provided the perfect setting for them to start their gardens: roses for Katherine and vegetables for George. 

Today, we have dedicated volunteers who tend the Marshalls’ original gardens to keep them growing and producing. The gardens at Dodona Manor still produce flowers and food, and the food is donated to local hunger relief programs in honor of the Marshall principle of selfless service. The Marshalls enjoyed this community, and we believe that they would be proud to know that their garden still serves it. 

Perhaps a fitting place to begin our exploration of the Marshall garden is when George first became interested in gardening. 

In the 1880s and 1890s, George lived in Uniontown, Pennsylvania, where people called him “Flicker.” Later in life, he fondly remembered the tangled mess of vines that climbed up to the porch near his bedroom window. During harvest season, he could go out on the porch and pull bunches of Concord and other delicious varieties of grapes right off the vines. 

One year, young George and his friend Andy went into business together to sell plants and turn a backyard shed into their own shop. They began with small weeds potted in tin cans using soil dug out of an old stable, soil that was enriched by horse manure. Marshall’s father visited their “shop” and was impressed to see that their potted weeds flourished more than weeds commonly do. Recognizing the entrepreneurial spirit in the young men, both George’s and Andy’s parents provided funds that allowed the boys to purchase proper plants and pots from the local greenhouse owner. 

The enterprise began to flourish, and the boys read in a seed catalogue from the Peter Henderson company about a contest to name a new tomato. The winner was to receive $50. Under the guidance and instruction of his father, George and his friend grew and sold the most impressive tomatoes in town. They photographed their largest tomato with a Brownie camera, using a silver dollar to show the scale, and sent the picture to the company with a suggested name for their tomato. The Henderson company did not select the boys as winners (the winner of that competition named the new tomato Ponderosa, which is still grown and sold today). The company was so amazed at the size of the tomato that they asked the boys how they grew such a large variety. Thus began George’s lifelong love of growing vegetables in good soil.

Despite the restrictions that Marshall’s career imposed on his opportunities to garden, he and Katherine took time together to dig a new rose garden while stationed at Vancouver Barracks in the state of Washington. In a letter to a fellow officer in 1937, Marshall boasted of his impressive collection of sixty-five varieties among two hundred plants. Four years later, the Marshalls were growing prized plants and became enamored with the joy and freedom of putting trowel to soil.

When the Marshalls purchased Dodona Manor in 1941, the 3.8 acres of land was in need of maintenance. An excerpt from Katherine Marshall’s memoir, Together: Annals of an Army Wife, reveals how much of the grounds rehabilitation she initiated at Dodona Manor. She described hiring a forestry man named Brown to take out several dead trees, prune the oaks and elms, thin the shrubs and replant the lilac that had grown as high as the second story of the house. She had someone plow a sloping field in front of the house and seeded it to extend the lawn, and she used the transplanted lilacs and shrubs to form a hedge at the foot of the sloping field. When Marshall returned to Virginia from an important meeting with Winston Churchill in England, he surveyed the improvements Katherine had made and said, “This is Home…a real home after forty-one years of wandering.” 

Dodona was Marshall’s greatest source of respite during World War II. The summer days at his office were long and grueling even when encouraging news from Europe arrived. He and Katherine would spend occasional weekends at Dodona and in the gardens as often as possible. The place became one of comfort and relief to them during the uncertainties and disquietude of wartime. 

Each summer at Dodona, Marshall planned, tilled and planted an impressive garden next to the garage. He took great pride in tending his homegrown spinach, squash, carrots, beans, corn, beets and even Ponderosa tomatoes. Vice President Henry Wallace sent Marshall seeds for a dwarf variety of yellow sweet corn in 1944. The corn did well until the summer heat got the best of it, which turned out to be poor timing when Life magazine came to take photos for one of its September issues.

The photographer asked Marshall to pose in a candid photo, hoeing what was left of his withered corn. The photo spread led many Midwestern farmers to write to Life and the War Department saying, “Marshall might know his business as chief of staff, but he sure knew nothing about corn,” or “What kind of corn is this pathetic looking stuff? He and Vice President Wallace had better come west and look at a crop of real corn.” Life had to explain in a later issue that General Marshall and the vice president were good farmers.

Marshall ordered most of his vegetable and flower seeds from the W. Atlee Burpee Company. He wrote in 1942 to David Burpee, the founder’s son who was president of the company at the time, to thank him for sending a package of zinnia seeds. “The business of seeds and flowers tantalizes me because I have been an amateur gardener, both flower and vegetable, since a boy of ten,” he wrote. “There is nothing I would so much prefer to do this spring as to turn my mind to the wholesome business of gardening rather than the terrible problems and tragedies of war.”

One day in 1944, General “Hap” Arnold, chief of staff of the U.S. Army Air Forces, offered to help the Marshalls in their garden. George and Katherine were on ladders, painting green trim on the house when he arrived, and Marshall had a line of green paint running down his forehead. General Arnold’s chauffeur turned away in embarrassment as Arnold went inside to change out of his immaculate summer uniform into what he called his “work clothes.” When he emerged, he was wearing white clothes. Katherine later found him knee-deep in the compost pile, with his clothes “a sight to behold.” No doubt his “work clothes” were no longer white after that day.

While working in the garden with the sun shining, Marshall often dressed in light clothes and a hat that he was not afraid of getting dirty. This wide-brimmed hat, broken and bent from years of protecting Marshall’s face from the sun, was one of his favorites to wear outside. He is pictured in many a photo wearing it.

If you turn it upside down, you can see it was made by W.M. Paul Brodt of Washington, D.C. Its signature, “Genuine Panama Panacool,” guarantees it will keep the wearer comfortable in the summer heat. On the other side of the band, Marshall’s initials are embossed into the leather, a common sight on many of the general’s hats.

Another useful tool Marshall often used is this Edward Scissorhands-looking object. It is a set of grass shears designed to clip grass near fences, driveways or walls that were missed by the lawn mower. Marshall would have employed this tool to keep the edges of his beds and property trim and tidy. 

In August 1944, Marshall placed an order for flower seeds that cost $3.15. Another order for tomatoes, raspberries, spinach and carrot seeds was placed in 1949 for $4.80. By Katherine’s description, they had “one of the best gardens in Leesburg.” Asparagus, red raspberries, beets, lettuce, spinach, squash, carrots, beans, eggplants, corn and tomatoes would crop up well into August. “Our crop was the wonder of our country neighbors and a source of great pride to my husband,” Katherine claimed. “Only the sweet potatoes and cauliflower failed him, and they had been put in too late because his military duties had conflicted with the planting.”

Today, General Marshall’s garden continues to grow some of the finest vegetables in Leesburg, and we proudly donate what we cultivate to feed our neighbors and support our communities in true Marshall fashion. 

May you find time for what matters, and may your gardens feed your souls as gardening fed George and Katherine in their happy years here.