Creating a Garden

Creating a Garden. 1825 - present. , The only visible clue we have about the existence of gardens at Liberia comes form a photograph of the house taken in March 1862. Daffodils blooming beside the front walk were natural ornaments that survived the destruction of the Civil War, and signaled that the Weir family likely enjoyed the delights of an ornamental flower., Written references to a garden also exist. Private George Bagby, 11th Virginia Infantry, referenced a garden when recalling his time at Liberia in 1861: At night I would walk out in the garden and brood over the possible result of this slow way of making war. The garden looked toward the battle-field. At times I thought I detected the odor of the carcasses, lightly buried there.... In the early 1900s, when Robert Portner transformed Liberia into a dairy farm, the Roseberrys served as caretakers of the property. In a family history they wrote about the… large and handsome tulpip poplars, a beautiful rose garden and furit trees, and beyond them the family burying ground., The original location of the Weir gardens remained a mystery. A modern garden, planted in 2020, is a nod to this distant past., [Sidebar:] , In 2001, Ms. Ellen Turberville left a gift to the Manassas Museum to finance the Randolph Corbin Turberville Memorial Garden at Liberia. Randy, as he was known, was a supporter of the Museum and loved flowers and gardening. The Virginia Cooperative Extension Master Gardeners (Prince William), Buds n' Roses Garden Club, Manassas Museum Associates, Manassas Garden Club, Manassas Beautification Committee, Manassas Hitosric Resources Board, and many individuals worked diligently to plant the garden seen today. Emphasis was given to native plants common to Virginia, especially those that support pollinators., [Captions:] , The garden at Liberia today is a nod to the original gardens planted for the Weirs. , , Manassas Museum Collection, Liberia, 1862, by George N. Barnard. This Civil War period photograph shows flowers and trees lining the front walk (left). , , Library of Congress, The annual Bee Festival held at Liberia teaches visitors about the importance of gardens, plants, and pollinators (above). , , Manassas Museum Collection