08/19/2026
So thrilled to get a behind the scenes tour of all the gardens in the “Upper Property” of Hagley Museum! Hagley generously donates fresh vegetables to our Lutheran Community Services food pantry. We took the tour with volunteers from the Marian Coffin Gardens at Gibraltar, which also donates vegetables to our food pantry.
So amazing to join our partners today and see where our vegetables come from. Many thanks to Hagley and Marian Coffin Gardens for their ongoing support and to Cat Meholic, director of Gardens and Horticulture, and Monica Messer, horticulturalist, for the tour!
1. Historic greenhouses where almost all Hagley’s plants are propagated. All vegetables and herbs are grown by seed here.
2. E.I. du Pont French potager garden, which combines vegetables, fruits, herbs and flowers in formal geometric design. Each row is a 3-foot block. The garden includes only plants from the 1890s.
3. Blanching pot, which limits photosynthesis to produce sweeter vegetables. Often seen with rhubarb.
4 and 5. Recently renovated 21st-century pollinator garden.
6. Crowninshield Garden, site of the original du Pont powder yards. After a catastrophic explosion in 1890. The yards were relocated. In the 1920, the last du Pont family member to live on the site, Mrs. Louise du Pont Crowninshield, and her husband created an Italianate ruin garden on top of the powder yard ruins. The 4-acre garden is undergoing restoration.
