Visit the Home Garden

The home garden is open daily and during the growing season, you will likely find our horticulturists and volunteers planting, weeding, and harvesting. In the garden you will encounter vegetables that were historically grown for the Roosevelt table, learn about the importance of soil conservation, pick up ideas and tips for growing your own vegetables, and learn about the park's ongoing efforts to fully restore this once lost historic feature of the estate.

Produce from the Roosevelt Home Garden is delivered to the Dutchess Outreach Mobile Fresh Market. The home garden is certified by the Produce Safety Alliance and follows best practices for harvest and storage of produce from the garden to ensure that we are sending safe food to the market. The Market distributes local, farm fresh fruits and vegetables to residents of the City of Poughkeepsie. The goal of the mobile market is to increase access to locally grown food for Poughkeepsie residents, regardless of social status or income. The great variety of vegetables grown by the Roosevelts enliven the market and is highly appreciated by customers.

Details

Duration

15-30 Minutes

Activity

Self-Guided Tours - Walking

Pets Allowed

No

Contact the park for policies regarding service animals.

Activity Fee

No

Entrance fees may apply, see Fees & Passes information.

Location

Home Garden

Reservations

No

Season

Spring, Summer, Fall

Time of Day

Day

• Home Garden Audio Tour Stop 113

  
  

  Welcome to the Garden
  Audio Transcript

  Welcome to the vegetable garden at the home of Franklin Roosevelt. FDR cherished his home in Hyde Park, and the Home Garden was an important piece of his upbringing. As a child, Franklin D. Roosevelt spent ample time in the garden — in his address at the cornerstone laying for the presidential library, he fondly recalled savoring sun-ripened strawberries and climbing the Seckel pear tree at the garden’s edge.

  This garden and the rest of the Springwood estate were managed by FDR’s mother, Sara Roosevelt. William Plog, the Roosevelt’s gardener, maintained the garden — his house is visible just beyond the southwest corner of the fence. His journals provide a record of the crops grown here during the Roosevelts’ time. The produce in this garden fed the Roosevelt family and their staff. The garden itself was an integral part of family life here at Springwood; it is frequently mentioned in letters between the Roosevelts. Even when the Roosevelts weren’t staying at Springwood, they made sure that they were still eating Home Garden produce. They would ship the produce from their garden to their property in Campobello, to New York, and to FDR at school in Massachusetts.

  The Home Garden is not technically a Victory Garden — it preceded the Victory Garden movement. However, growing up in this garden likely shaped FDR’s ideals of sustainability, and shaped his encouragement of the grow-your-own movement in the 1940s.

  Please proceed down the main path to the center of the garden.

• Home Garden Audio Tour Stop 114

  
  

  Home Garden History
  Audio Transcript

  The Roosevelts' greenhouse is visible to your left, on the southern side of the garden. It was used for flower and vegetable propagation, and it housed roses for cut flowers. The ice house stands to the right of the greenhouse, and the hemlock hedge nearby surrounds the rose garden and presidential gravesite. Just beyond the greenhouse and ice house are the stables, the coach house, and the Roosevelt family home.

  When the Roosevelts bought this property, vegetables and flowers were both grown in the area inside the hemlock hedge. The Roosevelts were only a family of three, but the garden continuously expanded throughout their time here, even after Franklin’s father passed away and FDR was away at school. Eventually, the vegetable garden moved outside the boundary of the hedge and expanded to the area it occupies today.

  In 1948, the Home Garden was replaced with a parking lot for both the National Historic Site and the Presidential Library. This lot improved public access to both sites, but it did so at the cost of an important piece of Roosevelt history. The acquisition of the Bellefield property in 1975 allowed the national archives to break ground for the Visitor Center in 2001, relocating the parking lot and reestablishing the Home Garden in its original location.

  Demolition of the parking lot began in 2002, and groundbreaking for the Home Garden as you see it today occurred in 2015. Restoring the Home Garden remains an ongoing project as park horticulturists work to undo the soil compaction that occurred here. Although the garden is designed to replicate the Roosevelts’ garden at Springwood as closely as possible, some adjustments have been made to ensure the health and accessibility of the garden, including deer fencing around its perimeter and porous pavement paths.

  Wherever possible, this garden contains heirloom varieties grown by the Roosevelts. However, these crops are grown using modern organic practices that may look different from what would have been here during the Roosevelts’ time. You may see bug traps, black biodegradable film, white row cover, and plants sprayed with kaolin clay, all of which are used to combat current pest pressures.

  Please proceed to the end of the garden to continue the tour.

• Home Garden Audio Tour Stop 115

  
  

  The Home Garden Today
  Audio Transcript

  The Small Space Garden Exhibit to your left showcases a variety of methods for growing your own food at home. The Roosevelts firmly believed that every American citizen should have access to the health benefits and the joy of a garden; growing your own produce exemplifies the “freedom from want” put forth in Franklin Roosevelt’s Four Freedoms speech in 1941. Although the Roosevelts believed that American citizens should have the fulfilling experience of growing their own produce, they were privileged to have the ample land, resources, and staff needed to maintain this large garden. The Small Space Garden Exhibit provides examples of gardening techniques that can be used even with limited space, resources, and time. Feel free to explore this exhibit by dialing in to stops on the audio tour, which are posted by the individual displays inside the exhibit. We credit volunteer Al Rubins with many of the clever ideas seen here today.

  Volunteers bring their talent and energy to all of the gardens at the Roosevelt-Vanderbilt National Historic Site. In this garden, volunteers help plant, maintain, and harvest crops. The produce grown here is donated by our partner, the Franklin D. Roosevelt Hyde Park Foundation, to Dutchess Outreach in the city of Poughkeepsie. In addition to being a food resource, this garden is used for a variety of educational programs, and is free and open for the public to enjoy.