Georgetown Garden: Nancy Gray Pyne

A journey through this secret garden in the heart of Georgetown takes the visitor up a series of formal terraced gardens and past a number of outbuildings that include a library, two greenhouses, and a freestanding theater. It culminates in a decorative walled vegetable garden. The garden had been assembled over the course of a century or more, but it was given its character in the 1930s as one of the major Washington projects of a pioneering landscape architect named Rose Greely. In 1950, it was redesigned by Perry Wheller. After sixty years, Mrs. Pyne hired F2 Environmental Design, Andrea Filippone and Eric T. Fleischer in 2011 to totally renovate the soil and the boxwood garden. The main terrace is a walled garden perched above the house. Its most animated feature, a geometric fountain, is aligned with both the rear entrance of the house and, at right angles to it, a rectangular lawn framed by a path and boxwood plantings. The upper garden functions as its own formal garden of shrubs and small trees, as well as an entrance for the theater, known as the playhouse, and the larger greenhouse (and potting shed). The upper garden is also a place of paths. One leads to a parking lot at the end of an alley. Another passes a long boxwood walk that leads past a fenced swimming pool, which was once an ornamental garden and, later, a tennis court. The vegetable garden is bounded by more brick walls and by the back of the garage and a cedar fence. The bluestone hardscape was designed by Washington Post garden writer Adrian Higgins. The space, sixty feet by thirty feet, also contains the second greenhouse built by Nancy Pyne’s husband, Gordon Gray, who was a passionate orchid grower. The garden focuses on boxwood;  there are eleven different cultivars highlighted in this garden.

Directions: The garden is located between M and N Streets in the historic neighborhood of Georgetown.

Open Days 2018: June 10
Hours: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Admission to this garden is $7 for members and nonmembers without tickets purchased in advance.

Buy discounted admission tickets in advance! They can be used at most Open Days to make garden visiting easier.
Nonmembers get 6 visits for the price of 5 with advanced ticket book purchase.  
Members get 50% off ONLY by purchasing ticket books in advance.

Digging Deeper programs at Georgetown Garden—Nancy Gray Pyne:
12 p.m.: Boxwood for the Future with Andrea Filipone & Eric T. Fleischer of F2 Environmental Design. Registration details here.
1 p.m.: Compost Tea for Healthy Soil and Healthy Gardens with Andrea Filipone & Eric T. Fleischer of F2 Environmental Design. Registration details here.