In Founding Gardeners, Wulf examines the relationship to nature of four founding fathers: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison of Virginia, and John Adams of Massachusetts. In the prologue, she asserts, “The founding fathers’ passion for nature, plants, gardens and agriculture is woven deeply into the fabric of America and aligned with their political thought, both reflecting and influencing it. In fact, I believe, it is impossible to understand the making of America without looking at the founding fathers as farmers and gardeners.”

If there were bumper stickers for horse-drawn carriages in those days, theirs would likely have said, “I’d rather be gardening.” While the founding fathers were away at war or busy governing, their letters revealed a deep longing to return to planning their gardens and working their land. They loved tinkering in their gardens and experimenting with plants. Their aforementioned obsession with manure was rooted in their understanding that tobacco farming was depleting the soil, so they tried different “recipes” for making fertilizer.

More than a pastime or livelihood, the founding fathers’ love of farming and gardening matured into a deeper understanding of humankind’s relationship with nature. Wulf suggests that the “cradle of the environmental movement … could be traced back to the birth of the nation and the founding fathers.” Although James Madison is well known as the father of the Constitution, Wulf also describes him as “the forgotten father of environmentalism” who implored his fellow Americans to stop the destruction of the forests—a remarkable perspective at a time when America’s resources seemed limitless.

After the Revolutionary War, George Washington turned Mount Vernon into what Wulf claims was the first truly American garden, planted only with native species. “He was making a deliberate choice,” she said during the lecture. “He knew that his home would become the most visited place in the U.S.—and it was.” By creating a landscape exclusively designed with plants and trees native to America, Washington was making a bold statement—a botanical declaration of independence from England.