U.S. Botanic Garden now Part of the U.S. Capitol Fortress

By Susan Harris|2021-03-03T17:38:32-05:00March 3, 2021|6 Comments

This is as close as I could get to the U.S. Botanic Garden today, with all of it now fenced in and heavily guarded. You can barely see the white USBG sign in the middle of this shot.

While most of the USBG gardens have been closed completely for a year, we could still roam the outdoor gardens around the conservatory and enjoy all of Bartholdi Park. Until January 6, that is.

View of the Capitol from the west today.

Residents of DC, especially those near the Capitol, are lobbying hard for the fence’s removal and I sympathize even more after seeing the extent of the fencing – covering many more city blocks than just the Capitol grounds.

Here’s hoping that after tomorrow, about which there are new security threats, this city can get back to normal.

By Susan Harris|2021-03-03T17:38:32-05:00March 3, 2021|6 Comments

About the Author: Susan Harris

Susan’s a garden writer, teacher and activist in the Washington, D.C. area. Co-founder of GardenRant, she also wrote for national gardening magazines and independent garden centers before retiring in 2014. Now she has time for these projects:

Founding the pro-science educational nonprofit Good Gardening Videos that finds and promotes the best videos on YouTube for teaching people to garden.
Creating DC Gardens, the nonprofit campaign to promote the public gardens of the Washington, D.C. area, and gardening by locals.
Creating and editing the nonprofit website Greenbelt Online to serve her adopted hometown of Greenbelt, Maryland (a “New Deal Utopia” founded in 1937). She’s also on the Board of Greenbelt Access TV.

Susan rants about anything that misinforms or discourages gardeners – from old-school quacks to mistaken do-gooders to local laws that mandate conformity.

Contact Susan via email or by leaving a comment on one of her articles.

6 Comments

Debra Lueger March 3, 2021 at 6:52 pm

These GD red hat hillbillies should all be exiled from the USA, they’re terrorists, every GD one.
Susan Krobusek March 3, 2021 at 11:12 pm

Trumpeteers are why we can’t have nice things.
Tara Dillard March 4, 2021 at 7:49 am

Hope the staff still employed.

What a world. A major garden, held hostage.

Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
Diane from CO March 4, 2021 at 2:17 pm

Agree 110% with Tara, Susan and Debra. It’s tragic, it’s a disgrace, worst of all, it was ALL avoidable.
Just waiting for those 2 grumpy trumpies to come on and whine that a gardening site shouldn’t be political. Wink.
Thanks Susan H. for the update.
Jessica March 4, 2021 at 3:55 pm

What a sad shame and another casualty of Jan.6th. I hope the grounds can be freed asap.
hb March 4, 2021 at 7:49 pm

Sadly, this may be the new version of “normal”.