History of Sotterley's Garden

There is virtually no existing information about the first gardens at Sotterley. There are no early written records referring to a garden. Early plantation inventories of 1727 and 1802 do list some garden implements: garden shears, watering pots, weeding hoes, an old wheelbarrow, and a roller which was likely used to created walkways in a garden. We know that the devastation of the Civil War and its aftermath obliterated virtually everything that had existed on the grounds of the plantation. After the war, when Sotterley's slaves were freed, the Briscoe family no longer had the hands, nor the need, to restore and maintain extensive working gardens.

Still, we can guess at the type of gardens that must have existed at Sotterley prior to the Civil War. Sotterley was a working plantation, a self-sufficient community. Like other plantations, Sotterley surely raised most of its own food and had means for storing and preserving foods for the winter. Sotterley's early gardens were extensive and mainly utilitarian. Vegetables, herbs, fruits, nuts, and berries were of utmost importance. Although flowers were certainly grown, they were not the most important plants.

However, at a beautiful place like Sotterley, occupied by wealthy families with servants, flowers surely were a part of the garden plan. There may have been lilac hedges, walkways, and flower beds overlooking the gorgeous view of the Patuxent River. Some have suggested that the expansive, sloping front lawn could have been a series of planted terraces falling towards the river.

Sotterley's garden history really dates from 1910 when Herbert L. Satterlee, who had married the daughter of a New York banker, J. Pierpont Morgan, purchased Sotterley from the Briscoe family. At that time, Sotterley was in a state of physical and financial neglect, with few large trees and no gardens. We do not know whether one could even tell where the gardens had been.

Mr. Satterlee called in experts to advise on the restoration of Sotterley. A landscape architect laid out a plan for a driveway, kitchen entrance, walks, and a garden. Under the Satterlee's direction, he designed a typical 18th century garden on the northwest side of the house. The garden was based on four large squares bordered by boxwood hedges and grass walkways. One square was a croquet and play lawn, one for row crops such as corn and potatoes, another as a kitchen garden, and the final square contained an herb garden and a cutting garden to provide flowers for the manor house. In addition, ten separate flower beds occupied the river side of the garden. This is the plan that Sotterley's volunteer Garden Guild works from today -- an early 20th century vision of an 18th century garden.

Sotterley's Garden Plan

The garden designed for the Satterlees in 1910 was a re-creation of an 18th century garden, one that would have been typical of Sotterley at that time. It was to include a vegetable garden, an herb garden, and the fruit and nut trees that would have been so important in colonial times. Also like a garden of that era, it was to be aesthetically pleasing, with and array of flowering plants.

The landscape artist used the original brick "necessary" at the northeast end as his starting point. He balanced this by adding an identical brick building, to be used as a garden tool shed, at the opposite end of the brick wall.

The "skeleton" of the garden is a large square, divided into four smaller squares by a boxwood hedge walkway through the middle, with grass walkways around all sides. The space is bordered by an extensive brick wall on the north end, the manor house lawn on the south end, a picket fence and flowering shrub border on the west end, and a magnificent view of the Patuxent River on the east end.

Each of the four garden squares had a distinct purpose. The southwest square has always been a grassed area to serve as a croquet lawn and a place for children's games.

The southeast square was originally planted with rows of larger crops -- corn, pumpkins, potatoes, etc., and was bordered on two sides with pear trees. Today this square is in grass with some of the original fruit trees remaining.

The northeast square was originally a kitchen garden for the house, planted with typical vegetables -- tomatoes, beans, eggplant, etc, plus rows of strawberries and asparagus. Today, half of this square is a cutting garden to supply flower arrangements for the manor house. We grow specific flowers suitable for cutting and with the colors of the manor house's rooms in mind. The other half of this square is partly nursery beds and partly beds for Sotterley's beautiful blue flags (old-fashioned irises).

In addition to the four garden squares, there are 10 separate flower beds on the east end of the garden. These ten beds have always been flower beds. We grow flowers typical of the period. Many of the flowers were originally selected by Mrs. Satterlee, including chrysanthemums, poppies, columbines, bleeding heart, and portulaca. Two of the beds are rose beds, one planted with several descendants of Mrs. Satterlee's heritage roses. Another bed is planted with fall-color mums and the remainder are filled with various annuals, flowering shrubs, and bulbs. The long brick wall is bordered by a row of peonies, originally planted by the Satterlees more than 80 years ago.

Sotterley's Seasonal Bloom List

Other features of the garden are:

(1) A central stone Venetian well, topped with a structure of filigreed wrought iron.

(2) A small Children's Garden tucked into the northeast corner.

(3) A grape arbor with an oriental influence and with a stone bench beneath.

(4) A large, English-made, slate sundial that dates from about 1925 and was a gift to Mr. Satterlee. It stands on a pedestal which bears the coats-of-arms of the families that have lived at Sotterley, the Platers, the Briscoes, and Satterlees.

(5) A beekeeping and tool display in the brick tool shed.

Sotterley's garden is listed in the Mid-Atlantic Directory for Beautiful Gardens and has been featured in a number of gardening magazines and television programs. The garden is maintained by Sotterley's Garden Guild, a group of dedicated volunteers.