Fairfax County Park Authority's Green Spring Gardens team is pleased to welcome park visitors to enjoy the Moon Gate Garden, funded by gifts made to the Fairfax County Park Foundation. This beloved park is a must-visit public garden and historic site that provides year-round inspiration for home gardeners and for lovers of nature and history. Explore 31 acres, 22 demonstration gardens, a woodland stream valley, and ponds. Green Spring also has a 1784 historic house, changing art exhibits, gift shops, and a plant shop with a wide selection of specimens propagated onsite.
In 1970, most of Green Spring's present-day acreage and the Historic House were donated to FCPA by owners Michael and Belinda Straight, whose family home transformed into a treasured community resource. The Moon Gate Garden project serves as a permanent commemoration of the site's 50th anniversary in the form of a beautiful architectural feature and garden. The Moon Gate Garden site location is indicated with the yellow circle.
The Moon Gate Garden project includes a mix of traditional and modern design concepts to draw visitors into this new Asian-inspired garden. The medium reflects elements of Green Spring's historic landscape, designed by trailblazing garden designer Beatrix Farrand in 1942. Beatrix Farrand's own signature moon gate is an acclaimed feature of the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Garden in Seal Harbor, Maine.
Moon gates originated in ancient Asian gardens. Guests who passed through them were symbolically granted an auspicious welcome and good fortune. In garden design they provide enticing window views or passageways from one space into another, piquing curiosity about what lies beyond. This is a fitting way to celebrate Green Spring's first fifty years, and to look forward to the next. Green Spring's Moon Gate Garden project is now a beautiful place of sanctuary and inspiration for 200,000 annual visitors. It provides a stunning backdrop for photography and events and serves as a symbolic connection between the past and the future.
The Park Authority invites visitors and donors to follow the process of this exciting project. See the Project, Location, Design Concept & Plant Inspiration Board at the Park Authority's Moon Gate Garden Project webpage!
Moon Gate Signature Benefactors, Arlene Evans and Barry Dewberry; Leadership Garden Benefactor, Victor E. Schwartz, Esq.; Garden Benefactors, Friends and Family of Mara Johnston; The Garden Club of Fairfax; The Estate of Helen L. Kafka; Ginny and Walt Pankow; and Robin Walker, in addition to the sponsors listed below made this commemorative project a reality!
Thank you to the thoughtful supporters listed below whose generosity through the Fairfax County Park Foundation helped fund the Moon Gate Garden project at Green Spring Gardens.
Special appreciation is extended to Arlene Evans and Barry Dewberry (pictured) whose substantial support in excess of $500,000 for this stone feature and surrounding landscaping at beautiful Green Spring Gardens! The Moon Gate Garden commemorates 2020, the site's 50th anniversary, in the form of stunning new architectural and horticultural features.
Visitors to FCPA's beautiful Green Spring Gardens are fortunate that our Signature Benefactors stepped up to personally underwrite the Moon Gate Garden stone structure and hardscape. Thank you, Arlene and Barry!
Memorialize Someone Special at the Moon Gate Garden
While the Moon Gate project campaign is complete, funds are being accepted by the Park Foundation to enhance Green Spring Gardens for the plantings that will complete the Moon Gate into a beautiful Garden! Donate $50 or more to add your name or to honor someone special on this list of Giving Tree donors.