Editing Mount Vernon (section)

=== Grounds ===
[[File:Mount Vernon Mansion East Front.jpg|alt=East Front of George Washington's Mansion|thumb|The eastern façade facing the [[Potomac River]]]]
[[File:GW_Gardens.jpg|thumb|The geometric garden at Mount Vernon]]
The gardens and grounds contain English [[Buxus|boxwoods]], taken from cuttings sent by Major General [[Henry Lee III]] a [[Governor of Virginia]] and the father of [[Robert E. Lee]], which were planted in 1786 by George Washington and now crowd the entry path. A carriage road skirts a grassy [[bowling green]] to approach the mansion entrance. To each side of the green is a garden contained by red brick walls. These [[Colonial Revival garden]]s{{sfnp|Griswold|Foley|1999|p=124|ps=}} grew the household's vegetables, fruit and other perishable items for consumption. The upper garden, located to the north, is bordered by the greenhouse.<ref name="gardens">{{cite web|title=Gardens |url=http://www.mountvernon.org/learn/explore_mv/index.cfm/ss/30/ |publisher=Mountvernon.org |access-date=8 August 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110729025900/http://www.mountvernon.org/learn/explore_mv/index.cfm/ss/30 |archive-date=29 July 2011 }}</ref> [[Ha-ha]] walls are used to separate the working farm from the pleasure grounds that Washington created for his family and guests.<ref name="10 facts" /> The overseer's quarter, spinning room, salt house, and gardener's house are between the upper garden and the mansion.

The lower garden, or southern garden, is bordered on the east by the storehouse and clerk's quarters, smokehouse, wash house, laundry yard, and coach house. A paddock and stable are on the southern border of the garden; east of them, a little down the hillside, is the icehouse. The original tomb is located along the river. The newer tomb in which the bodies of George and Martha Washington have rested since 1831 is south of the fruit garden; the slave burial ground is nearby, a little farther down the hillside. A "Forest Trail" runs through woods down to a recreated pioneer farm site on low ground near the river; the {{convert|4|acre|m2|adj=on}} working farm includes a re-creation of Washington's 16-sided treading barn.<ref name="barn">{{cite web|title=Sixteen-Sided Barn |url=http://www.mountvernon.org/learn/explore_mv/index.cfm/sss/76/ |publisher=Mountvernon.org |access-date=8 August 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110828225531/http://www.mountvernon.org/learn/explore_mv/index.cfm/sss/76/ |archive-date=28 August 2011 }}</ref>

A museum and education center are on the grounds and exhibit examples of Washington's survey equipment, weapons, and clothing, and the  dentures worn by Washington as the first [[President of the United States|U.S. president]]. In 2013, the [[Fred W. Smith National Library for the Study of George Washington]] opened on Mount Vernon;<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.mountvernon.org/library/about-the-library/|title=About the Library|website=George Washington's Mount Vernon|access-date=15 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160315234903/http://www.mountvernon.org/library/about-the-library/|archive-date=15 March 2016|url-status=live}}</ref> the library, which is open for scholarship by appointment only, fosters new scholarship about George Washington and safeguards original Washington books and manuscripts.