Coming Soon to Oak Spring Garden Foundation
Written by Diane Helentjaris
One of Rachel “Bunny” Mellon’s final gifts to the world was the Oak Spring Garden Foundation. Dedicated to carrying on her love of horticulture and garden design, OSGF is headquartered on the site of Mellon’s home, Oak Springs. It’s a rolling piece of the Piedmont surrounded by Blue Ridge and Bull Run mountains under a wide canopy of sky. The bucolic landscape offers a variety of unique programs and activities for all ages, partners with local organizations, and has some exciting events and updates around the corner. Here’s what’s coming up:
September 6: Butterfly Walk and Monarch Tagging
Spend a morning rambling and exploring the world of butterflies with entomologist Dr. Rea Manderino. As part of the national Monarch Watch citizen science program, participants will learn to handle and tag monarch butterflies. They will record their information and later be able to find out if their butterflies were found in Mexico.
September 27: Second Annual Rokeby Community Festival
This event offers nature-oriented fun for all ages, including a scavenger hunt, hay bale competition, and — in a departure from the usual corn field — a sorghum maze. Educational offerings include booths from local environmental groups, plant talks, and field walks. Craft market stalls, food trucks, local libations, and live music will keep attendees entertained. Admission is free for children 12 and under.
Threads of Oak Spring: 2026 Quilters Competition
Next year, up to 18 quilters will be invited to Oak Spring for guided tours of the estate and the rare book library and to view fabric acquired by Bunny Mellon. Two crafters will be invited to design original quilts incorporating a selection of this fabric. The deadline to apply for this international competition is November 18, 2025.
Big News: Transformation of the Children’s Garden
Across from her home and down a long lane, Bunny Mellon raised flowers to fill her vases, freshen her table, and adorn her home. She nurtured varieties in a walled garden and, in greenhouses, coaxed bulbs to bloom early. The walls that protected them from wind and nibbling wildlife still stand.
This garden has evolved into the Children’s Garden. Rows of indigo grow where Mellon once had her flowers; children use it to create a natural blue dye. Rows of lettuce, left to bolt to a height of two feet, are capped with tendrils holding tiny seeds. Kids harvest these seeds and learn to properly preserve them.
The children have fun and learn in the garden while attending Oak Spring’s Summer Plant Camps, school field trips, and other programs. Ginger Anderson, OSGF’s education and outreach specialist, heads the team responsible for these activities. Anderson grew up on a dairy farm in the Shenandoah Valley, graduated from Virginia Tech, and taught middle school agricultural education for 15 years. She exudes enthusiasm and expertise when it comes to plants and kids.
She explains that the garden is undergoing change, describing it as “an intensification of our efforts to make it child-friendly… [It] has been an amazing space for us.”
To make this happen, the Foundation has tapped Omega, a Middleburg-based construction company.
Owners Megan and Mackie Jenkins, both of whom grew up in the area, attribute a certain poignancy to this assignment. “Both of our daughters attend the plant camp there every summer, and I think it’s really cool that their dad gets to build it,” says Megan.
“Now it will be ADA accessible, and I’m really excited about that,” Mackie says. “We’re most excited to be continuing Bunny Mellon’s wishes — to actually be digging in her topsoil. I’m sure she would be ecstatic to hear what’s going on.”
Megan says Omega is dedicated to building “structures and landscapes where memories are made.” According to Mackie, the plan for the Children’s Garden is to widen pathways originally created for adults and increase open space to accommodate rambunctious, energetic children and wheelchairs. Sinks, display cubbies, work benches, raised beds, and a wheelchair ramp are being built. A large, covered pergola, to give a reprieve from the sun, is in the works. Local fieldstone will meld seamlessly with the original hardscape. A portion of the area will continue as a cutting garden.
Mackie emphasizes that he is “personally excited to be part of the local history of Upperville … to allow more kids from different cultures and [with] different needs to [participate], and to continue to educate youth in horticulture.”
The Foundation’s outreach to children extends beyond the walled garden. Free programs are scheduled throughout the year in collaboration with local libraries and schools.
“We’re all doing this together for kids to make life better, to give them a chance to get back into nature, to explore,” Anderson says. “I just love seeing kids rediscover it. [They are] so used to screens and phones.” At OSGF, they “get to care about the environment… It’s good for their wellness overall to be exposed to this. I love the Foundation.” ML
Learn more about the Oak Spring Garden Foundation at osgf.org, and visit omegalandscapeconstruction.com for more information on Omega.
Featured photo, left to right: Mackie Jenkins of Omega Construction; Ginger Anderson, Skip Glascock, and Natalie Carver of OSGF; and Jennifer Horn and Allie Connell of Horn & Co. Photo by Shannon Ayres.
Published in the September 2025 issue of Middleburg Life.