We are looking for volunteers who can make a once-a-week commitment. Shifts take place on weekdays from 8:30 am - 12:00 pm with a coffee and snack break at 10 am. Volunteers assist staff in five garden areas:
1. E.I. du Pont Garden: located directly in front of the Eleutherian Mills residence – the ancestral home of the du Pont family. The garden is just under two acres with branched antique pear, apple, and peach trees, crocuses, jonquils, hyacinths, tulips, purple and white lilacs, oriental poppy, zinnias, heirloom vegetables, and more. Volunteers will assist with weeding, harvesting, mulching, planting, watering, staking, and processing produce for donation.
2. Pollinator Garden: Located near the Hagley barn, the pollinator garden at Hagley is designed to be a low-maintenance garden and education space with ever-changing interpretation of pollinators and host plants. Volunteers will assist with weeding, planting, deadheading, mulching, pruning, watering, and general tidying.
3. Cut Flower Garden: Filled with historically accurate blooms, the flowers in this garden are used to create arrangements throughout the property. Volunteers will assist with weeding, harvesting, planting, watering, processing produce for donations, staking, pruning, and tidying up plants.
4. Workers Garden: Over the 120 years that the Du Pont powder yards were in operation on the Brandywine, thousands of workers from diverse backgrounds lived and worked in communities that surrounded the yards. Here Irish, French, Italian, and English immigrants worked side-by-side with members of the du Pont family to make this business a success. Today, the garden at the Hagley Worker Community grows historically accurate vegetables and flowers. Volunteers will assist with weeding, harvesting, planting, watering, processing produce for donations, staking, pruning, and tidying up plants.
5. Crowninshield Industrial Ruin Garden: The Crowninshield Garden is unique among American garden landscapes. In its current form, it is a maintained ruin of a 1920s ruin garden, built on top of the industrial ruins of a 19th century gun powder factory. It is a ruin within a ruin with a ruin. Volunteers must start in other areas of the Hagley gardens before working in the Crowninshield Garden. Volunteers must follow instructions given by supervisor and wear the provided PPE or provide their own (eye and hearing protection). This is predominantly invasive removal on uneven terrain with exposure to stinging nettle and poison ivy. Interested volunteers will complete safety training for this position.
