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M16 Women in Stems · Two Tools, No Clue

• Jeidan and Anna: Hey everyone. Welcome to the Two Tools No Clue Podcast. I'm Anna. And I'm Jeidan And on today's minisode, mini but great! We have no clue about landladies. What, like landlady as in landlord? We have no clue. We're about to find out together. So fasten your tool belts. So this topic is based on an article from the 2026 edition of the old farmer's almanac, which we discussed last week. If you haven't listened to that episode, go check it out. Minds were blown. This article is called Land Ladies by Susan Peery Quote, landscape design history is dominated by the stories of men. Yet these long established gardens were and still are the provenance of pioneering women. End quote. So now that you know that we're talking about like genuine land and gardens, what do you think of when you think of the land ladies? I think of mole people. No, I was gonna say I just think of like the original settlers, like, you know, throw back to the first episodes. Like those those types of women. gotta get it done. Someone's gotta do it, so she's gonna do it. Not as hardcore, more more flowery than that. But yeah, you're on the right. So like Martha Stewart pretty much. Martha's a G. Okay. Don't get it twisted. Anyway. Today I'm gonna introduce you to seven influential ladies of the gardening world. Ooh, okay. So we start this episode with two badass ladies, Beatrix Farrand and Mildred Bliss. What names? I know, right? Like this is in 2026? No, they're from the nineteen hundreds. Okay, sorry. Never mind. Still baddies. The article is from 2026 Sorry, okay. Still baddies. Their friendship and professional relationship were built over thirty years of building and developing gardens together at Dumberton Oaks in Washington, DC. Very cool. Very cool. In 1920 it was bought by Mildred and Robert Woods Bliss, and they're actually the ones who named it Dumbarton Oaks. It was previously the Rock of Dumberton Grant, and then later renamed The oaks, so they just combined the two. Interesting. Still very fancy. I'm not sure how many acres the property was originally, but the Blisses expanded the grounds by another fifty-four acres. wow. This is around the time Mildred hired landscape architect Beatrix Farrand. She worked closely with Mildred in transforming the land into rolling terraced gardens. And do you know what a terraced garden is? Gardens with terraces in them. Yeah, but do you know what a terrace is? what things grow up. No. That's a trellis. Terraces are like those ninety degree ledges usually packed with rocks and they go down. I was gonna do an art or an episode about that. okay. But it's like you know those like screensavers of like Indonesia or wherever and it's like steps in the hills. Those are terraced gardens. So for those watching on YouTube, here is the site plan for Dumbarton Oaks when Mildred and Beatrix were working together. So for those just listening, it is bustling. There is 29 sections. Holy crap. There's a little key off to the side. I'm just gonna read the things we've got going on for those just listening. There is a copse, which is apparently a thicket or growth of small trees. There is the North Section, Cedar Terrace, French Steps, North Court, Hornbeam Ellipse, Camellia Circle, Kitchen Garden, Flower Garden, Swimming Pool, Crab Apple Hill, Plum Walk, Pebble Garden, Fox Walk, Herbaceous Border, Orchard, Goat Trail. Beach Terrace, a goat trip. Sorry. Azalea Garden, Green Terrace, Rose Terrace, Fern Terrace, Wisteria Arbor, Herb Terrace, Fountain Terrace, Melisandes allee Apparently, an allee is a tree-lined avenue. Something called the Terrier. And then Lover's Lane. Pool, oolala. And the Lovers Lane screen planting. And screen planting is basically like a living wall. Usually it's an evergreen hedge at least six feet high planted in such a way that it will block the line of sight. That is so cool. So that is what is on the site plan. This sorry, go ahead. How big is this again? At least fifty four acres. Okay, so we need way more acreage to pull us out. my god, are you kidding me? I just also want to state that there is something on here that they did not list and I was was waiting patiently and it is called the Acorn house. And it's like just all the way out there. I didn't even see that. And I think it's so cool. They have a bunch of things that are on here too that aren't really listed. there's a museum, I don't know what of. And a greenhouse. And the director's house. And a cottage. And a it looks like it says cool house and then tool house right next to it. And then there's a storage house and then all the way out there in the corner there's a little thing called the Acorn And I wonder if it's a tree house. That'd be cute. Yeah, I didn't include any of the the buildings. I just did the like there's the natural element. Sorry, yeah. I just think it's really cool. The layout of it is very impressive as well. Very thought out. Yeah. So this is a quote from the landlady's article in the almanac. Oakdom, as Farron nicknamed the site, has blazes of Forsynthia and Wisteria, as well as forest glades and subdued palettes. the duo created a garden distinguished by vistas, with Bliss writing about Farron's direction. She listened to the light and wind and grade of each area. End quote. Today, Dumbarton Oaks is an institute of Harvard University and was formerly known as the Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection. Very cool. It's a research center that focuses on Byzantine, Byzantine, and pre-Columbian studies and history of landscape and architecture. That is very cool. Fun fact: women continue to lead in the care and development of the gardens. If you'd like to visit Dumbarton Oaks and explore their sprawling grounds, they are open afternoons, Tuesdays through Sunday, year round, and adult admission is fifteen dollars per person during the regular season and free ninety nine on the off season, which is November through February. We need to go. So our next badass landlady literally flew a small plane to find her perfect garden plot. Wow. We're talking about Marion Beck. And for some reason the name Marion just seems so fitting for someone who goes the extra mile to go airborne to find their perfect plot of land. For some reason. I really thought you were gonna say Amelia Earhart And I was like, no way. my god. She was an air lady and a landlady. Anyway, go ahead. No, Marion Beck. So from the sky, she spotted a piece of land that is now Innisfree Gardens in Millbrook, New York. Okay, but hold on. Can you imagine a time you're just like, I'm gonna go find a piece of land. I'm gonna get in my airplane. Yeah. Whatever one I want is what I get. hello, the American Dream. I mean, all these ladies were not impoverished. Yeah. They were well to do. Yeah. Very much. At least they did all have it. But quite a bit of I just wanna state that. Like it's not like we could all get in an airplane and be like, That right there, that's gonna be my garden. Yeah. That's not how that works no. So a picture perfect one hundred and eighty-five acre strolling garden drawing inspiration from Chinese and Japanese garden design was slowly crafted. Strolling garden? Fun fact, Beck also purchased the property in 1920 So apparently the rolling twenties was a prime time to get real estate if you were a woman. hey I have another question though. Like these properties now are they considered state parks or are they privately funded? it depends on which one. okay. So the original inspiration for the Chinese Japanese design came from an eighth century scroll painting which depicted the garden of poet and painter Wang Wei. Marion and her husband, and that's the other thing. It's not just like these ladies are buying this land. Like they all have these husbands attached to them too. So it's not as progressive as we're probably thinking. Have you ever been in a Chinese garden before? No, I don't think so. They're like genuinely out of this world. they do transport you to another time. It's little How so? So the one that I went to was smack dab in the middle of downtown Sydney, Australia. Weird. Right by the harbor. Everything super echoey down there. You know what I mean? But when you went inside of there, it was just like I don't know, you were like literally transported into a different world. I don't know how else to explain it. You're just walking through like I feel like it's 'cause everything's so thought out. Yeah. And so everything is mindful intentional. Yeah. And it was just really weird. I just I don't know. I thought I just was wondering if we've ever been in one. No. It feels like there's gotta be one in New York City somewhere. Probably. Marion and her husband Walter hired landscape architect Lester Collins to develop the dreamlike gardens as well as the stonework, waterfalls, and small vistas. Together they created cup gardens, a term coined by Walter Beck, which are small gardens that depict individual scenes and are surrounded by an enclosure. Kind of like a courtyard for example. While Lester is not a landlady, he did go on to chair Harvard's landscape architecture program, which weirdly parallels our last story because Dumbarton Oaks is associated with Harvard. Weird. Okay. Lester is actually the one who transformed the originally private garden into a public one after the Beck's death in the late 1950s I don't think this one's a national park, but there is one on this list that is now a national park. cool. The site map for Innisfree is absolutely massive. It goes around basically half of a large lake. So here it is for our viewers. Whoa. And for our listeners, the garden is made up of a waterfall, shell rock bridge, the terraces, north lawn and meadow, Yarimizu, aka a winding garden stream. cool. The Meadow, Heather Hill, East Rock Garden, Bog Pond, Kwan Yin Path and Bog, The Overlook, Picnic Area, East Meadow, The Cottage, Smoke Trees, Sentry Sugar Maples, Water Sculpture, and Hemlock Woods. Wow. That's huge. Yeah. This kind of reminds me of the parking area that they were trying to make out in Colorado, remember when we went around the lake? No. Now a lot of it was under construction kind of. I don't remember that at all. don't remember walking around the lake in Colorado. walking around it, yeah. Yeah. They had all that stuff that was under construction and they like making spots. So At least you remember walking around it. But yeah, isn't that a huge ass lake? Hundred and eighty-five acres of garden. That is a huge lake. And you can see now why she was flying to find this land. Lucky lucky. So back to our ladies. Kate Kerin is currently the landscape curator for Innisfree Gardens and has held the position since 2013 This is a quote from the Land Ladies article in the almanac. Karen describes Innisfree as cinematic, a space that is very much about our body's emotion, experiencing the garden's narrative. taking two steps can completely change what something looks like, and that's on purpose. So like you were saying, it's like everything is intentional. It's like you know it That's a really w really good way to put it. It's like how like in a museum everything makes you stop. Right. even if as you're walking into the room, as you're making your first glance, you're like not that impressed. As you get up close, the majority of the paintings you're looking at, you're like, Whoa. Yeah. My favorite are the ones that are like in the center of the room so you can walk all the way around them. Three sixty. Yeah. Innisfree is open late April through mid November and weekends only after mid October. Adult admission is $11.84 per person. That's so specific. There was like tax. So that's including the tax. I'm not gonna lie to you. It was like ten bucks per person, but then a dollar eighty four in tax. To the tax man, damn. Sierra Sierra. I said syrup. So syrup. Yeah. I was like, what? Sarah Pearson Duke and Ellen Biddle Shipman are our next two landladies. Sarah Pearson Duke was the spouse of tobacco tycoon Benjamin N. Duke. So again, none of these ladies are struggling. Let's just put it like that. They're bored, is what it sounds like. Yeah, exactly. Housewives of rich men is it's what is going on here. Housewives of the 1920s? Yeah. And you know, only helped design the campus of North Carolina's Duke University. Ooh, NBD, NBD. Which is also named after them, apparently. okay. I don't know if it's them or their ancestors, but they're definitely associated with this. Especially if she's designing the campus. Yeah, I think it was them. So when her husband died, he donated twenty thousand dollars to establish a garden in Sarah's name, which believe it or not, began in a debris filled ravine. Twenty thousand dollars back then, I bet that's That is true right now. Twenty thousand dollars in nineteen thirty is equivalent to purchasing power of about four hundred and one thousand dollars today. Half a mil. Wow. That's insane. That is insane. Thank you for having me look that up. That's crazy. That's a lot of money. Yeah. For a frickin' garden. Yeah. That's also why like when old people are yelling about like saving money, it's like, bitch, go away. Like you have no idea. You literally spent a dollar to get your house. Seriously. Seriously. Sorry. The ravine was originally going to be turned into a lake, but the project ran out of funds. Imagine that. So this is where Ellen Biddle Shipman came into the equation. I can't get over this lady's last name. Biddle Shipman. Yeah. Little Shitman. Yeah. That's all I hear. Little Shitman. Poor lady. Sorry. I did not think that. That's the first thing and the only thing I've been thinking about. So Ellen was able to turn a debris-filled ravine into a 55-acre garden with five miles of winding paths, allees roses, native plants, and historic collection, as well as other specialties like East Asian plants. And I swear to God, these Influential landladies are probably a huge reason why we have so many invasive plants. I was waiting for you to say this garden because like why are you bringing all these sh all the shit from fucking Asia? To have a strolling garden, of course. Like just plant natives. I'm like it's anyway. How long are we in? It took you twenty four minutes and six seconds. I was waiting for this. Point specifically because it specifically mentions that they had collections like East Asian plants. I'm so proud of you. Anyway. the first flower beds were laid in 1934, and by 1935, there were allegedly over 100 flower beds containing 40,000 irises, 25,000 daffodils. And ten thousand small bug bulbs and assorded annuals. Wow. Unfortunately, heavy rains that summer washed away much of the progress, and when Sarah died in 1936 the gardens were essentially in a state of disrepair. Dr. Frederick Moore Haynes, allegedly the same man who convinced the Dukes to donate four hundred and one thousand dollars, aka twenty thousand dollars for the original garden. he convinced Sarah's daughter, Mary Duke Biddle, to finance a new garden on higher ground as a memorial to her mom. So this guy's like skeezy. Yeah. Like what the fuck your mom's dead now, you need to pay for this. Exactly. It's for her. This is your university. Gotta make it look nice, apparently. And just so everyone knows, I did look into it, but I couldn't find any relation between the daughter and Ellen with their shared last name of of Biddle. I thought that maybe the daughter had married Ellen's son or something, but that's not the case. It's just a coincidence. She's just not a shipman. I was very upset when I found that out. I was like, my god, she's they like the two families merged eventually. No. Nope. Nope. Rando. I guess Biddle was just a popular last name back then. Biddle shipman. Thankfully, on April twenty first, 1939 The gardens were officially completed and open to the public during the university's centennial weekend. So a hundred years and they finally got the this fricken garden. Not even the same garden either. Just a completely different garden. Yeah. Her mom had nothing to do with it. I wonder what they ended up doing with the debris filled ravine. They just filled it back up. There you go, little swamp baby. Swamp baby! So I also found a site map for this garden, so I'll put it on the screen and read out the different spots for our listeners. Jey, get ready. So we got President's Bridge, Spangler Camellia Garden, South Lawn, Iris Garden, Roland's Overlook, Fish Pool, Terrace Gardens and Pergola. Azalea Court, Perennial Allee, Butterfly Garden and Sundial, Dawn Redwood, Fisher Amphitheater, Iris Bridge, Memorial Green, Rose Garden, and Rhodes Family Allee, as well as a flower drive that goes around a good portion of the whole thing. Yeah, that's really cool. And this is a quote from the Land Ladies article in the Almanac. Quote Curator Annabel Renwick and horticulturalist Maegan Luckett are revolutionizing low maintenance public plantings through their championing of Piedmont Prairie, grassland ecosystems and diverse planting beds, end quote. So you can visit Duke Gardens every day from eight AM to dusk. Admission is free, but there is a two dollar per hour fee for parking. Two dollars an hour. Because it's a campus. All right, Duke University. So up next is my favorite one. Ooh, I'm excited. And our next landlady is Lady Bird Johnson. Bird Johnson? You've never heard I have. I'm sorry. Go ahead. So apparently, Miss Lady Bird Johnson, wife of President Lyndon B. Johnson, was like myself, a lover of native plants. Like thank you. Somebody out here doing the work of the Lord. Why you gotta bring the Lord into it? She said, quote, wherever I go in America, I like it when the land speaks its own language in its own regional accent. Native plants give us a sense of where we are in this great land of ours. So cool. I miss when people spoke with such eloquence. that's amazing. And unsurprisingly, the plants growing on the 284 acres At the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center are indeed natives with nearly 900 species from the ecoregions of Austin, Texas. I was gonna say, where the heck is this? Austin, Texas. In the beginning, she teamed up with actress Helen Hayes to found the National Wildflower Center in 1982 to protect and preserve native plants. the original center was only sixty acres and public demand unfortunately began to overwhelm the smaller location and they had to create a larger campus to accommodate the foot traffic, which is like a good problem to have. That's a great problem to have. They had to move. And the current campus opened in 1995 on only forty-two acres and was officially renamed Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center in 1997 Cool. I don't know what happened to Helen Hayes. In 2002, the center acquired an additional 237 acres of land, mainly due to rapidly encroaching land development. So they were like, not on our watch, and just like bought out everything around them. Hell yeah. That's awesome. They were able to do that. Yeah. Obviously on 284 acres, the map is huge, but here it is for our viewers. And for our listeners, this is what we're working with. Wow. For gardens and natural areas, there's the welcome garden. Nectar garden, West Texas Garden, Hill Country Garden, Theme Gardens, Home Inspiration Gardens, Schreck Pollinator Garden. And yes, I did just say Shrek Pollinator Gardens, but it is S-C H R E C K. So we can't get too excited. I'm still excited. Lucy and Ian Family Garden, Savannah Meadow, Molly Steves, Zachary, Texas, Arboretum. And the land management research area. For outdoor destinations, there's the courtyard, observation tower, Texas Fernery, Hedge Maze, Dig Dirt. Sorry, Dirt Dig. I don't know what the fuck that is. Robb Family Pavilion, Lynda's Library, Playlawn, Wildflower Cave, Cecile's Arch, Hall of Texas Heroes. Kids Nature Build, Cathedral of Oaks and Tree Swings, which sounds fucking lit Yeah, tree swings, are you kidding me? Research Trails Pavilion, prescribed fire pavilion, and a bird watching blind. And we're not done. I wanna go. There are also trails. Yeah, the trails look huge. Such as the Arboretum Trail, John Barr Trail, Simon's Research Trail, Woodland Trail, Road Runner Trail, and the Savannah Meadow Trail, which sounds beautiful. Yeah, this looks so cool. So today, Andrea DeLong Amaya oversees the gardens and nursery programs. She's been working at the center since 1998 and has nearly 30 years of native plant experience, as well as horticulture, ecology, and garden design. She said, quote, one of my goals is to expand people's understanding and vision of how to work with native plants, end quote. Thank you, Andrea. Yes, gracias. The Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center is open year round, although hours vary depending on the season, and they are closed on major holidays and randomly for the first week in February. I don't know why. February vacation. Yeah. Whoop whoop. Admission is $15 on weekdays and $18 on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays. Definitely go check it out, Texas. I'm jealous. I am also jealous. I wish that was closer. So our last landlady is Jennie Butchart. She was the wife of pioneering cement manufacturer Robert. I'm sorry, it says Pim and I'm pretty sure it's Jim, but I just want to make sure. Jennay. Going back to Alabama Greenbow Alabama no, it's Pim. Okay. I thought I I thought I fucked that up, but it's that's a real dumb last name. Robert Pim Butchart. Pim. it's his middle name. Yeah. Anyway, that's her husband. He's a cement manufacturer. And in 1904 they moved to Vancouver Island to be closer to the limestone quarry. He needed to make cement. Super exciting. That is exciting. I wish I could move to Vancouver Island. In a limestone quarry though, that sounds terrible. It doesn't have to be the limestone quarry. It's been a dream of mine. In 1907 a famous garden designer named Isaburo Kashida was asked by his son to travel from Yokohama Japan to Victoria, British Columbia to design a tea garden in Esquimalt Gorge Park. Spoiled fucking kid. Like just asking his dad to travel half the world to build a a Yeah, literally. Like, why can't you do it? Why can't you just like I don't know. Because he knows somebody. This is the early 1900s, so it's probably like you can't just call and be like, hey, how do you do this? Yeah. Just like, just come over here. I'll do it. It's probably easier for you to just travel six months for you to get here. You know. Before he made the trip back to Japan in 1912 many people hired Kishida to design Japanese gardens for them as well and Jennie was one of them. So at least he like made it worth his while. Yeah, I bet he made some pretty money off of these rich people. He I mean, he literally stayed over here for or over here, up there in Canada for like five years. Wow. So it would make sense for him to put some extra work in. So he's the reason there's invasives. I'm not gonna blame him. I blame more the frickin' Ellen Biddle Shipman Little Shitman! Sorry. She's the culprit with her specialty collections. So by 1909 the Lime Quarry had run dry and she began to turn it into the sunken garden, which was completed in 1921 That's pretty cool. It took like twelve years for that to be completed. She spent around 40 years turning the limestone eyesore and the rest of her property into a luscious, peaceful garden. So here's the site map for our viewers. I can't look at this anymore. Literally. When it finally ran dry, she's like, Thank fucking God. Now I can do something about this shit. Over 100 years in bloom. So for our listeners, there's a Mediterranean garden, Show Greenhouse, Ross Fountain, Bog Garden, The Sunken Garden, which is frickin' ginormous. It takes up a fourth of the whole map. a rose carousel, concert lawn, rose garden, Italian garden, star pond, sturgeon fountain, dragon fountain, Japanese garden, and butchart cove. Don't forget the fireworks viewing area. Well, that didn't seem garden-y enough for me to put on there. But yeah, there is a fireworks viewing area. Boo. We also need to go here, though. Like, this looks so cool. Not for the fireworks. National Historic Site of Canada. Today the gardens are a National Historic Site. Like you kind of just said, and are run by Jennie's great-granddaughter. Robin Lee Clark. Isn't that cool? That is really cool. I can't believe that they have a cove where water airplanes can land. my god. I mean I guess I can't believe that. I didn't even see that. It's all the way up top. It's called Butchart Cove. I mentioned that. I didn't know it was a water plane landing site. Yeah, see. yeah. So the gardens are open year-round, although hours change based on the season, and admission also varies depending on the season, but it ranges from $25 to $45. And bonus fun fact Susan Peery, the author of the Land Ladies article in the Old Farmer's Almanac, is a landlady in her own gar garden in Nelson, New Hampshire. Isn't that crazy? We need to go. Where is it? I think it's just her personal. private garden. She's just an author. Yeah, just just ev just go to Nelson, New Hampshire, basically. Do you know where the landlady is? Yeah, there's only like four people who live in Nelson, New Hampshire, so it's gotta be one of them. And now for the farmer's almanac. So today is October first. Happy October everyone. October. Happy spooky season. The moon reaches perigee, which is its closest position to Earth today. Yikes. So maybe it's gonna be a large moon is what that means. I'm not sure. Most likely. Like does that also mean very high tide? maybe. Especially with this nor'easter, that's gonna really help us out. I feel bad for the coast right now. All that surge water is pushing all the rainwater back in. Jesus. Just a mess. That's why it floods. Very interesting. That'll be actually next week's topic. Ooh, a little hint. Mm-hmm. Walt Disney World opened in Orlando, Florida today in 1971 Wow, happy birthday freaking Orlando, Florida, basically. Nobody knew you existed until Disney World came. And today is the best day to move house or household. And that's it. Just move. Just get out of there. Move your house. Or your household. Either one. It's like that that SpongeBob episode when they are trying to move the the big ass worm. push! That was a good episode. Thanks. You can That's what I was expecting. I was expecting like some landlord bullshit, but that's fine. That was better. Yeah. Preferred. Well, I didn't know how to incorporate a minisode for the farmer's almanac without using the farmer's almanac, so I figured yeah. This is the best way to do it. Yeah, the that was You can follow us on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok @twotoolsnocluepodcast you can subscribe to our Patreon at patreon.com/twotoolsnoclue. Or you can email us at twoToolsNoCluePodcast@gmail.com. Ask us your questions. Tell us your stories. Let us know if you're a landlady. Does your Gmail account even work, people? Come on. Email us. Bye bye. Bye.