“Valerie Beaudoin, left, executive director of the George C. Marshall International Center, and Jackie Ellis, gardening coordinator at Dodona Manor.”
While the official start of spring is more than a month away, the staff and volunteers at Leesburg's George C. Marshall Center at Dodona Manor are already making plans for this year's garden.
For Marshall, who served as a five-star general, secretary of state, secretary of defense and U.S. Army chief of staff, gardening was a passion. Much of his time in Leesburg was spent tending to the flowers and vegetables he grew in his backyard, according to local historian and author Rachel Thompson.