![]() ![]() Vegetables were more than just a side dish for Jefferson. Tomatoes and eggplants were scorned at the time." Crops like cauliflower and broccoli were not grown by common man. "Actually, his vegetable choices were quite sophisticated for his time. The rest of the crop will be similar to what Jefferson grew with an "occasional modern variety to appease the palates of the staff," he laughs. ![]() In an attempt to restore Monticello to the way it looked in Jefferson's time, Hatch says he will plant next year's garden with 15 percent of the original varietals. He began planting seeds for annuals late in January. Hearty fall and spring crops such as endive, lettuce, kale and spinach survived year round. The combination of elevation and the stone retaining wall protected crops from late-spring and early-fall frosts, extending his growing season by several months. The ingenuity of the Jefferson's garden is in the estate's northwest border, says Hatch, where fruit and vegetables were subjected to day-long sunlight. Between the garden and grove he perched a brick pavilion on the edge of a stone retaining wall, giving him a commanding view of the Virginia Piedmont farmlands to the east and the Blue Ridge Mountains to the west. Sloping down the hill, just below the garden, he planted a fruit grove. But that was too inefficient and small for Jefferson's taste and in 1807, about 200 feet down the mountain, he carved out a plateau and extended the garden to 1,000 feet. He planted his first 668-foot garden down the hillside. In developing the land, he first lopped off the mountain at the crown to make room for his mansion. Over time, Jefferson bought surrounding tracts of land increasing the estate's size to 5,000 acres. The land, which he inherited in 1757, consisted mainly of a "little mountain" of 867-foot elevation. His eight-acre fruit grove had 122 different varieties of 10 types of fruit-including quince, apples, nectarines, cherries and plums-many of which were shipped in from Europe, where they originated.īut Jefferson's mountaintop wasn't always a plant's paradise, says Hatch. Some of his experiments even followed him in 1801 into the White House where plants were scattered about in glass covered dishes.ĭuring the 50 years he gardened at Monticello, Jefferson raised about 250 different vegetables, including 19 varieties of his favorite vegetable-the pea. He kept meticulous records of weather patterns from year to year, practiced crop rotation and experimented in developing strong, prolific hybrids, trading seeds with friends in the states and abroad. "Jefferson was quite innovative for his time in terms of practical gardening techniques," says Peter Hatch, ground superintendent of the 5,000-acre estate under renovation by the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation. But surely the plants didn't suffer from his efforts. Whether he was right and the vegetables thrived at his Charlottesville, Va., estate will never be known. It will strengthen the soil, bidding defiance to pests, drought and disease. WHEN Thomas Jefferson's granddaughter wrote to him in Philadelphia that bugs were eating the vegetables in his Monticello kitchen garden, the President of the United States quickly wrote back with a simple solution: Use manure. ![]()
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