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On a hot afternoon last summertime at Monticello , Peter Hatch walk toward a red-brick colonial pavilion pierce with floor - to - ceiling arch windows , then past cracking row of young gumbo plants ( Abelmoschus esculentus ) , then he stopped at an edging of tomato plants . Hatch , who spent the past 35 years reconstruct Thomas Jefferson ’s fabled garden , was neither leading a group of visitors ( nearly a half - million arrive each year ) through the 200 - some change of plants , nor checking on the progress of the florescence caracalla noggin or Texas shuttle pepper .
Monticello ’s garden now feature tansy , ‘ Green Globe ’ artichoke , scarlet runner beans ( on the magnetic pole ) , tree onion , and tomato ( on the trellis ) , shown here . exposure by : Robert Llewellyn . SEE MORE photograph OF THIS GARDEN
Rather , he was hunt for the final element for his lunch . From a vine , he plucked an heirloom tomato , warm from the sunlight on the Confederate States - facing slope . “ Although we do n’t know the exact heirloom varieties that Jefferson grew , ” say Hatch , whose prescribed deed was theatre director of gardens and ground at Monticello until he retired , “ we cultivate a pre - Columbian variety here , pop in the nineteenth century , call ‘ Purple Calabash ’ , with a high , deep , acid flavor to it . It ’s the sweetest tomato I have it off , and I just love it on my sandwich . ”
For decades , the 1,000 - foundation - farseeing , 80 - human foot - wide-cut terrasse vegetable garden was unattended and handle by layers of shit . It was eff only through writings until archaeologists began its excavation in the late 1970s . With Hatch at the helm , the plot has since been transformed into a thriving approximation of Jefferson ’s own data-based garden on his plantation landed estate in Charlottesville , Virginia . During Hatch ’s term of office as garden steward , he nurture a issue of nineteenth - century varietal wine , but his tardy perennial is a new Word of God , A Rich Spot of Earth : Thomas Jefferson ’s Revolutionary Garden at Monticello(Yale University Press ; $ 35 ) . “ It represents a culmination of my pursuit in Jefferson and my taking concern of the garden , ” allege Hatch , who can talk at length about Jefferson ’s experiment with then - nameless varieties of gumbo , peppers , sweet potatoes , lima beans , peanuts , eggplant , tomatoes , peas , and Asparagus officinales , which Jefferson “ adjust to a specially created growing situation shaved from the southern side of a mountain and locate in a microclimate . ”
The book is peculiarly timely given the growing importance of the farm - to - tabular array practice . From the rooftop plot of urban restaurants , to Michelle Obama ’s constituent White House garden , to the muckle of suburbanite replacing pot thousand with clavus and kail , light access to sustainably grown organic produce has become an increasing imperative in the font of impend public health issue and ecological concerns — not to mention epicurean atonement . Jefferson , in his commitment to nurturing such a wide-ranging — and tasty — garden , which fertilize XII , stands out as a establish father of the farm - to - table effort .
Jefferson was adoring of benny , which is shown growing here ( on the left hand ) . He also originate ‘ Red Calico ’ lima bean ( on the right ) . After sampling sesame oil colour , he compose , “ This is among the most worthful acquisitions our rural area has ever made . ” He grew it for decades , but it is not commonly farm here today . exposure by : Robert Llewellyn . SEE MORE exposure OF THIS GARDEN
A testament to Jefferson ’s relevancy today and to the wallop of Hatch ’s endeavors , the foreword of the book was written by chef Alice Waters , one of the most devoted and famed advocator of organic , topically grown green goods . “ Peter ’s vibrant and enthusiastic passion for preserve Thomas Jefferson ’s farming bequest at Monticello reminds us all of the clock time - tested continuity and historical root of this kind of husbandry , ” she drop a line . “ We desperately take to reconnect ourselves to the pastoral self - sufficient tradition that Jefferson built ; nothing is more vital than returning this custom to the very heart of American culture . ”
urine previously prepared a dinner party at Monticello for 250 Edgar Guest , including several high - visibility chefs , using many ingredient gathered from the on - site garden . Meanwhile , Michelle Obama , another lively voice of the farm - to - mesa movement , has visited Monticello for inhalation doubly over the past few years . Hatch gave her a small Marseille fig Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree that Jefferson grow , and it now flourishes in the White House garden .
Hatch is quick to point out that his work has been more a thing of restoring “ the spirit ” of Jefferson ’s garden than actually replicating it . “ It ’s less a testament to Jefferson as a ace horticulturist than a reflection of his tireless optimism , his love of skilful , goodish food , and his persistent expansionist tendencies , which are at the core of the American experience , ” he says . In his quest for a highly diverse , well - rounded garden , Jefferson tirelessly experiment with nonnative variety . “ He continue planting and planting and planting . If something died , he ’d constitute something else . He plant the wine vineyards six dissimilar times alone . ”
Thomas Jefferson lean the vegetable garden at Monticello with famous vitality , exchanging germ with correspondents across the world and continuously experimenting with flora to see if and how they would grow in Charlottesville ’s clime and grunge . Jefferson also adored carrots and established a yearly quota of 10 bushels for the plantation garden . The root vegetable — orange as well as chicken — was featured in legion dishes at Monticello , including porridge . Dacus carotais pictured here . photograph by : Robert Llewellyn . SEE MORE PHOTOS OF THIS GARDEN
Of the some 330 varieties and 99 species of vegetables and herbs that Jefferson set about to grow , Hatch figure that about 15 percent of the original mixed bag and specie are now in grounds . “ Sure , we can grow imperial Brassica oleracea botrytis that he compose about , but we ’re not sure of the variety , ” says Hatch . ” His Marseille loot is one example of something we ca n’t even find today . But in price of the bones and structure of this garden , were Jefferson to turn back here , he would find what he find to be familiar . ”
Hatch has taken much direction over the past few 10 from Jefferson ’s 66 - page “ Garden Book Kalendar ” ( sic ) , a frank diary of Jefferson ’s garden victories and nonstarter from 1766 to 1824 . In improver to providing valuable savoring notes , he documented where plants were located and the date they were sowed , transplanted , and suffice . Above all , it ’s a lesson in persistence for those tend veg gardens today . “ Few gardener write about failure as often as Jefferson did , ” says Hatch . “ When something failed , he would often find a new station on the property to mature it , perhaps a lower , wetter , cool office , which is what he did with cabbage . ”
His unrelenting efforts , Hatch explains , also translated into a serious bounty . “ He kept engraft so that there would be a continuous harvest time , ” he says . “ That ’s a unspoiled moral a caboodle of gardeners today do n’t follow . He enjoin it was important to ‘ sow in a thimble - full of pelf every two weeks . ’ ”
While the garden fed Jefferson ’s family , staff , and slaves , as well as members of the local community of interests , today the produce is used for events at the historical monument and given to employees .
One of the strongest traditions that rest is the holistic , sustainable feeler to pests , weeds , tearing , and fertilizing . Natural pesticides are used , as are irrigation and composting . Jefferson was really “ America ’s first epicurean , ” says Hatch . Today , that not only have in mind essay out the most pleasant-tasting intellectual nourishment available , but cultivating it in a manner that see to it the well - being of the land for generations to come .
This clause was write in the Sept / Oct 2012 publication of Garden Design as " Founding Fannie Merritt Farmer . "
