Thomas Jefferson: Renaissance gardener
The 250th anniversary of America’s independence is cause for celebration and a time for exploring the evolution of gardening practices over the years since.
Of particular interest is Thomas Jefferson, whose notoriety as principal author of the Declaration of Independence and as the third President of the United States is well known. However, many are unaware of his revolutionary innovations and achievements as a gardener.
In addition to our nation’s founding documents, and his iconic political writing, Jefferson wrote a text known as “The Garden Book,” a collection of observations relevant to the Commonwealth of Virginia. He also exchanged over 20,000 personal letters with family, friends and colleagues detailing his gardening endeavors and exploits. Jefferson kept numerous journals and notebooks documenting in specific detail the extent of his gardening ideas and practices.
He recorded the progress of experiments with various varieties of vegetables, field crops and novel gardening practices. Meticulous written records documented planting; germination; harvest dates; varieties of seeds planted; garden successes and failures; and climate and weather conditions. With scientific precision, Jefferson provided reliable historical agricultural information that is accessible and used by today’s gardeners. Many of the plants that he grew are still cultivated at Monticello today.
After Jefferson ended his political service, he retired to his mountaintop home, Monticello (“little mountain” in Italian). Two years before he constructed his home at Monticello, he began the work of designing the landscape at his home. Over the next 17 years he steadily transformed his property using pioneering ideas and groundbreaking practices to transform the hilltop landscape into beautiful and productive gardens.
Jefferson valued trees and plants native to the region. Tulip poplar (Liriodendron tulipifera) and the southern catalpa (Catalpa bignonioides) were two favorite native trees used in his landscape design.
As well as planting natives, Jefferson incorporated novel ornamental trees, shrubs and plants on his property and grounds. His gardening style was inspired by the English gardens he visited during his travels.
Winding serpentine walkways bordered with flowers and 20 oval flower beds created curving sight lines that were innovative for the time.
Jefferson imported a variety of flower bulbs for spring bloom. Tulips, hyacinths and anemones were planted, with tulips being the most mentioned in Jefferson’s garden book. These were followed by summer-flowering annuals and perennials.
Featured in the beds were Iconic flowers such as twinleaf (Jeffersonia diphylla), a rare woodland plant named in Jefferson’s honor, and Columbian lily (Fritillaria pudica), which was discovered through the Lewis and Clark Expedition.
Monticello’s 1,000-foot-long vegetable garden was terraced and oriented toward the south. The garden was bordered by a stone wall, maximizing the sun’s rays, heat and light. This allowed early- and late-season planting.
Jefferson experimented with over 330 varieties of vegetables. One of his favorite early- season garden crops was peas and he instituted a friendly contest with his neighbors as to who could produce the first peas of the spring season.
He not only wanted his vegetable garden to be productive and functional, but beautiful also. While the flower gardens were arranged in curved and oval beds, the vegetable beds were divided into 24 squares arranged by which part of the plants were harvested: fruits, leaves, or roots.
He was an early adopter of the practice of crop rotation for soil health and stated, “The soil is the gift of God to the living.” Adhering to this personal philosophy, he methodically rotated his garden crops from season to season.
With this dual goal of function and beauty, Jefferson’s vegetable beds were pleasing to the eye. He planted scarlet runner beans (Phaseolus coccineus), a climbing bean variety that produces a beautiful red blossom, and cow’s horn okra (Abelmoschus esculentus), which is an edible southern ornamental variety of okra with yellow, tropical-looking blooms.
Two of his favorite varieties of lettuce were “Brown Dutch” lettuce (Lactuca sativa cv.), a loose-head variety whose outer leaves are tinged with red and brown coloring, and “Tennis ball” lettuce (Lactuca sativa cv.), which Jefferson purported to be a variety that “does not require so much care and attention.” He contended that a thimble full of lettuce seeds be sown every Monday from April through October for a continuous supply.
Because Jefferson saw the importance of agriculture to sustain life, he was a student of science and experimented with various agricultural practices. A reference to this fact is a quote from him on the subject of botany: “Botany I rank with the most valuable sciences, whether we consider its subjects as furnishing the principal substance of life to man and beast, refreshments from our orchards, the adornment of our flower borders, shade and perfume for our groves, materials for our buildings, or mendicants for our bodies.”
Farther afield on his other properties, he kept orchards, vineyards, and “berry squares.” Jefferson experimented with growing rice. He planted corn, wheat and tobacco and was a proponent of contour plowing, as “he realized the need to adjust farming to the curves of nature.”
He also improved the design of the traditional plow and formed a committee to research the best way to eliminate the Hessian fly (Mayetiola destructor) from destroying wheat crops. In a letter to George Washington in 1787, Jefferson wrote, “Agriculture is our wisest pursuit, because it will in the end contribute most to real wealth, good morals and happiness.”
A true Renaissance man, Jefferson is known for his many accomplishments, his curiosity in the form of scientific inquiry and a lifelong pursuit of knowledge. He famously wrote to Charles Willson Peale in 1811, “But though an old man, I am but a young gardener.”
To learn more about Jefferson’s gardening practices, two noteworthy books are: “A Rich Spot of Earth: Thomas Jefferson’s Revolutionary Garden at Monticello” authored by Peter Hatch, and “Thomas Jefferson: Landscape Architect” by Frederick Doveton Nichols. Jefferson’s “The Garden Book” is annotated by Edwin Morris Betts. All books are available for purchase in stores and online.
For further information regarding Monticello, go to www.monticello.org. For a virtual tour of Monticello visit virtualtour.monticello.org.
If you have any questions regarding horticulture or gardening practices, please telephone the Penn State Extension Master Gardeners of Butler County at the garden hotline at 724-287-4761, Ext. 7 or email the Master Gardeners at butlermg@psu.edu
Jacqueline Bartley is a Penn State Extension Butler County Master Gardener.
