"As modern gardeners increasingly wean themselves from Miracle-Gro and Sevin, there is much to be learned in these old notes." Anne Raver
This is to inspire you for Garden Month. A number of years ago, I was lucky enough to visit the love of Thomas Jefferson's life: Monticello. Aside from being President, the author of the Declaration of Independence and the founder of the University of Virgina (among other things), he was devoted to the creation and continual development of his home, Monticello (or the "small mountain" as it translates)...
In fact, his devotion was so great that he spent too much money on his house and was deeply in debt when he died. Only through the kindness of friends (who paid off his debts) was his estate able to hold onto the house and preserve it to this day.
Visit it. The interior design is remarkable, but it's relationship to the land around it will blow you away. His gardens sit directly beside the house and were Jefferson's laboratory where he experimented with 330 varieties of edible plants from all over the world and recorded his progress meticulously.
To inspire you today (and if you can't visit soon), I have pulled up a beautiful article that Anne Raver wrote a few years ago after visiting in March:
>> Thomas Jefferson Weeded Here (NYTimes), as well as a few other good links:
>> www.monticello.org
>> Bill McDonough on the importance of Thomas Jefferson as a designer
>> wikipedia.org/wiki/Monticello
oh yes, Monticello! The gardens the slaves worked with so gorgeous! and you can see the shambles of where the slaves worked! and we know how great he was to his slave-lover and his slave kids! just a magical spot...
view SydneyBristow's profile
He may have died broke but at least he set all Sally Hemmings kids free. Of course they were his kids too so ...
view LaDonnaNichole's profile
This is a beautiful place and I'm sure there are no "slaves" working on this plantation these days.
view carmelia's profile
"At least he set all Sally Hemmings kids free?" So, what?
And, there are plenty of beautiful gardens to ooh and ah over; the reason why we are so amazed by this one is because of its age. This garden was built and maintained by slaves. Deal with it.
view a tyler's profile
This was a post about a house and a garden and being inspired by it. I'm sure the post wasn't intended to spark diatribes about the sexual peccadilloes and slave-owning history of the house's owner. Monticello is a beautiful building, period, and inspiring. But if commenters are going to devalue the place for its historical associations, might I suggest you also direct your wrath at the following locations and urge them to destroy or demolish everything in sight based on their having an association with slavery: Mount Vernon; Charleston; Washington DC; Boston; New York City; Atlanta; Stratford Hall; Arlington House; all the plantations on the James River; every historic house below the Mason-Dixon line, including the White House, which, like so many buildings in the South pre-1865, were built in part by slave labor; the cities of New Orleans, Natchez, Montgomery, Savannah, Athens, Birmingham, et cetera, et cetera. Good Lord, get over yourselves.
view readingglasses's profile
I think the issue is in taking inspiration from a garden where the owner not only didn't do the hard work himself, but in fact used slaves. Not particularly inspiring.
view Erika in Seattle's profile