Vegetable Garden

Vegetable Garden. . , Thomas Jefferson's garden was a massive, edible laboratory. He tested new plants to record which fruit and vegetable varieties thrived. Like his neighbors, Jefferson designed a robust vegetable garden to provide food for his household. Jefferson's garden was unusual, however, for its large size, ambitious planting schemes, and strategic location that promoted longer growing seasons., "For amusement he [Jefferson] would work sometimes in the garden for half an hour at a time...in the cool of the evening." , Formerly enslaved blacksmith Isaac Granger Jefferson, Memoirs, 1847, The Labor Of Enslaved Gardeners, Gardener John, Goliah, and other, often elderly, enslaved people provided most of the manual labor needed to maintain the garden-with more than 330 varieties of 99 different herbs and vegetables. In 1808, Jefferson directed Wormley Hughes, an accomplished enslaved gardener, to fertilize the garden. He used 60 or 70 wagon loads of manure that Jerry, a wagon driver, hauled up the mountain from a town three miles away., Frequent Questions, How large is the Vegetable Garden? , It is about two acres-1,000 feet long and 80 feet wide-nearly the length of three football fields., Who works in the garden today? , A full-time vegetable gardener, aided by seasonal assistants and interns, plants three times a year: spring, summer, and fall., What happens to the produce grown at Monticello? , Produce is served at Monticello's Farm Table Café, used in Monticello Museum Shop products and for seed production, donated to local food banks, and distributed to employees., How are vegetables and other plants propagated at Monticello? , Many plants are allowed to go to seed. Gardeners save the seeds for next season and share them with other historic sites. They also package more than 15,000 heirloom seed packets for sale each year!, To purchase available seeds, please visit: , www.monticelloshop.org/garden/heirloom-seeds, (Captions):, In the Vegetable Garden by Nathaniel K. Gibbs, 2000. In the spring of 1809, Jefferson recorded that enslaved gardeners planted about 60 different fruits, vegetables, and herbs in less than two months., For decades, Jefferson avidly collected seeds from around the world. Vegetables grown here included okra from Africa; artichokes from Europe; beans from North America; and tomatoes and potatoes from South America. Plants reveal people's interactions through colonization, migration, trade, and slavery. , Illustration by Corrin Brewer, Jefferson designed the garden pavilion, where he read and relaxed. Modern visitors enjoy sweeping views from the reconstructed building.