Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["TradingPostPaul" <tradingpost@riseup.net>]

In 1793, Martha Randolph wrote her father from Monticello and complained of
insect damage in the garden. Jefferson's response summarized a basic
philosophy of gardening:

"We will try this winter to cover our garden with a heavy coating of
manure. When earth is rich it bids defiance to droughts, yields in
abundance, and of the best quality. I suspect that the insects which have
harassed you have been encouraged by the feebleness of your plants; and
that has been produced by the lean state of the soil. We will attack them
another year with joint efforts." -- Tom Jefferson

As we've said, plant and pest problems begin with soil problems, and
healthy soil is more drought tolerant. This is traditional belief. 

Though I've never seen it, my partner has and she describes it like the
website. The Monticello garden today is restored accurately according  to
his journal records. He grew in raised or mounded rectangular beds with
permanent walkways, and fertilized with manure (sound familiar?). Jefferson
grew 250 varieties of more than 70 different species of vegetables,
precisely recording the details of their growth, though the names have
sometimes changed, including twenty varieties of bean and fifteen types of
English pea. Jefferson's central reference to herbs was a list of sixteen
medicinal, fragrant, and culinary herbs in 1794. The garden platform,
enlarged by Jefferson in 1808, is 1,000 feet long and 80 feet wide, and
contains about 2 acres.

The vegetable garden evolved over many years, beginning in 1770 when crops
were first cultivated along the contours of the slope. Terracing was
introduced in 1806, and by 1812, gardening activity was at its peak. The
1,000-foot-long terrace, or garden plateau, was literally hewed from the
side of the mountain with slave labor, and it was supported by a massive
stone wall that stood over twelve feet in its highest section. One
contemporary visitor remarked on the dramatic "sea view" across the rolling
Piedmont countryside.

Perched atop the wall, at the half-way point of the garden, is the garden
pavilion with its double-sash windows, Chinese railing, and pyramidal roof.
The pavilion was used by Jefferson as a quiet retreat where he could read
in the evening. It was reputedly blown down in a violent wind storm in the
late 1820's. The pavilion was reconstructed in 1984 based on Jefferson's
notes and archaeological excavations. It overlooks an eight-acre orchard of
300 trees, a vineyard, and Monticello's berry squares, which are plots of
figs, currants, gooseberries, and raspberries.

View of the Vegetable Garden with Garden Pavilion and Brown's Mountain
(Montalto) in background; photo by Skip JohnsThe main part of the two-acre
garden is divided into twenty-four "squares," or growing plots, and at
least in 1812, the squares were arranged according to which part of the
plant was being harvested -- whether "fruits" (tomatoes, beans), "roots"
(beets, carrots), or "leaves" (lettuce, cabbage). Jefferson used the
Northwest Border to plant peas very early in the season, and this should
have provided a clear advantage in the annual neighborhood pea contests --
whoever brought the first English pea to table would host a dinner that
included the winning dish of peas. At the base of the wall, below the
garden, Jefferson successfully grew figs in Submural Beds, which were also
situated to create a uniquely warm setting.

The site and situation of the garden enabled Jefferson to extend the
growing season into the winter months and provided and amenable
microclimate for tender vegetables such as the French artichoke. The
garden, as well as the orchard, was surrounded by a ten-foot-high wooden or
"paling" fence, which ran for nearly three-quarters of a mile. While the
fence was constructed primarily as a defense against domestic animals and
deer, the boards were placed "so near as not to let even a young hare in."

Thomas Jefferson was an astute observer of the natural world. The daily
activities of sowing seeds, manuring asparagus, and harvesting pease
between 1809 and 1826 are precisely recorded in his "Garden Kalendar," a
part of his famous Garden Book. Jefferson was often the detached scientist
in the Kalendar as he recorded that his Hotspur peas were "killed by frost
Oct. 23," or that his yellow squash "came to nothing" in 1809. He could
also record remarkable detail as in 1811 when he noted of his Asparagus
beans that "2/3 pint sow a large square, rows 2 1/2 feet apart and 1 f. and
18 I. apart in the row, one half at each distance."

For Jefferson, the vegetable garden was a kind of laboratory where he could
experiment with imported squashes and broccoli from Italy, beans and
salsify collected by the Lewis and Clark expedition, figs from France, and
peppers from Mexico. 

Although the garden was essentially a functional part of the plantation,
Jefferson occasionally considered other ornamental features aside from the
garden pavilion. He discussed planting an arbor of different flowering
shades of the scarlet runner bean (shown at left), arranged adjacent rows
of purple, white, and green sprouting broccoli, or even white and purple
eggplant, and he bordered his tomato square with sesame or okra, a rather
unusual juxtaposition of plant textures. Cherry trees were also planted
along the "long, grass walk" of the garden to provide shade.

    "I have lived temperately, eating little animal food, and that . . . as
a condiment for the vegetables, which constitute my principal diet."

Sea Kale with terra cotta blanching pot.Salads were an important part of
Jefferson's diet. He would note the planting of lettuce and radishes every
two weeks through the growing season, grow interesting greens such as
orach, corn salad, endive, and nasturtiums, and yearly plant sesame in
order to manufacture a palatable salad oil. Although the English pea is
considered his favorite vegetable, he also cherished figs, asparagus,
French artichokes, and such "new" vegetables as tomatoes, eggplant,
broccoli, and cauliflower. While Jefferson cultivated more common
vegetables such as cucumbers, beans (both "snaps" for fresh use and
"haricots" that were dried), and cabbages, he also prized his sea kale
(Crambe maritima, shown above right), a perennial cabbage-like vegetable
whose spring sprouts were blanched with clay pots, then cut and prepared
like asparagus."

http://www.monticello.org/gardens/vegetable/nineteenth.html
http://www.monticello.org/gardens/vegetable/site.html
http://www.monticello.org/gardens/vegetable/index.html
http://www.monticello.org/gardens/vegetable/science_gardener.html
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paul tradingpost@lobo.net

Beware of all enterprises that require new clothes. 
--Henry David Thoreau