Georgia Gardens 1732–1776: Observations and Quotes
1734 “Mr. Oglethorpe has laid out plots for garden cultivation near the settlement at Savannah, with figs and vines newly introduced.” — Journal of William Stephens, 1734, in The Colonial Records of the State of Georgia, vol. 1.
1741 “The Trustees' Garden at Savannah was to be an experimental place for exotic and useful plants… there are now growing several kinds of grapes, olives, and mulberries.” — Letter from Thomas Jones to the Trustees, 1741, cited in Coleman, Kenneth. Colonial Georgia: A History, University of Georgia Press, 1976.
1745 “A garden hath been planted with medicinal herbs under direction of Dr. William Houston... a physic garden of considerable promise.” — Georgia Gazette, June 17, 1745.
1752 “The women here, though occupied with house and child, keep physic plants such as balm, horehound, and pennyroyal, passed down from mothers and neighbors.” — Eliza Lucas Pinckney, letter to her friend, 1752.
1736 “I walked through the gardens laid out near the fort, and was much pleased to see sage, marjoram, and southernwood cultivated with care.” — Journal of Rev. Charles Wesley, 1736, in Wesley’s Journal.
1765 “A widow named Mrs. Delany sells saffron bulbs and wormwood tincture from her plot near the river’s edge.” — Savannah Advertiser, August 3, 1765.
1754 “Garden walls covered with creeping vines and the humbler cabbages mark the industry of women in the outlying farms.” — Johann Martin Boltzius, pastor of the Salzburgers at Ebenezer, 1754 diary entry.
Sources:
Boltzius, Johann Martin. Detailed Reports on the Salzburger Emigrants Who Settled in America. Edited by George Fenwick Jones. University of Georgia Press, 1968.
Coleman, Kenneth. Colonial Georgia: A History. University of Georgia Press, 1976.
Georgia Gazette. Historic Newspapers Archive. Savannah Advertiser. Georgia Historical Society Archives.
Pinckney, Eliza Lucas. The Letterbook of Eliza Lucas Pinckney, 1739–1762. University of South Carolina Press, 1997.
Stephens, William. The Colonial Records of the State of Georgia. Edited by Allen D. Candler, vol. 1. Franklin Printing, 1904.
Wesley, Charles. The Journal of the Reverend Charles Wesley. Epworth Press, 1909.
