1748 Gourds for Seed Storage

Peter (Pehr) Kalm (1716-1779) Swedish-Finnish explorer, botanist, naturalist, and agricultural economist, visited America & wrote of a use for gourds in his 1748 diary. “They are particularly fit for holding seeds which are to be sent over sea; for seeds keep their power of vegetating much longer if they be put in calabashes than by any other means.”

Kalm, Pehr, 1716-1779. Peter Kalm's travels in North America; the America of 1750; the English version of 1770, rev. from the original Swedish and edited by Adolph B. Benson, with a translation of new material from Kalm's diary notes., Dover, 1966.

History Blooms at Monticello

 (Cynara scolymus)

Photos of Monticello by Peggy Cornett at Thomas Jefferson's Monticello, who tells us that

The “chokes” are forming in the vegetable garden. Globe Artichoke was included on one of Jefferson's first lists of vegetables grown at Monticello in 1770. His Garden Book sporadically charted the first to "come to table" and the "last dish of artichokes" from 1794 and 1825. Monticello gardeners often leave the edible “chokes” to develop into purple, thistle-like flowers, which can be dried for arrangements.

History Blooms at Monticello -

Peggy Cornett at Thomas Jefferson's Monticello tells us that 

Cabbage abounds in the Monticello vegetable garden. Throughout his lifetime Jefferson cultivated eighteen varieties including French, Milan, Savoy, Ox-heart, Roman, Scotch, Sugarloaf, York, and Winter. Cabbage was the second most commonly purchased vegetable bought by the Jefferson family from the gardens of Monticello’s enslaved African Americans.

History Blooms at Monticello

Peggy Cornett at Thomas Jefferson's Monticello tells us that

English Peas are thriving in this year’s cool, moist Central Virginia spring. We will soon harvest from several historic varieties in the Monticello vegetable garden. Meanwhile the Prickly-seeded spinach, a rare variety Jefferson noted planting in 1809 and 1812, is forming valuable seed heads.

History Blooms at Monticello

Peggy Cornett at Thomas Jefferson's Monticello tells us that

Sweet William, Dianthus barbatus, was one of Jefferson's favorite ornamental flowers. He observed "sweet William began to open" at Shadwell on April 16, 1767, reported flowers in May and June of 1782, and also planted this biennial in an oval flower bed at Monticello in 1807.

A similar variety with the red auricula-eye was called Painted Lady Sweet William and was illustrated in William Curtis’s Botanical Magazine 1792

History Blooms at Monticello

Peggy Cornett of Monticello tells us that,

Today English Peas are sprouting in plantings throughout the Monticello Vegetable Garden. Among the 330 different kinds of vegetables in Thomas Jefferson's garden the English pea was considered his favorite. By staggering the planting of peas, Jefferson was able to eat them fresh from the garden from the middle of May to the middle of July.

Aside from personal preference, Jefferson might have taken special note of the English pea because of an annual neighborhood contest to see which local farmer could bring to table the 1st peas of spring. The winner would host the other contestants in a dinner that included the peas.

Though Jefferson's mountaintop garden, with its southern exposure to warmth and light, should have provided an advantage for the contest, it seems that the contest was almost always won by a neighbor named George Divers.  As Jefferson's grandson recalled: "A wealthy neighbor [Divers], without children, and fond of horticulture, generally triumphed."

George Divers (c 1748-1830) was an Albemarle County landowner, a merchant, & a friend of Thomas Jefferson. The two of them were known to exchange seeds & letters on farming & gardening. Divers married Martha Walker, daughter of Dr. Thomas Walker, & their only son died at a young age. In 1785, Divers bought the Farmington estate, & in 1802, he asked Jefferson to design his house.