Using lobsters for catching garden insects...

1793 James Sowerby (English artist, 1757-1822) Lobster

"Procure the hollow claws of Lobsters, Crabs, &c. and hanging them in different parts of the garden, the insects creep into them, and are easily taken; but the claws must be often searched." 
The Complete Vermin-Killer: A Valuable and Useful Companion for Families, in Town and Country, (London, 1777).

Plants in Early American Gardens - Striped French Marigold

 Striped French Marigold (Tagetes patula)
The species French Marigold was introduced to European gardens from South America in the late 16th century. A handsome striped form of this annual flower was first illustrated in the London-based periodical Curtis' Botanical Magazine, 1791, and was being grown in America by that time. Striped French Marigold is perfect for cutting, with flowers that vary from yellow streaked with maroon to solid yellow and occasionally all red; prune and deadhead to prolong flowering.

For more information & the possible availability
Contact The Tho Jefferson Center for Historic Plants or The Shop at Monticello 

Plants in Early American Gardens - African Marigold

African Marigold (Tagetes erecta)

Thomas Jefferson planted seeds of the African Marigold along the winding walk flower border on April 8, 1812. Although native to South America, the first garden plants introduced into Europe came from Northern Africa: hence, the common name. While double garden forms were common around 1800, this is the species, or wild form, of African Marigold with unusual (and rare) single, yellow flowers.

For more information & the possible availability
Contact The Tho Jefferson Center for Historic Plants or The Shop at Monticello 

Plant Lists - Tho Jefferson's (1743-1824) Ornamental Shrubs and Vines

Thomas Jefferson by Tadeusz Andrzej Bonawentura Kosciuszko (1746 - 1817) 

Thomas Jefferson’s Plant List From His Garden Book, 1767-1821 Dates refer to first mention of a plant in Jefferson’s documents, which include Thomas Jefferson’s Garden Book, edited by Edwin Betts, 1944, unpublished memoranda at the Massachusetts Historical Society, the Library of Congress and Princeton University Library. Quotation marks designate varieties undescribed in the literature and are generally Jefferson’s personal names.  List compiled by Peter Hatch.

Ornamental Shrubs and Vines

Acacia farnesiana Sweet Acacia ("Acacia Nilotica”) 1792
Alnus rugosa Alder 1771
Amorpha fruticosa Bastard Indigo 1771
Berberis vulgaris European Barberry 1771
Callicarpa americana Beauty Berry 1771
Calycanthus floridus Sweet Shrub ("Bubby flower shrub") 1778
Campsis radicans Trumpet Vine 1771
Castanea pumila Chinquapin 1771
Ceanothus americanus New Jersey Tea 1771
Clematis virginiana Virgin's Bower 1807
Clethra alnifolia Sweet Pepperbush 1771
Colutea arborescens Bladder Senna 1812
Cornus sanguinea Swamp Dogwood ("Dogberry") 1783
Coronilla emerus Scorpion Senna 1771
Cotinus coggygria Smoke Tree ("Venetian Sumach”) 1791
Cytisus scoparius Scotch Broom 1806
Daphne cneorum Rose Daphne 1790
Daphne mezereum "Mezereon" 1804
Euonymus americanus Strawberry Bush ("Evergreen Spindle Tree") 1790
Gardenia jasminoides Gardenia ("Cape jasmine") 1808
Gelsemium sempervirens Carolina Yellow Jessamine 1771
Hibiscus syriacus Rose of Sharon ("Althea”) 1767
 "double" 1809
 “pink" 1809
 "striped" 1809
 "white" 1809
Ilex verticillata Winterberry 1808
Jasminum officinale Poet’s Jessamine ("Star Jasmine,”"White Jasmine") 1794
Kalmia latifolia Mountain Laurel ("Ivy," "Dwarf Laurel") 1771
Ligustrum vulgare Privet 1807
Lonicera alpigena Red-berried Honeysuckle 1810
Lonicera sempervirens Coral Honeysuckle ("Honey-suckle") 1771
Nerium oleander Oleander 1804
Philadelphus coronarius Mock Orange 1807
Prunus triloba Flowering Almond ("Amygdalus flore pleno") 1790
Pyracantha coccinea Pyracantha ("Prickly medlar,” "Mespilus” 1810
Pyrularia pubera Buffalo Nut ("Oil shrub") 1797
Rhododendron maximum Rosebay Rhododendron 1790
Rhododendron periclymenoides Pinxter Azalea ("Wild honeysuckle") 1767
Rhus toxicodendron Poison Ivy ("Poison oak") 1771
Robinia hispida Moss Locust ("Prickly locust” 1807
Sambucus canadensis Elderberry 1771
Spartium junceum Spanish Broom 1767
Symphoricarpus albus Snowberry 1812
Syringa persica Persian Lilac ("Persian jasmine”) 1808
Syringa vulgaris Common Lilac 1767
Taxus canadensis American Yew ("Dwarf yew") 1798
Ulex europaeus Gorse ("Furze") 1794
Viburnum opulus var. sterile Snowball("Guelder Rose") 1794
Viburnum trilobum Cranberry Bush 1798
Vinca minor Periwinkle 1771
Vitex agnus-castus Chaste Tree 1807
Wisteria frutescens Wisteria ("Carolina kidney bean Tree with
purple flowers") 1791
Yucca filamentosa Yucca, Adam’s Needle 1794

Research & images & much more are directly available from the Monticello.org website. 

1764 Plants in 18C Colonial American Gardens - Virginian John Randolph (727-1784) - Onion

A Treatise on Gardening Written by a native of this State (Virginia)
Author was John Randolph (1727-1784)
Written in Williamsburg, Virginia about 1765
Published by T. Nicolson, Richmond, Virginia. 1793
The only known copy of this booklet is found in the Special Collections of the Wyndham Robertson Library at Hollins University in Roanoke, Virginia.

Onion

Onion, Cepa. There are three sorts for winter use; the Strasburg...the red Spanish Onion...the white Spanish Onion... There are other sorts which suit the spring and summer season best. There are Cepa ascalonica,from Ascalon, a city in India, or the Scallion or Escallion. The Cives, or Copula, the young Onion. The Welch Onion, and lastly the Ciboule. The three first sorts should be sown in February, the first open weather, or beginning of March at farthest, and in about six weeks your Onions will be up, and ought to be weeded. The rows should be about twelve or eighteen inches asunder, if sowed in drills, which is the best method, arid the plants should be drawn to be about five or six inches apart. This may be no loss, because they will serve with young salad in the spring; about the middle or latter end of July your plants will be ripe, which may be discovered by the dropping down or shrinking of the blades; then they should be drawn up, and the extreme part of the blades should be cropped off, and the plants laid on the ground to dry. They should be turned at least every other day, otherwise they will strike fresh root, especially in moist weather. In about a fortnight they will be sufficiently dried; you are then to rub off all the earth and take care to remove all that are any ways decayed, and the sound ones laid as thin as possible in some room or garret, as close from the air as possible, and at least once a month look over them, to see if any of them are decayed, for if any are so, they will affect the. rest; or if too near one another, or in heaps, they will heat, and probably ruin the whole crop. The white Onion is the sweetest, though all the three sorts will degenerate into one another in the course of time. In March'you should dig a trench, and put some of your most flourishing plants about six inches deep, and as far asunder,v into it, which should be covered over with a rake, and in about a month's time the leaves will appear above ground, and when your plants begin to head, they should be supported by stakes and packthread or yarn, otherwise they will be very liable to be injured by the winds. These will produce you seed about August, which may be known by the seeds changing brown, and the bells where the seed is contained opening. The heads should be critically cut, otherwise the seed will be dropped, and when cut, the heads should be exposed to the sun, and sheltered in the night and wet weather, and when suificiently dry, they should be rubbed out, and after being exposed one day more to the sun, may be put into bags and preserved for the following year. The Scallion is a small Onion, and is sown early in the spring, and never forms any bulb, and is used green in the spring with young salads. The Ciboule and Welch Onion, are thought to be the same by Miller.

Plants in Early American Gardens - Sweet William Catchfly

Sweet William Catchfly (Silene armeria)

Sweet William Catchfly is a showy, self-seeding annual flower native to Europe with blue-green leaves and a long succession of purplish-pink flowers from late spring into summer. Sometimes called Lobel's Catchfly or None-So-Pretty, it was established in American gardens by the 1820s. The 1804 broadside of Philadelphia nurseryman Bernard McMahon offered seed for both red and white forms.

For more information & the possible availability
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Garden to Table - Home-Made Clary & Raisin Wine

 

John Greenwood (American artist, 1727-1792) Sea Captains Carousing, 1758.  Detail

Old-Time Recipes for Home Made Wines Cordials & Liqueurs 1909 by Helen S. Wright

CLARY  - RAISIN WINE

Take twelve pounds of Malaga raisins, pick them and chop them very small, put them in a tub, and to each pound one-half pint of water. Let them steep ten or eleven days, stirring it twice every day; you must keep it covered close all the while. Then strain it off, and put it into a vessel, and about one-quarter peck of the tops of clary, when it is in blossom; stop it close for six weeks, and then bottle it off. In two or three months it is fit to drink. It is apt to have a great sediment at bottom; therefore it is best to draw it off by plugs, or tap it pretty high.

Old-Time Recipes for Home Made Wines is a cookbook for those who want to make their own wines & liqueurs from available ingredients, including fruits, flowers, vegetables, & shrubs from local gardens, farms, & orchards. It includes ingredients & instructions for making & fermenting spirits, from wine & ale to sherry, brandy, cordials, & even beer. 

Colonial Era Cookbooks

1615, New Booke of Cookerie, John Murrell (London) 

1798, American Cookery, Amelia Simmons (Hartford, CT)

1803, Frugal Housewife, Susannah Carter (New York, NY)

1807, A New System of Domestic Cookery, Maria Eliza Rundell (Boston, MA)

1808, New England Cookery, Lucy Emerson (Montpelier, VT)

Helpful Secondary Sources

America's Founding Food: The Story of New England Cooking/Keith Stavely and Kathleen Fitzgerald Chapel Hill : University of North Carolina Press, 2004.

Colonial Kitchens, Their Furnishings, and Their Gardens/Frances Phipps Hawthorn; 1972

Early American Beverages/John Hull Brown   Rutland, Vt., C. E. Tuttle Co 1996 

Early American Herb Recipes/Alice Cooke Brown  ABC-CLIO  Westport, United States

Food in Colonial and Federal America/Sandra L. Oliver

Home Life in Colonial Days/Alice Morse Earle (Chapter VII: Meat and Drink) New York : Macmillan Co., ©1926.

A Revolution in Eating: How the Quest for Food Shaped America/James E. McWilliams New York : Columbia University Press, 2005.