Thomas Jefferson is a founding father known for drafting the Declaration of Independence, sending Lewis and Clark on their famous expedition and becoming the third president of the United States. Less well known is Jefferson’s role in revolutionizing gardening in America and how he began the farm to table food movement back in 1770.
Peter Hatch, retired director of the Gardens at Monticello, will be presenting the history of horticulture and the significance of Jefferson’s work on Thursday, Oct. 12. Hatch says Jefferson was a revolutionary at more than the fight for independence.
“He would get seeds from ambassadors to the United States, and pass them out to local farmers with directions on how to grow them,” Hatch said. “We can’t really prove it, but one vegetable he probably did introduce is the rutabaga.”
According to the article in Homestead Gardens, Jefferson collected seeds and carefully recorded the results of his growing experiments. Hatch says Jefferson recorded the planting of 330 varieties of vegetables and 170 varieties of fruit at Monticello. In another article by Bill Lamont from the Centre Daily Times, Jefferson took note of his many failures in his experiments. From that information, scientists and horticulturists alike have used Jefferson’s notes about growing techniques and soils to make further observations about growing conditions in the U.S.
Daniel Tekiela, a faculty member in the Plant Sciences, facilitated Hatch’s visit said, “Wyoming, like many states, is trying to foster more interest in gardening and home grown food production.”
Because Wyoming is a harsh environment, maintaining a garden is difficult due to weather conditions and the soil.
“Even though that is the case, we have a great background in Gardening,” Tekiela said.
What Tekiela hopes that the public will gain from this is that people will start growing their own garden and enjoy fresh food.
Hatch said, “Gardening I think is an adventure, it’s a lot of fun working with the natural world, I’m like Jefferson. I encourage people to try all things. Don’t worry about falling, experiment.”
The presentation will be free to the public and will be in the auditorium at the Berry Biodiversity center from 4:30-5:30 p.m., today. Afterwards, there will be a book signing of Hatch’s book “A Rich Spot of Earth: Thomas Jefferson’s Revolutionary Garden at Monticello.”
