Whenever there’s any kind of discussion about heirloom varieties of plants, I immediately think of Thomas Jefferson, so I wanted to pass along this NY Times article. It chronicles how the staff at Monticello today maintain the gardens as authentically as is practical, drawing heavily from Jefferson’s own exhaustive records — between 1726 and 1824, he kept meticulous journals documenting when each seed was sown, and how it fared.

The vegetable garden at Monticello, Charlottesville, Va. (Image source: Wikimedia Commons)

According to the article, our third president was not only a prolific but an innovative gardener who took full advantage of various micro-climates on his estate:

After he left the White House in 1809 and moved to Monticello, his Palladian estate here, Jefferson grew 170 varieties of fruits and 330 varieties of vegetables and herbs, until his death in 1826.

The intense heat and humidity of a Virginia summer explain why colonial gardens were planted only in spring and toward the end of summer, when temperatures cooled. But Jefferson gardened year-round, planting early in heat-collecting beds along the mountain slope and growing heat-loving crops like okra, melons and tomatoes during the scorching summers. He also grew cool-season lettuces long past their time in the low-lying, damper areas farther down the mountain.

Monticello also houses the Thomas Jefferson Center for Historic Plants, a program that collects, maintains and sells a wide selection of heirloom plants, especially those grown by Jefferson or discovered and developed in his lifetime. Some of the veggies being grown today in Michelle Obama’s kitchen garden at the White House come from seeds that originated at Monticello.

Planting Tip:

Growing Heirloom Tomatoes in Dry Climates

For all you California and Western gardeners out there, the L.A. Times home & garden blog has a great piece about heirloom tomatoes. It touches on the fact that heirloom varieties come true from seed, unlike modern hybrids, and offers tips for separating the seeds from the fruit to save them.