Monticello was amazing. We visited on Sept 11 for their
Harvest Festival. It was a gorgeous day up on the mountain. The garden was on a large terrace that they had carved out of the mountainside. On it, there were beds going the width of the terrace with walkways in between. Most of these beds had one type of plant per bed, although there were a few mixed beds.
The tomato supports were built from wood found on the property. They had many different kids of heirlooms growing. One thing that surprised me, was that there were tomatoes in various stages of development. Some were fully grown, but there were several that had clearly been planted fairly recently. I'm not sure of their growing season, but would imagine that in the mountains, they can't be far from frost. I wish I knew why they had grown tomatoes that clearly would never make it to fruit.
The orchard goes down the hillside from the garden. There were multiple kinds of trees, although I'm not sure what varieties.
These bean towers looked like fun. If I was a child, I think I would have liked to hide inside them.
More bean towers, not fully grown.
These squash were huge. Behind them you can see some of the herbs grown on the property. They had many different types of herbs, both culinary and medicinal.
I wish we could get goats. This one was a real sweetie. Do you think Toby would like to play with her?
7 comments:
I can see growing for green tomatoes, for piccalilli and the like. But for ones that will never fruit? Maybe they and the not fully grown bean towers are to show visitors things in various stages of growth?
Karen Anne, I'm betting it's the latter. It's the only thing that makes sense.
So pretty. I love bean towers myself. I used to have one every year, but quit doing it when I switched how I rotated the garden.
Great photos. I absolutely love the tomato and bean supports. A great idea I can use next year. Interesting about the tomato plantings.
These pictures are gorgeous. I would love to visit Thomas Jefferson's estate one of these days. It's every vegetable garden's mecca!
Daphne, maybe you can do them again in the new garden.
Leigh, they are cool aren't they. I love that there is nothing to buy.
Thomas, it certainly is mecca. I hope you get to go someday.
By the way, I have a pictorial book on George Washington's garden sitting around that I have to get to before it's due back at the library.
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