April 1 (Wednesday). New load of mulch from Ever-Green, spread in beds “I” & “K”. Spent a couple of hours trimming yews in “I” and raking up leaves, twigs, etc. Most of the yews have not yet been mulched, but overall they look relatively clean and well-manicured. Much better than last spring.
Forsythia: first day of yellow buds opening on the “H” forsythia, several days ahead of the “G” forsythia.
Portable Greenhouse. Opened the box, popped the greenhouse out of the bag, figured out how the metal/plastic frames function, put these into the greenhouse, and anchored it down. Hope it won’t blow away.
Verlyn rented a stump remover, and it chewed up the two big crab apple stumps; also eliminated two smaller stumps in “I” & “K”. The external outlet has been installed to the shed, so if we need heat for the greenhouse, we’re ready. Progress on all fronts.
April 8. Started the day planning to work in the “B” beds, but after walking into the garden, I felt inspired to start working on the rain garden in “G”. The area looks rough and we can’t do any significant planting until it is re-landscaped. So I started digging and built new berm on south side. Decided to save the two red twig dogwood. Neither look very attractive, but they provide some structure and maybe they’ll do okay if we keep them trimmed. After filling in channel between the two drainage shafts, I dug up large Siberian iris, split it, and planted the halves in front of the rugosa rose. I repositioned three Russian sage so they are much closer together. Dug up several spiderworts and planted at top of the new berm. . . . A long way to go, but the area already looks much better. I remain optimistic this new design is going to work. . . . I dug up large peony in “G” and moved it to the “M” peony bed. Since I was on baseball trip last May Term when peonies were in bloom, I’m eager to see their color and form.
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1777
April 1. Peach trees & Cherry trees at Monticello begin to blossom. sowed a square of peas, of one kind only. qu. what?
7. sowed a bed of peas.
8. peas of March 26. up.
9. sowed radishes, lettuce, endive, & red mustard.
14. sowed bed of peas.
19. planted Cucumbers, Lima beans, Irish potatoes
1794
April 2. sowed a patch of latter peas.
7. a great white frost last night off of the mountains. the Blue ridge covered with snow Due North from hence and for about 10 E. & W. of the North.
8. our first dish of Asparagus.
8. another white frost off of the mountains. the peaches killed
19. first dish of Spinach
1795
Apr. 19. two or three days of severe weather attended with frost have killed most of the fruit in the neighborhood. here it is safe as yet, and I observed today that it is safe as low down as the old orchard where the 4. fields come together. about half the almonds however are killed.
I tried . . . the step of my horse, as a rough way of estimating distances, without getting down to stride them off. when pushed into a brisk walk he stepped the 220. yds at 112 steps descending & 116. steps ascending. 110 steps would have been 2. yds at a step. 114 (the medium) is 5 f 9 ½ I. the step. [Jefferson’s Garden Book]
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May 1 (Friday). Another beautiful day–though cloudy and cool. Worked at Alum Garden from 9:00 til 2:45. Potted daylilies, spiderwort, daisies, coneflowers, and hostas to give away. Judy and I went into Alumni House basement and brought up some pots and planters we can use. Consolidated purple coneflowers into a tighter mass in bed “A1.” Most of the day working on site of rain garden. Unearthed another drain inlet. When I got home discovered the Santa Rosa garden order had arrived: eight white boxes. This evening, I went thru the packing list, trying to settle on future location for each plant–though I know being in the garden, sizing things up, will result in many changes.
May 2. Big day for Garden. In the morning MVM & I went thru the eight Santa Rosa boxes, sorting plants according to their future beds. Placed all plants in the greenhouse. In the afternoon, I laid out all the plants for beds “D” & “F”–all planted in four hours.
May 8. High temp in the 60s; no rain. Yesterday and today, similar pattern, working at Alum Garden in morning. Focused on tidying up garden so it would look okay for reception following Baccalaureate. After cleaning under east end viburnums, laid out weed barrier carpet and covered with mulch. Looks much better. Made ID zinc metal markers for most of the new plants, using the new label maker. I’ve never liked seeing labels from nurseries–though I did leave a few for plants where I need more information on genus/species. A few observations:
• Found another peony under the yews in “F”; amazing those peonies survived with virtually no sun.
• Anemone blanda windflowers are almost all gone–they will be missed; the spurge are still blooming, look great.
• Husker red penstemons look much taller than last year; I’ve fallen in love with their dark burgundy foliage.
• All the cranesbill look good; those in the “B” beds are full, rounded, beginning to bloom.
• Horsetail (equisetum) all over west end of “G”; I admire their toughness and resilience; going to be a huge challenge to eliminate these “living fossils.”.
• Confirmed that shrubs in “D” and “H” are miniature lilacs, just beginning to bloom.
May 11. Windy; felt like October; high temp in mid 50's; 0.6" rain yesterday. First load of limestone blocks from Methwick arrived today, dumped on parking lot next to garden. Spent four hours moving and sorting blocks out of big pile, a treacherous task. The unbroken blocks are about 3' long and are heavy, over 100 lbs. I could lift them but it was a strain. Thank goodness for my red dolly. Had to work slowly; can’t afford to strain my back. Second load coming tomorrow. . . .Looking at garden, I’m struck by the need for more variety in foliage color and texture. The husker reds are so wonderful because of their contrast with the surrounding greens. Same with that large patch of unidentified ground cover in “G” and the variegated hostas. But we still need more non-green foliage for accent and diversity.
May 13. This morning, Ethan started helping me in the garden. We worked for over three hours moving limestone blocks. Built most of the rock garden frame and cleared all the blocks off the parking lot.
May 19. Chilly this morning, in low 40s. I wore fleece with muffler, but when sun came out about 10, it quickly warmed into the 60s. In morning, I potted some baptisia and gave away ten plants; I hope they survive. Rest of morning Ethan and I labored on rain garden, cutting out a channel for water to flow into main reservoir. We put in limestone blocks on each side of channel and will fill in the bed with rocks that accompanied the Methwick limestone.
May 29. Arrived at the garden by 6:45, determined to finish the limestone block perimeter around the rain garden. Ethan arrived at 8:30 and within two hours we were done–and had used up all the blocks. When we received the second dump truck load, the numbers seemed far beyond our needs, but they all got used–and we could have used 10-15 more. But I’m not complaining. This was a great deal. . . . Ethan and I drove the pickup to Elmhurst and collected limestone from my back yard for constructing the crevice garden.
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Letter to Charles Wilson Peale (April 17, 1813)
. . . . The spontaneous energies of the earth are a gift of nature, but they require the labor of man to direct their operation. And the question is so to husband his labor as to turn the greatest quantity of this useful action of the earth to his benefit. Ploughing deep, your recipe for killing weeds, is also the recipe for almost every good thing in farming. The plow is to the farmer what the wand is to the sorcerer. It’s effect is really like sorcery. In the country wherein I live we have discovered a new use for it, equal in value to it’s services before known. our country is hilly and we have been in the habit of ploughing in strait rows whether up or down hill, in oblique lines, or however they lead; and our soil was all rapidly running into the rivers. we now plough horizontally following the curvatures of the hills and hollows, on the dead level, however crooked the lines may be. every furrow thus acts as a reservoir to receive and retain the waters, all of which go to the benefit of the growing land, instead of running off into streams. in a farm horizontally and deeply ploughed, scarcely an ounce of soil is now carried off from it. in point of beauty nothing can exceed that of the waving lines & rows winding along the face of the hills & vallies,. the horses draw much easier on the dead level, and it is in fact a conversion of hilly grounds into a plain. the improvement of our soil from this cause the last half dozen years, strikes everyone with wonder. for the improvement we are indebted to my son in law, mr. Randolph, the best farmer, I believe, in the United States, and who has taught us to make more than two blades of corn to grow where only one grew before. if your farm is hilly, let me beseech you to make a trial of this method. . . [Thomas Jefferson, writing from Monticello]
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June 5. Sunny, low 80s. Most of the day at the Alum Garden. Planted another thyme and a crystal palace lobelia in crevice garden. Lois brought some ferns and a few accompanying lilies of the valley; planted them behind bench and hostas in “C” bed. Added more plants to the “A” raised bed. The lone blueberry in the “A” bed does not look good; leaves are all brown. I’m hoping its ailment is from too much sun too soon. Ice plants in crevice garden look limp, wilted. Not sure they’ll survive [the blueberry bounced back; the ice plants didn’t]. Dug up daylilies behind bench in “L” and moved them to the “H” bed, behind shasta daisies–which are now losing their sparkle. The daisies put on a great show in May, a real delight. I’ll deadhead them after another week; a few may re-bloom. Regardless, they have an attractive foliage. . . . Continued with attacking the rock/clay mix in rain garden. Slow progress. That old road bed is super hard. Developed small blister on right hand.
June 9. Three hours in Alum Garden before going home, showering, packing, and flying to Chicago and then Boston (where I’m now writing while in a room on the 6th floor of a college residence hall). Spent the morning digging up grass and raking gravel walkways so they look okay for wedding on Saturday. I’m reading Richard Mabey’s Weeds–a wonderful commentary on the “nature” of these unwanted, unloved plants that thrive in human-disturbed environments. In the Alum Garden, the spiderwort and grass are welcomed on one side of the walkways’ brick borders but hated and attacked when appearing on the walkways or the other side of the borders. The walkways appear such an inhospitable terrain–hard and gravelly and quite uninviting. And yet so many of the seeds love it. . . . Just before leaving the garden, I planted in “G” the Shenandoah switch grass that Dana donated and a Bluestone carex, The carex had become dried out and didn’t look good, but it still had some green and I trust will manage to revive [the carex did linger on through the summer but was never robust and did not survive the winter].
June 10. Went to the Gardiner Museum, second visit in four years; last visit was when my May Term baseball class was in town to see the Red Sox host the White Six at Fenway. The Gardiner has a recently redesigned outdoor garden. The design uses a limited set of plants in recurrent patterns mixed among several trees, including a lovely dark red river birch. Plantings include ferns, hostas (no variegated), Solomon seals (including an attractive miniature)), several hellebores, some daylilies. I liked how the paths were laid out in a series of curves that periodically touched each other. But several aspects of the garden were questionable. For example, many of the daylilies were in shade while some ferns looked burnt, receiving too much direct sun. On a small “hillside” the plants were haphazardly assembled, no evidence of a structure or balance. As for the stone paths, they were flush with the soil, and it was apparent they would need constant sweeping and cleaning–an observation certainly influenced by my daily combat with the Alum Garden’s gravel walkways. And at times the angles of converging walkways left little room for any vegetation. Of more long-tern concern, the trees looked charming in their present setting, but it would not be long before many would be too large for this relatively small garden.
June 11. In wandering around a neighborhood near Fenway before today’s game I encountered a impressive aggregation of garden plots, each separated by wire fencing. Many appeared to have been there a long time. A posted sign indicated these Victory Gardens were begun in 1942. One gardener told me a lot rented for $30/year, describing it as a “sweet deal.” Another gardener told me he started gardening there four years ago. His first year was not successful–the rabbits took care of his lettuce and green beans. Indeed, I saw a number of cottontails during my walk–though they were all munching on grass; most of the veggies were either elevated or protected by homemade fences. I congratulated the 4th-year gardener on his lovely, well-groomed lilac bush. He said that when he first came to this plot, there was a large hole that he had to fill in. The previous renters had dug up and removed a substantial lilac bush–but they didn’t get all the roots. The new bush appeared the next spring, one that he keeps trimmed so it does not take over his small plot (perhaps 15' x 30' rectangle). A few other garden walk observations:
• Passed two large compost piles. In one a gardener had dumped a bunch of iris that had taken root and were emerging from under heaps of debris.
• The garden complex had several raised beds where people could leave extra plants for others to use.
• Motley collections of vegetation: some gardens were all veggies, some all flowers/shrubs; some diverse mixes.
• One garden was all kale and lettuce, skillfully tended.
• Many raised beds in many styles–though I was surprised how shallow were many of these beds.
• Many gardens included old metal lawn chairs.
• Walked by a lovely shade garden with its mistress sitting in her chair, savoring the rewards of her labor.
• One garden, nicely tended, with lawn furniture under a canvas cover; two couples were enjoying a noon lunch with lemonade.
• Nearly all gates had padlocks. Many fences and gates were covered with nails or rose thorns to keep away birds (and perhaps humans).
• Many different materials used for paths: stones, wood chips, cement blocks, carpet pieces, gravel, door mats, etc.
• The most common veggies were lettuce, peas, beans, tomatoes. Very few root crops--carrots, beets, radishes. Some rhubarb, a couple of large currants, one patch of raspberries. I don’t recall seeing gooseberries or asparagus.
• Peonies still in bloom.
• I loved the diversity of these vernacular, home-grown gardens, their chaos providing so much beauty and serendipitous joy. Made singing “Sweet Caroline” later in the afternoon that much sweeter.
June 18. A beautiful day, sunny, highs in mid 70s. Put on my Wellingtons and worked in the rain garden this morning, over three hours of loading wet clay/rock mixture into the wheelbarrow and Ethan dumping it in the parking lot. As I kept digging, the bedrock became dryer. We still have another 12-18" of digging, but we are making headway. . . . Planted more grasses that Dana gave us, all in the “H” bed, creating an ornamental grass corner near the east gate. One sad note. Half of a large, “false” sunflower in “I” bed was dying. I dug it all up and threw it away. Not sure what was its ailment. Big loss.
June 25. Overcast day, highs in the 70s. 1.3" of rain at Coe; 1.8" at home. At Alum Garden, ran sump pump in rain garden for at least 30 minutes. Water still running from drainage tiles. Spent the rest of the morning weeding, mostly in “H”. Trimmed rugosa rose and cleaned out a bunch of fresh thistles. Preparing path that will wind its way thru “H”. In the afternoon, drove to Dubuque and spent two hours at Arboretum off Kennedy Drive. A few observations:
• Appreciated the value of paths allowing a visitor to walk through garden beds.
• Saw some excellent black metal plant supports. [I later called their head gardener and discovered these plant supports were made specifically for them by a shop welding class at a local high school.]
• Impressed with a variegated toad lily, beautiful foliage.
• Eremurus foxtail lily: interesting flower-head spikes.
• Cerastium tomentosum: Snow-in-Summer. Looked like excellent front of border and rock garden candidate.
June 29. Sunny, low 80s; 0.7' rain on Sunday. Warm, humid but not oppressive. In Alum Garden from 8:30 til 4:00. In morning I built iris bed across from garden shed. Mixed in compost, peat, rain garden soil, vermiculite, sand, and Milorganite fertilizer. Then planted iris that Wendy had given us, about 40 plants. They fit nicely in new bed. Not perfect location (too shady), but the nearby hollyhocks receive about the same sunlight and they are doing okay. In afternoon I attacked weeds (mostly digging up horsetail) in “G” bed; also trimmed dead buds off rugosa rose. Rest of afternoon worked on path through “H” bed. Moved one shasta daisy clump. Pulled up a lot of bindweed around dwarf lilac and Siberian iris. Laid seed suppressant cover over trail behind bed “H” and covered 1/3 with load of wood chips. It’s going to look okay. Emptied one of the compost bins, and ran everything through chipper/shredder before dumping in rear compost bin.
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Letter to George Washington (June 19, 1796)
. . . I put away this disgusting dish of old fragments, & talk to you of my peas & clover. As to the latter article, I have great encouragement from the friendly nature of our soil. I think I have had, both the last & present year, as good clover from common grounds, which had brought several crops of wheat & corn without ever having been manured, as I ever saw on the lots around Philadelphia. I verily believe that a yield of 34. acres, sowed on wheat April was twelve-month, has given me a ton to the acre at it’s first cutting this spring. The stalks extended, measured 3 ½ feet long very commonly. Another field, a year older, & which yielded as well the last year, has sensibly fallen off this year. My exhausted fields bring a clover not high enough for hay, but I hope to make seed from it. Such as these, however, I shall hereafter put into peas in the broadcast, proposing that one of my sowings of wheat shall be after two years of clover, & the other after 2. years of peas. I am trying the white boiling pea of Europe [the Albany pea] this year, till I can get the hog pea of England, which is the most productive of all. But the true winter vetch is what we want extremely. I have tried this year the Caroline drill. It is absolutely perfect. Nothing can be more simple, nor perform it’s office more perfectly for a single row. I shall try to make one to sow four rows at a time of wheat or peas, at 12 inches distance. I have one of the Scotch threshing machines nearly finished. It is copied exactly from a model mr. Pinckney sent me, only that I have put the whole works [except the horse wheel] into a single frame, movable from one field to another on the two axles of a wagon. It will be ready in time for the harvest which is coming on, which will give it a full trial. Our wheat and rye are generally fine, and the prices talked of bid fair to indemnify us for the poor crops of the two last years. [Thomas Jefferson, writing from Monticello]
~Bob