Driving to Charlottesville this morning, I was excited to visit Thomas Jefferson’s Tufton Farm for a garden tour.
Established in 1987 to continue Thomas Jefferson’s legacy of studying and sharing plants, the Thomas Jefferson Center for Historic Plants grow historic plantings at Tufton for Monticello to sell at their gift shop.
Bordering Monticello, Tufton is separated from Monticello by the Rivanna River.
GARDEN TOUR
The most beautiful part of the tour was of the rose garden with varieties from the 19th century.
Rosa Perle d’Or Polyantha from 1884…
Rosa Duchesse de Brabant Tea from 1857…
Meanwhile the most practical part of the tour was of a marshy garden.
As the tour guide explained the benefit of specific plants who thrive in marshy areas, I rapidly took notes.
Appropriately called a Rain Garden, spots like these are commonly found on many properties because low spots in the ground, like this, become marshy after rain.
Since a corner of our backyard is just like this, I wrote a list of all the plants that would grow well in these conditions.
During this autumn season, we found many spent plants, purposely left to dry for the collection of seeds.
MASSIVE FIG TREE
After the official tour we were free to look around and purchase some plants and seeds, before the lecture.
Noticing this huge fig tree against the building, I noted the same site at Monticello on a previous tour.
Sadly, our fig trees are small. This would be one of the key topics of the upcoming talk with the guest speaker.
MICHAEL MCCONKEY OF EDIBLE LANDSCAPE
In front of this 19th century house, we soon took our seats to await the speaker.
The guest speaker was Michael McConkey from Edible Landscaping, who was full of interesting details and great humor.
At one point he looked directly at me, stating that he recognized me. Where had we met?
I had no idea if he was serious or teasing so I just played along.
When I told my family after returning home, my son said maybe he had read my blog.
Since all of Virginia is suffering from the polar vortex that seems to descend every winter, many fig trees across Virginia have shut down fig production.
We talked about ways to keep the fig plants warm, which is a bit difficult in that we don’t know if they need these extreme measures until the last minute.
While many fruits were addressed in the lecture, tips were given for optimum growing and yield…and I took notes galore.
We even had a few samples…I never had persimmon until that day. Yum!
Oh yes! McConkey had all the tips for organic fruit gardening and optimum harvests based on what has already worked in Virginia, today…and in the past.
This is the legacy of the Thomas Jefferson Center for Historic Plants to introduce local businesses such as Edible Landscaping to us!
