Monday night Monticello is celebrating the national launch of a new book that digs into history of the garden on the grounds of Thomas Jefferson's mountaintop home.
Peter Hatch, the author of "A Rich Spot of Earth," will retire this summer after 34 years as Monticello's garden director. But first, he wanted to tell the story behind the vegetable garden where Jefferson spent the better part of his retirement, and the years of work to restore the former president's plots.
Even on a damp day, Hatch feels most at home amidst the rows of Monticello's vegetable garden. He said, "When the sun is out and the ground is burning up, I say "Boy, I wish it was cool and rainy today."
Hatch noted a variety of vegetables in the garden including "lettuce and spinach and root crops like beets and turnips and cabbage family members."
Hatch grew his 34-year career at Monticello, leading the restoration of Jefferson's terrace. The vibrant greenery had been plowed and paved over.
"All the evidence of Jefferson's activity was gone by the 1980s," stated Hatch.
Fortunately for Hatch, the retired president kept detailed documentation of his plants and measurements of the garden grounds.
"When they came out of the ground, when they first flowered, when they first formed pods," Hatch said. "We used Jefferson's extensive notes about gardening which are, truly, remarkable in their detail."
There were 330 varieties of vegetables covering 1,000 feet. Hatch stated, "Jefferson's garden book itself is just 66 pages."
Now, Hatch is following in Jefferson's footsteps. He said, "My book is some 280 pages with 200 photographs."
His new book shares the history of Jefferson's horticulture. Hatch said, "Jefferson was sort of a seedy missionary in the way he assembled these rare plants and then pass them out to the leading gardeners and plantsmen throughout the country as well as neighbors here in Albemarle County."
Hatch's book covers the president's preference for English peas and creative cuisine to his retirement-era experiments.
"He had contests with his neighbors to see who could bring the first peas to table in the spring time," Hatch said. "It was sort of a barometer of his vitality to come out here and sow peas or harvest seeds all by himself."
Hatch ends his decades digging in Monticello's dirt, hoping his words plant a seed of green thumb inspiration.
"I'm looking forward to doing a lot of gardening and botanizing and recalling a lot of my years at Monticello," Hatch said. "And seeing what comes forth in my next life, in my next chapter."
Monticello is beginning a new interactive tour of Jefferson's garden - based on Hatch's book. Visitors will get to plant, harvest, and taste the vegetables. The tours begin Friday and continue through October.
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