Monticello, Jefferson's home and farm in Charlottesville, Va.
I have been wanting to go to the mountain, and this year we decided to purchase season passes. My desire, to visit the vegetable garden in all of our seasons, will be met. I judge myself by hard standards and make it difficult to have failures. Anyone who knows me, knows this is my problem. My goals for our little farm are high and I have limited time to meet them, I think. I lived in my last home for a number of years and the entire garden was rich and produced. I have been pleased with my results of coming into barren land, producing food for us and our animals. l always watch gardening programs and am interested in seeing how I am doing compared to others in our area.
I have family members who are in the professional landscape business and they see the garden as a totally different palette. Weeds are my friends in the garden, chickweed is one of my winter sources of fresh greens for my salads and pain medication for my animals. My winter garden has large beds of chickweed, yes, a weed, this season we are going to be dehydrating chickweed. There are wonderful plants, dandelion which is not a weed but a source of early spring greens, the wild violet can be used like spinach, and the list goes on. I let myself become afraid for others to come to my garden and point out how many weeds I am growing. They want to know why I was not weeding my garden. I had no answer which others could not understand and I ended up being the one who was hurt, upset and felt as if I should give up my personal quest to feed my farm family. Here I was walking through the gardens at Monticello where they have lots of staff, their garden looked in many ways like my garden. There were different plants they allowed to grow where ever they came up. Oh, the smile on my face must have made the mountain feel as if another sun was shinning on it, someone understands why we let things other than tomatoes, beans and squash grow in our garden. You could see where volunteer plants appeared in the garden and they were left to produce. I have great problems removing a volunteer plant as it always seems to be a much stronger plant. The seed laid in the ground all winter and sprung forth when the weather was just right and it was strong, grew quickly and we always seem to get a good harvest from the volunteer plants. I cherish my volunteers when others see them as out of place and my garden looks messy. Well, if they can do it in Jefferson's garden, I can, also, and now I know I need not explain my gardening method to those who only want a well manicured and professional looking plot of land. I love my garden which shows how much I love the plants and what I do to protect the gifts I receive from gardens past.
Visiting gardens, farm stands and farm gardens
One of my first outings this year was to a huge organic vegetable and herb garden. The herb garden had weeds and volunteer plants everywhere. You could see where some had been removed and others appeared to be flagged for removal. The vegetable garden was planted and growing but there were some miscellaneous plants, many could have been removed but they were growing and looked plenty healthy. A plant which is not transplanted may fruit earlier in the season as it doesn't have to reestablish itself in the garden, it grows on the roots and puts all of it's strength into being healthy and producing it's crop. There is no reason to remove a strong healthy plant just to plant a seedling. This farm answered more of my questions because their herb garden was lovely to the eye and nose.
One of the farm stands, I visited, had some of the saddest veggies I had seen in a long time. They were for sale and folks were buying them. When sharing my veggies, I always try to do pretty but as the season winds down the veggies are just not as nice as the first few pickings. I know all of this as I have been in the garden all of my life but sometimes you just need to be reminded. These folks could see the long rows in the garden and knew the veggies may not be pretty but they were fresh. One lady said to me she had enjoyed all the produce she had purchased from this farm and was sorry to see the season ending.
Another farm stand, I could see the garden rows and there were not any weeds in the garden. The crops were coming in. Went by one day during the peak of growing season and there was nothing for sale, my question was quickly answered, they had a weed free garden and they had no produce. The season was very short for this farm. I will be watching next year to see if their garden produces for a longer period of time.
After checking out gardens, show gardens, producing gardens and weedy gardens I learned quite a bit this season. I came to understand the weed helps to shade the plant and may also become a host plant for any pests who would consume your veggies. My garden my not be pretty, professional looking but my garden produces. I had brandywine tomatoes over 2 lbs and hanging off the slice of bread. I grew some of the largest pumpkins and winter squash ever produced on our little farm. The summer squash came in all summer right up to frost. Fall turnips are feeding the humans, goats and fowl. The winter tunnel has spinach, swiss chard and other winter greens. We have rows of garlic and onions planted for spring and summer harvest. Chickweed is growing in the beds that have not been planted, it is good to keep the land working and covered with vegetation, this way the top soil doesn't blow away.
NO, it may not be pretty, in fact, the garden can be quite weedy, move those weeds around and find something to harvest and enjoy the gifts from my garden. My garden pleases me and for the others who just pass through and make rude remarks. Go plant your own 1/3 acre garden, work it with only hand tools, you will quickly realize I am one hard working woman who has a compassion for plants, if there is a use for the plant it is not a weed and there are very few things growing in my garden my goats will not eat. With this in mind, there are no weeds in my garden just food for my pasture crew.
I am so glad I spent sometime this summer visiting other gardens, I was really glad to come home and see how special my garden is. Thank goodness, the 2018 seed catalogs are beginning to arrive, time for me to make some important decisions for next spring's garden.
