building the american landscape - Univerza v Novi Gorici

as workshops. Downhill from the Mulberry Row there is the Vegetable Garden
Terrace 21 , with a small pavilion‐belvedere, two small vineyards (measuring 16,000
and 9,000 square feet respectively, equal to 1,400 and 800 sq.m.), spaced out by
the Berry Squares [Figures 5‐6], and the South Orchard 22 with numerous varieties of
apples, peaches, cherries, pears, apricots and plums [Figure 10], which was
“restored” in 1981 to make it accessible to visitors.
Numerous attempts have been made in this orchard to cultivate Mediterranean
trees, such as fig, almond, pomegranate and olive trees, without success due to the
harsh winter and spring climate 23 .
The Eastern side of Monticello features a smaller orchard [Figure 5], planted in 1784
before he left for France, and a thinned out wood, or arboretum, with
autochthonous plants and other trees, such as the red cedar (Juniperus virginiana),
the sugar maple (Acer saccharum), the European larch (Larix decidua), the tulip
poplars (Liriodendron tulipifera) 24 .
The project for the buildings adjacent to the main building, Jefferson thought of
various techniques to diversify the uses of the surrounding land. His solutions show
a knowledge of European landscapes. Jefferson, as is well known, had spent time in
England, France and Italy and had drawn inspiration from his experiences in these
countries. The Italian influence can be seen in the names given to the places, in the
classical origins of the architecture and in his friendship with Mazzei (together with
other Italians). They can all be traced back to the fascination exercised by the Four
Books of Architecture by Andrea Palladio, which Jefferson had studied in detail 25 .
21 See HATCH, J. Peter, “A Rich Spot of Earth”: Thomas Jefferson’s Revolutionary Garden at
Monticello, foreword by Alice Waters, New Haven, University of Yale Press, 2012, p. 280
22 See HATCH, J. Peter, The fruits and fruit trees of Monticello, Charlottesville, University of Virginia
Press, 1998, p. 222
23 See MHS archive, Coolidge Collection of Thomas Jefferson Papers, Garden Book, p. 23, Oct. 12.
1778 “brought an olive tree from Colle. It is a shoot from an old root, being one of many brought
from Italy in 1773. They stood the winter of that year and the remarkable frost of May 5.1774 also
the winters of 1774 & 1775 planted in the open field & without any cover in Decemb. 1775 & Jan.
1776.There was a frost of four or five weeks duration, the earth being frozen like a rock the whole
time. This killed all the olives; the others totally, this one alone sprung up from the old root. Its
height now is 21 3/4 I. took a cutting from it and planted it. When an olive tree is killed in Italy and a
new shoot puts out, it is ten years before it bears.”
24 http://www.monticello.org/site/house‐and‐gardens/trees‐monticello URL visited May 28, 2012
25 Thomas Jefferson owned five different editions of the Palladio’s publication I quattro libri
dell’architettura. The first English edition is by Giacomo Leoni The architecture of Andrea Palladio,
London, 1715
18