building the american landscape - Univerza v Novi Gorici

The call for tradition by English landscape gardening is also obvious. Jefferson does,
in fact, show typical Anglo‐Saxon sensitivity in the way he combines the picturesque
with the call of the past, as William Kent (1685‐1748) and Lancelot “Capability”
Brown (1716‐1783) had already experimented in their work.
His use of a Ha‐Ha barrier [Figure 5] on the east and west sides is proof of
Jefferson’s attention to a detail which marked the landscape of the English estates.
In fact, he used it in the same spirit as the Ha‐ha barrier was not merely a ditch to
establish the precise perimeter across a curve in the terrain. Its purpose was also to
protect the flower gardens from the animals grazing close to the building.
The Eastern side, with the access road to the villa, is bound by an oval designed by a
sequence of small columns and a chain fence [Figure 5]. The vegetable gardens and
the fruit trees, which still exist today, were surrounded instead by paling fences
about one metre high, to keep away either hares, deer or other wild animals, as the
case may be, but over the years hawthorn hedges were also used to separate crops
or to protect specific areas from the animals.
In direct contact with the building, in the space enclosed by the Northern and
Southern pavilions, there are numerous oval flower beds [Figures 4‐5], containing a
large variety of species, selected over the years not only from places near and far,
but also from the geographical expedition of Lewis and Clark (1804‐1806).
Finally, as an extension of the side wings, there is a clay pedestrian path in the
shape of a ring, which unfolds on the gently sloping land at the base of the summit
to enclose a wide lawn[Figure 1], bordered here and there by flower beds and a
small pond. Further away from Monticello, on the hills and slopes surrounding the
large estate, there were sections of wood set aside for animals, such as deer, sheep,
and cattle, and fields reserved for “intensive”, non‐experimental agricultural
cultivation, on the basis of a scheme to exploit the ground using crop rotation. In
these additional fields, wheat, oats, clover, peas, corn and fruit trees were
cultivated.
In addition to all this, there were numerous paths, canals, roads, buildings, fields
and sections of wood organized according to a common project. Even more amazing
are not only Jefferson’s botanical notes, but also his detailed project drawings, the
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