May - UT Gardens - The University of Tennessee

Thomas Jefferson’sKitchen Garden2007 UT Heirloom Vegetable GardenThis is the fifth year to cultivate the soil in our vegetableplot at the UT Gardens and I am pleasedto announce that we have chosen “ThomasJefferson’s Kitchen Garden” for our theme of theheirloom vegetable garden. The terraced garden atMonticello, near Charlottesville, Va., is probably themost famous kitchen garden in the country, and Ilearned so much about the garden while I studiedat Monticello last summer. This experience ledme to a greater level of appreciation for heirloomgardening. Jefferson was a passionate and dedicatedgardener and collected amazing numbers ofvegetable varieties in his life time. Our heirloomexpert, John Coykendall, and I will demonstrate acolonial kitchen garden, just like Jefferson’s, on asmaller scale at the UT Gardens this summer.The seedlings of spring vegetables are getting readyto be put out in the Gardens any time now. Johnand I carefully selected vegetables that Jeffersonparticularly liked to grow and eat, as well as somepopular varieties that were commonly grown in the19 th century kitchen gardens.In early spring, we will start with some ofJefferson’s favorite lettuce varieties, ‘Tennis Ball,’‘Bath Cos’ and ‘Brown Dutch’ lettuce, as well ashis prized peas, ‘Prince Albert’ and ‘Blue Prussian.’Jefferson was also known as one of the first peopleto grow tomatoes for eating. Before that time,people were afraid of eating tomatoes for they werethought poisonous, as are many other membersof the nightshade family. You will find ‘Large Red’tomatoes in our garden this summer as one of therare tomato varieties from the 19 th century, becausetomatoes that Jefferson used to grow have unfortunatelydisappeared over the years. Other summercrops include white eggplant, red orach, Florencefennel, sesame, large red cayenne pepper, pricklyseededspinach, and more. We will also attemptto continue with our garden through fall and earlywinter with some late season crops, such as ‘ChinaRose’ winter radish, ‘Early Curled Siberian’ kale,walking onion and globe artichoke.There will be interpretive signs for each vegetable atthe Gardens, and John will be speaking about thisheirloom collection at the Blooms Days in June. Ifyou would like more information or want to help memaintain this garden, please contact me at tsaito@utk.edu or 974-7256.—Terumi Watson, graduate studentNews BriefsCaula A. BeylIn late March, Joseph DiPietro, vice president foragriculture, announced the appointment of a newdean for the College of Agricultural Sciences andNatural Sciences. After a rigorous search process,Caula A. Beyl was selected from a pool of manyqualified candidates. She currently serves as directorof the Office of Institutional Planning, Research andEvaluation for Alabama A&M University. A professorof horticulture, she has received numerous awardsand recognitions for teaching and research. She hasalso served in editorial and review capacities fora number of scholarly publications, including theJournal of the American Society for HorticulturalScience. Dr. Beyl holds a Ph.D. in stress physiologyand a master’s in horticulture from Purdue University.12