THOMAS JEFFERSON….HIS MONUMENT ALSO A TREE

JEFFERSON MEMORIAL
                                            (Photo by Kindell Brinay Moore)

"When in the course of human events, it becomes
     necessary for one people to dissolve the political
bands which have connected them with another...
     and to assume among the powers of the earth
their separate and equal station..."

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men
     are created equal, that they are endowed by
their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that
     among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit
of Happiness..."

"The greatest service which can be rendered to my
      country is to add a useful plant
to its culture."
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The excellent photographer of the Washington D.C.
Jefferson Memorial, there across the Potomac, may
or may not have realized that, with the TREE framing
the scene, she was creating a marvelous metaphor.

JFK once quipped at a White House dinner, attended
by a multitude of brilliant, creative people: "This may
be one of the greatest assemblies of talented people
ever at a White House dinner, except  when Thomas
Jefferson dined alone."

Jefferson is quite well-known for his extensive
library and his reading, for his innumerable
inventions (many still seen at Monticello today),
for being a connoisseur of fine wines (an
aptitude learned in France), but many do not
realize his attention and devotion to, his skills, and
voluminous time and efforts given to his
gardening, on his mountain at Monticello.

Mind-boggling today are aerial scenes of his
estate showing the recreated, carefully laid
out garden plots, and orchards.

He is said to have had as many as three
hundred different varieties of ninety different
plants, including exotics like sesame, chick
peas, sea kale, and salsify. A good many of
these plants and varieties he imported from
France.

Tomatoes are mentioned, almost as rarities
and one wonders if they were common at the
time.

T.J. documented his planting dates; kept track
in his logs of daily temperatures, locations
and spacing of various vegetables, when they
bloomed,  and when the food would be available
for the table each year.

It is said that, in the days when company often
dropped in on rural folks, and many times stayed
longer than overnight, he liked to set a good table,
with fine wines, and plenty of delightful vegetables.

"Behind Jefferson's zeal to categorize his world
and his gardens, was a patriotic mission," one
historian has said.

Almost more fascinating and miraculous than
his gardening of foodstuffs for the table was
the fact that he was a student of fruit trees,
always importing more.

In his South Orchard, he had 130 varieties of
fruit trees---among them--- peach, apple, fig,
and cherry.

Thomas had plenty of help for this quite
extensive amount of work, which he had to
have, due to the fact that he was active in
politics, (in fact--in demand), and served two
terms as president of the United States.

He had slaves to see after his ambitious
gardening ambitions, and likely needed the
produce to help feed them. When in residence,
he was right out there with them.

Little mention is made of his "farm" during his
years in France as ambassador.

One, in studying T.J., gets the feeling that his
political life, in later years became tedious and
he longed for his books and reading, and his
beloved Monticello, where he could work in the
soil.

Peter Hatch, the current  M. estate head gardener
has said: "Monticello's south-facing exposure
was a living laboratory for a life-long tinkerer
and almost obsessive record keeper. After T.J.
retired from public life to his beloved Virginia
hilltop plantation, his gardens served as a part
of this experimental testing lab, where he'd try
out new vegetables which he sought from
around the globe."

So it is fitting, when we come to remember
and memorialize the American president who
believed in small-to-no government, who
implemented the Louisiana Purchase, sent
out Lewis and Clark, founded a university....

and produced one of the most revered and
remembered documents in our history...
as well as countless unnamed other great
deeds...

Be remembered, with his memorial, framed
by a tree.
--------------
BY MIL
5-28-15
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Photo By Kindell Brinay Moore
(Professional Photographer,, and
    my granddaughter)
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(Recommended reading:
"A RICH SPOT OF EARTH"
    by Monticello Head Gardener,
Peter Hatch.)