Vegetable Garden

In the 18th century, Southern vegetable gardens were laid out as formal squares and borders, unlike Northern gardens where straight rows were planted with shrubby borders of currants or small fruits. Gardens were numbered so notes could be used in subsequent years. Seeds were hard to obtain and were available mainly by saving seeds from the best specimens or by purchasing them from ships coming from Europe. Lists kept by Thomas Jefferson and George Washington show that they experimented with varieties common in their day, though those were not always the same as the ones planted today. Vegetable plants varied yearly due to space limitations.

Powhatan, Virginia · United States