Monticello

Route 53, P.O. Box 316

Charlottesville, VA  22902

434-984 -9822

Thomas Jefferson said he would have been a happy, lifelong farmer and gardener. Instead his commitment to creating and nurturing this country kept him away from his beloved Monticello for extended periods. The house and its gardens and grounds were never far from his mind, however. In 1807 he drew a sketch for the West Lawn showing oval flower beds near the house and a serpentine walk edged with flowers circumnavigating the West Lawn. He explained in an accompanying letter to his granddaughter that he returned to this idea because, “. . . the limited number of our flower beds will too much restrain the variety of flowers in which we might wish to indulge. . . . ” The sketch served as the basis for the Garden Club’s restoration in the late1930s. Today visitors can see seasonal displays of bulbs, annuals and perennials in the flower borders that Jefferson would recognize as the flowers of his era.