Peter Jonathan Hatch
Author, Gardens of Monticello
Thursday, September 27th
7:00pm
Griffiths 123
Thomas Jefferson's Revolutionary Garden
This lecture will be followed by a book signing of 'A Rich Spot of Earth', Thomas Jefferson's Revolutionary Garden at Monticello.
Thomas Jefferson wrote that "the greatest service which can be rendered any country is to add a useful plant to its culture," and his 1,000-foot-long, terraced vegetable garden at Monticello was an experimental laboratory for the cultivation of some 330 varieties of vegetable novelties from around the world: an Ellis Island of new and unusual introductions. Peter's talk will explore the variety of themes that defined this garden and also discuss its recreation in the 1980s; "the most accurate garden restoration that had ever been attempted." Jefferson's legacy in food and gardening is truly profound. His love of vegetable cuisine, support for local farmers, and devotion to the improvement of the soil provide models and inspiration for gardeners today -- from Michelle Obama's White House kitchen garden to the slow food movement inspired by Alice Waters.
As Director of Gardens and Grounds for the Thomas Jefferson Foundation, Peter J. Hatch was responsible for the maintenance, interpretation, and restoration of the 2,400-acre landscape at Monticello from 1977 to 2012. Mr. Hatch managed important restoration projects, such as the eight-acre Vegetable and Fruit Garden, and the Grove, an ornamental forest of eighteen acres. In 1987 Mr. Hatch initiated the Thomas Jefferson Center for Historic Plants, a unique nursery to preserve historic and Jefferson-related garden plants.
He is the author of The Gardens of Monticello, the editor of Thomas Jefferson's Flower Garden at Monticello (University Press of Virginia), and has written numerous articles, and lectured in thirty-five states, on Jefferson and the history of garden plants. His scholarly study of early American pomology, The Fruits and Fruit Trees of Monticello, Thomas Jefferson and the Origins of American Horticulture, was published by the University Press of Virginia in 1999. Hatch’s next book on the Monticello vegetable garden of Jefferson’s retirement years, ‘A Rich Spot of Earth’: Thomas Jefferson’s Revolutionary Garden at Monticello (Yale University Press), appeared in book stores in April, 2012.
Mr. Hatch served as the President of the Southern Garden History Society from 1998 – 2000. In 2004 he received the Thomas Roland Medal from the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, “for exceptional skill in horticulture.” In 2010 he was named an Honorary Member of The Garden Club of Virginia, and has served as an informal consultant and source of plants for Michelle Obama’s White House Kitchen Garden, which has a discrete section honoring the garden legacy of Thomas Jefferson. In 2011 he received The Garden Club of America’s Medal in Historic Preservation, the first horticulturist to receive the award, and in 2012 Mr. Hatch was awarded the Flora Ann Bynum medal, the highest honor bestowed by the Southern Garden History Society. Presently, Hatch is an independent scholar living in Albemarle County, Virginia, where he gardens, lectures, consults, and writes about garden history. He is married to Lucile Brandt Hatch, and they have two daughters, Rosemary (21) and Olivia (18).
