Colonial Gardens. Part 3 - Williamsburg

How much we can learn from the gardeners of the past! How much inspiration we can get from the replicas of their gardens, thanks to the efforts of thousands of professionals and volunteers! Jamestown, Yorktown and now, Williamsburg.

From 1699 to 1780, Williamsburg was the political, social and cultural capital of Virginia, Great Britain's largest, wealthiest and most populous colony.
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As the Colonial Guide states, in Williamsburg, "there are more than 90 acres of gardens and greens showing a range of 18th-century landscaping designs and a variety of uses, from purely decorative to strictly functional".
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I was glad to see my favorite foxgloves all over the place. Like tall exclamation marks, they attract attention in both primitive and formal gardens.

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I would gladly shop in the Colonial Nursery, below, but it's not a good idea to travel with plants by a bus, train or plane (yes, my trip included all these types of transportation). Info about the Colonial Nursery was borrowed from this site: http://www.history.org/history/CWLand/nursery1.cfm.div.
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The Colonial Nursery has 18th-century garden plantings, historically accurate plants and reproduction gardening tools for sale. Garden historians are on site to answer questions. Hot beds, cisterns, cloches, and unusual pruning methods are among the topics which the garden historians discuss.
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The seeds sold here represent those plants that would have been found in the gardens of a cross section of 18th century colonial society, and a smattering of other heirloom varieties.
Other goods, such as cloches, are also available for sale and represent the colonial nursery's intent to develop products that reflect the horticultural practices of the past. The purpose of these cloches is to trap heat at night and to force vegetables to bear earlier than they normally would. The short wattle fences, visible on several pictures, would have been used to keep small wild animals out of the beds at night.
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Do you see two bulls on the picture below?

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The pictures below are of the Governor's Palace. This place was the home of seven royal governors and Virginia's first two state governors, Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson.

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Credits: Colonial Guide, Vol.19, No.1, 2010; Colonial Williamsburg Official History Site

The garden posts with my photographs of two other parts of Virginia's Historic Triangle, Jamestown Settlement and Yorktown Victory Center, are here: Part 1 - Jamestown , Part 2 - Yorktown .

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Posted by TatyanaS at MySecertGarden