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JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER, JR. LIBRARY
COLONIAL WILLIAMSBURG FOUNDATION
P. 0. Box 1776
Williamsburg, Virginia 23187
Issue 135
February 1997
Geddy Garden News
I' m looking at a bright red Christmas amaryllis boldly blooming on my desk.
A favorite
Victorian hybrid from the Hippeastrum family, this baroque flower is kept indoors in cold
winters and blooms easily with a minimum of care. Once it begins to grow, it shoots up rapidly
It will be ready to bloom again in six to eight weeks after the bulb lies dormant
in a cool, dark place. This bold reminder of spring adds color and warmth to our cold winter
and blossoms.
days.
My garden plans have been taking form. I have been reading and preparing for planting
my kitchen garden. I am anxious to try some new plants and plan to increase the size of the
patch. " Work to be done in February" was an important chapter to be read in a garden calendar
in the past.
Today we often read magazine articles or "
how
to"
books
to learn the correct
methods of gardening. In James Geddy' s time, English garden books would have informed the
colonists of what, when, and how to plant in their kitchen garden.
The Comnleat Gardener, by Jean -Baptist de la Quintinge, was an excellent resource book.
He was a lawyer, botanist, garden writer, and head gardener, who designed the royal kitchen
garden for Louis XIV at Versailles. Since the Versailles gardens influenced the gardens of the
world, the book was read and respected by men of the soil.
The author was an authority on
fruit and vegetable gardening and in his book he shared his knowledge, combining practicality
with pleasure.
For February de la Quintyne suggests working the soil and manuring, pruning trees, and
preparing for the warmer month of March. A description of seeds might have influenced the
colonists to try planting something new and foreign to them. Experimentation in gardening was
going on throughout Virginia and it was of great importance to know the proper methods.
Thomas Jefferson' s Garden Kalendar related how in February he spent his days doing
much of his planning. He mentions ordering fruit trees and strawberries in February; sowing
marrow fat and Hotsphur Peas; planting carrots and salsify; transplanting cucumber and lettuce;
dressing and replanting his asparagus; and doing maintenance work such as making paths and
top dressing dung for spring planting.
On this Presidents' Day weekend it seems appropriate to recall the father of our country.
George
Popes
Washington
Creek.
was a Virginia
His birthplace was at the tidal creek known as
which was later renamed " Wakefield," probably after
farmer.
The small brick house,
Oliver Goldsmith' s book, The Vicar of Wakefield, was accidently destroyed by fire.
The fire
was believed to have taken place on Christmas Day in 1779, long after George and his family
had moved from there.
�1732.
Washington was born on February 11 ( Old Style),
In 1752 Great Britain adopted
the Gregorian calendar in place of the old style Julian calendar, and his birthdate changed to
February 22 under the "
New Style."
George and his parents lived on the Wakefield farm until November 1735 when George
was 31/ years old. After that, there were several moves for the Washington family, all on
2
farmlands owned by the family. It was probably this rural background of his childhood that
contributed to his fervent love of farming.
The environment led him to love the outdoors; the
farming of wheat, tobacco, and corn was instilled in him at an early age. As a child he probably
wandered in the nearby forest and hunted and fished. Near the old ruins of his birthplace there
still remain some old apple trees which were probably part of the original orchard that George
knew
in his boyhood.
George' s elder half brother, Augustine Jr., later built a house on that
property, where George made frequent and extended visits.
The happy experience of farming the land must have left a permanent impression on the
forming of George' s character.
Like Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, who also became
presidents of our country, George Washington was an outstanding farmer who recognized the
He experimented with new growing
value of the soil and realized that crops should be rotated.
techniques, new crops and fertilizers, and was involved with sharing new information through
correspondence with other planters like himself, including Mr. Jefferson.
Though remembered most for his great roles in military and political life, he said at age
57, "
All I desire now is to settle down at Mt. Vernon and live and die an honest man on my
own farm."
An appropriate epitaph is inscribed on the sundial in the herb garden at Wakefield,
the site of his birth.
It reads
A place of rose and thyme
and scented earth,
A place the world forgot,
But here a matchless
flower came to birth,
Time paused and blessed
the spot."
danet cut
t
rie
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Geddy Garden News
Description
An account of the resource
The Geddy Garden News was a monthly newsletter produced by employee Janet Guthrie who worked for many years as a garden interpreter at the James Geddy House. The Library holds a partial run of this newsletter (issues 33-114 with some gaps) for the years 1996-2003. The newsletter ceased publication in 2003 upon Guthrie’s retirement.
Subjects covered most often in the newsletters are 18th century gardens, gardening publications, gardens of the Founding Fathers, plant uses, early and pre-Christian folklore, and seasonal customs. Much good and interesting information is found within these newsletters, but current users should be alert for some now archaic interpretive sources, Latin errors, and cultural generalizations, especially with Native peoples/nations of North America which are often treated as one culture instead of many.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Guthrie, Janet
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Geddy Garden News, no. 35, February, 1997
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Guthrie, Janet
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation