Tuesday, July 15, 2014

Historical garden


Blooming history

Our trip to Virginia for a wedding included a morning visit to Colonial Williamsburg. In a walk through the historical area, a lush flower and vegetable garden lured us in for a closer look.

The relatively small area was the Colonial Nursery, an interpretive and sales site that featured 18th-century garden plantings, botanical histories, historically accurate plants and practices. For sale were reproduction gardening tools and seeds for plants that would have been found in a cross section of 18th century colonial gardens.

Caught reading
One of the volunteers plied me with information, including the observation that she would like to have a gardener working in her garden the same work week of the gifted gardening expert working in the nursery eight hours a day, five days a week.
Wesley Greene and Don McKelvey, garden historians (Photo from Colonial Williamsburg history here)
The nursery is the first historical garden I have ever visited. I look forward to more.

11 comments:

  1. Really interesting, we have something like this here. But my favorite will remain the beautiful Bachelor's Button you captured!

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  2. I would love to visit the garden and i am wondering how many Victorian women had time to read a book. i love that photo of her reading and love her dress to.

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  3. I am sadly wondering how many Victorian woman could read?
    That would have been me in the corner hiding from the work with my book.

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  4. What a fun place to visit!

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  5. Delightful stuff. There wasn't a garden there when we lived outside of Williamsburg.

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  6. What a neat place. I love how you caught the gardener reading. That was me as a child in the summers, outside reading every chance I got. :)

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  7. That must have been so interesting.
    I took a tour group to Williamsburg at least 20 years ago.
    I would love to go on my own so I could actually enjoy it.
    It's a wonderful place.

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  8. Oh what a wonderful place to visit. I loved the gardens too and how the reenactors brought everything to live. Where else could you meet and talk to Mr. and Mrs Washington, Patrick Henry et. all....:)

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  9. You know me, I would have really enjoyed this:) Thank you for sharing your pictures. By the way, I loved the gardener how was enjoying her book :)

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  10. What a wonderful place that would be to visit. Wow. I'd really love to go there.

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  11. One of my favorite places. I hope I can get back there this Fall.

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