Ah, Spring! It is the mischief in me!
Life resumes full and rich and complete with gardening, swimming, and picnics soon possible. Warming weather outside for walks and daydreams. All my birds returning and the first robins of the season enjoying the birdseed. The quiet of the Spring when buds begin to open and flowers appear.
Let us look today at the gardens of Colonial Williamsburg.
In the 18th Century Virginia, gardening was appreciated in many diverse ways. Among the gentry gardening was practiced as an art and their gardens were constructed to precise rules of design. The layouts and plantings were formal and largely devoted to growing fruits and vegetables.
In addition to being an important political and cultural center, Williamsburg was a center for gardening activity and was the capital of the largest, wealthiest, and most populous of the colonies and of the central gardening activity. Due to its prudent town plan, Williamsburg was laid out around an orderly grouping of public buildings. There were broad, straight, streets and impressive public buildings.
The conservative English taste gave some of the best examples of Anglo-Dutch gardens in the colonies. The style was characterized by geometric symmetry within each enclosed space. To them, a garden was nature tamed, trimmed, and enclosed within a fence or hedge.
At the College of William and Mary grew the first gardens. Their decorative formal garden was filled with topiary. That garden disappeared not long after the Revolutionary War. When Lieutenant Governor Alexander Sportswood arrived in 1710, a monumental garden at the governor’s mansion was constructed. He thought that gardens were synonymous with civilized and elegant living. His garden designs were geometric and well balanced.
The restoration of the Williamsburg Gardens was financed by John D Rockefeller. The gardens and greens were reconstructed from 18th Century detailed records that gave the garden axis and the size, shape, and alignment, of planting beds, including bits of holly and boxwood hedges that remained.
The colonial revival garden had a kitchen yard and a brick-paved area connecting the house, kitchen, and smokehouse. It is now shaded with crape myrtle and the yard has several kinds of brick paving including random brickbat, basket weave and running bond, patterns. To its south lies the kitchen garden. Vegetables, fruits, flowers, and herbs were planted for household use. Trees-of-heaven line the east side of Nassau Street.
Many years ago I visited Colonial Williamsburg and saw its beauty of both gardens and colonial homes preserved. Everything was in order with sugar maples, paper mulberry, loblolly pine, and Adam’s needle, adorning the space.
Maybe it is time for another car sojourn as Spring moves north again this year. “And I to my pledged word am true. I shall not fail that rendezvous.”