Bring back living souvenirs from Williamsburg
In 1788, John Randolph Jr. of Williamsburg, Va., published “A Treatise on Gardening,” the first kitchen and vegetable gardening book in North America. Today, this “citizen of Virginia” would feel very much at ease in Colonial Williamsburg, a living museum now celebrating its 85th year.
Gardening was a staple of the 18th century, and American Colonists’ homes and gardens varied in size along with their owners’ income and occupation. Just down Duke of Gloucester Street from the Governor’s Palace, with its formal rows of perfectly spaced boxwoods and crape myrtle and mulberry trees, were humble kitchen gardens where foxglove grew amid lettuce, onions and carrots in straight-sided beds.
The gardens of Colonial Williamsburg offer a stunning representation of Anglo-Dutch colonial gardens. There are four specialized garden tours and more than 25 gardens to see. But why just gawk when you can steal design ideas and buy heirloom plants that will thrive in Western Pennsylvania with a little TLC?
Start your search in the Colonial Nursery, whose plants change with the season. Now you’ll find saffron crocus bulbs, flowering pomegranate trees and beautyberry shrubs alongside cuttings from ancient crape myrtles labeled by the sites where they were grown. So instead of ‘Potomac’ you’ll find Coke-Garrett House crape myrtle.
For many years, I have brought home living bits of Colonial
Williamsburg in my suitcase. If you take special care and protect them over winter, these plants will bloom for many years: Camellia sansanqua, bottlebrush buckeye, Carolina yellow jasmine, Carolina sweetshrub (allspice), Southern and sweet bay magnolia, chaste tree, American beautyberry and crape myrtle.
The colors beautifully play throughout the landscape. Bottlebrush buckeye, which is hardy in Zones 5-8, has large white wands that dramatically bloom amid deep green leaves in early summer.
Crape myrtle blooms later. This year, I installed nine trees to form an allee into my secret garden. Key essentials for these Virginia natives are acidic soil and protection from the snow and wind.
While walking through Williamsburg’s gardens, take a closer look. The city is built on a series of ravines, many of which have been backfilled over time. For centuries, residents have dug terraces to soften steep banks. Terraces are an efficient way to maximize yield in a small space. Both of these features are common in Western Pennsylvania.
If you have a sloping front yard, you can terrace it to create garden beds. A backyard slope can lend itself to a small patio that steps down or up to terraced plantings of herbs, vegetables or ornamental plants.
In Williamsburg, the first tier contained leeks, onions, garlic, carrots, cabbage, herbs and flowers. The larger tiers included peas, lettuce and radishes.
Raised beds are another common sight in these recreated 18th-century gardens. Often Southern-facing, these square or rectangular boxes are easy to maintain and usually framed with young trees or large shrubs. Like the Colonists, you can use simple wooden boxes or more elaborate rock or stone groupings.
Nando Fratangelo, manager of residential landscape services at Vigliotti Landscaping in Penn Hills, is frequently asked to install terraces. He has a piece of professional advice: When constructing a retaining wall with multiple tiers, the second tier’s base course must be installed two courses deep. This creates stronger support for successive tiers, which are backfilled with loose gravel and/or dirt. They are not solid enough to build upon and require additional compaction, he said.
So leave room in your suitcase for some living souvenirs. In years to come, these plants and ideas will remind you of a wonderful vacation and provide a lasting link to Colonial America.