Nation's Gardner

The future location of the nation’s capital and how the debts of 13 states will be managed was handled deftly by Jefferson, and saved the weak union. The deal Jefferson brokered was Hamilton can forward his economic plan and federalists gets to choose capital’s location, even though Jefferson never liked the Hamilton economic vision but convinced that “a mutual sacrifice…was the duty of everyone” and they named the capital “Washington” after president name. Now in the process of designing the new capital and public buildings everyone has their own point of view but Washington view that capital has to reflect government and its power, and the capital supposed to be designed accordingly, so he envisaged a huge city plan of 5000 acres. And Jefferson plan was to be small size city which would reflect us as republic not as authoritarian empire. I was also fascinated on the differences of opinion about the planning of the new national capital, and in particular about the layout of the gardens at what came to be known as the White House.     Washington tended towards a grand Versailles-like garden of 30 acres, Adams concerned himself only with an attempt to establish a vegetable plot, and Jefferson reduced the space from 30 acres to five, opting for a circular (in the event, oval) layout as being the more "democratic", but all specified only native trees, shrubs and flowers. Because of huge plan and lack of funds, Washington plan was never finished in his life ,even after him people who opposed the large scale city plan from the beginning although didn’t tried to stop but never had interest either.     

    As soon Jefferson became the president he tried to downsized the original L 'Enfant's plan as much possible but not as quiet and geared up the project. Jefferson and Washington both did not had any kind of biasness toward each other on nation’s capital design project, these founding fathers had their own Perspective for the future of nation’s capital. Jefferson’s contribution was on a far grander scale. Having doubled the country’s territory with the Louisiana Purchase, The Louisiana Purchase was the largest and most extraordinary land purchase in the history of the United States. It was also the cheapest (per square mile). With one transaction, the size of the country doubled. But more importantly it gave the U.S. access to the Gulf of Mexico and the Mississippi River. This was extremely important for westward expansion and trade.

The Louisiana Purchase stands as the most significant event in the westward expansion of the United States and as an experiment to incorporate a substantially different culture. It was the beginning of the meeting of multi-cultural frontiers. The Louisiana Purchase changed what the United States had been and had a profound effect on what the United States would become.  The landscape of the United States and North America would be forever changed. Long before he became the third president of the United States, Thomas Jefferson had dreamed of sending explorers across North America. He sent his secretary, Meriwether Lewis, along with William Clark, on the expedition to the far West that would begin to study the natural history of the American wilderness. The expedition introduced Americans ­and Europeans to hundreds of varieties of plants and animals, met with dozens of native tribes and produced an accurately mapped route to the Pacific Ocean -- and returned home safely. The group came to embody the values of manifest destiny, prodding other adventurers to embark on their own journeys of discovery and exploration. The expedition opened up new territory for the fur and lumber trade and pointed out the best lands for future settlement and agriculture. It allowed a young country to blossom into greatness, because more land had equated to more resources and therefore, more power.

After retirement, Jefferson continued to experiment in his garden. I was also fascinated to learn how passionately each of the founding fathers loved and missed their farms and gardens when they were away. Jefferson spent endless hours drawing and redrawing plans for his vegetable gardens in his solitary room at the still-unfinished White House and like Washington, Adams and Madison, was rejuvenated when he left office and could get back to his beloved soil, plants and nature views. All of them believed they were happiest in old age, enjoying their gardens, sending seeds to their friends and grafting their trees. Jefferson, an inspiration to passionate gardeners of every generation, famously said "Tho' an old man, I am but a young gardener."

Washington, Jefferson, Adams and Madison's approach to the natural environments in which they lived. Wulf writes about their differences in personal philosophies regarding nature, gardening, landscaping, crop cultivation and popular agricultural philosophies of their day. What I found of most interest was the degree of agricultural experimentation these presidents were participating in on their own farms and gardens.