building the american landscape - Univerza v Novi Gorici

In designs for a pleasure‐ground, according to modern gardening,
consulting rural disposition in imitation of nature, all too formal works
being almost abolished, such as long straight walks, regular
intersections, square grass‐plats, corresponding parterres quadrangular
and angular spaces, and other uniformities, as in ancient designs;
instead of which are now adopted rural open spaces of grass‐ground, of
various forms and dimensions, and winding walks, all bounded with
plantations of trees, shrubs, and flowers, in various clumps; other
compartments are exhibited in a variety of imitative rural forms, such as
curves, projections, openings and closings in imitation of natural
assemblage; having all the various plantations and borders open to the
walks and lawns 202 .
To complete his instructions, he also published a ground plan for the “design for a
villa garden” [Figure 90], and provided precious advice on garden design and on the
selection of trees to plant. Jefferson changed all these ideas in his project at
Monticello to highlight some of the unusual features of the park around the house,
such as the operations to clear the natural wood, the use of roundabouts, oval
flower beds and the lawn in front of the villa [Figure 5]. Such choices in Jefferson’s
project are to be stressed to show his knowledge of the practice of landscape
gardening and his desire to leave behind the simple utilitarian logic which Jefferson
appeared to use in his own estate of Monticello.
Jefferson knew how to combine the elements of English landscape gardening with
numerous other stimuli into his projects. The fascinating hypothesis, that his
admiration for Native Americans had led Jefferson to reproduce some of the
“landscaping” they used, is probably one of the most complex, cultural intertwining
that the work of Jefferson, the landscape designer, had ever proposed. His
dedication in the Entrance Hall at Monticello to Indian culture and the reproduction
in the Poplar Forest project of the mounds, the typical monuments of the natives,
are more than a mere hint. The mounds, used to complete the Neo‐palladian design
of the villa, are witness to Jefferson’s knowledge of Indian culture, and the
incredible resemblance between the shape of the curtilage and of the other areas
202 MCMAHON, Bernard, The American Gardner’s Calendar, adapted to the climate and season of the
United States, Philadelphia, J.B. Lippincott and Co., 1857 (first ed. 1806) p. 74
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