“National Book Launch: An Evening with Peter Hatch”

*LOCATION CHANGE: Due to the inclement weather, Peter Hatch’s national book launch will be held indoors at The Robert H. Smith Center at Montalto, adjacent to Monticello. Parking will be as planned at the Thomas Jefferson Visitor Center. Shuttle service will be provided from the traffic circle of the Visitor Center directly to Montalto

Celebrate the launch of Peter Hatch’s “A Rich Spot of Earth”: Thomas Jefferson’s Revolutionary Garden at Monticello. Join us for an elegant garden party with the author as he discusses his pioneering new book. This gorgeous volume tells the history of Jefferson's unique vegetable garden at Monticello and uncovers his lasting influence on American culinary, garden, and landscape history. The book also showcases the 1980s project that restored the garden to its original glory.

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Enjoy informal tours of Monticello and the gardens, fine Virginia wine and heavy hors d'oeuvres on the West Lawn of Monticello. Mr. Hatch, director of gardens and grounds at Monticello, has been responsible for the maintenance, interpretation, and restoration of the 2,400-acre landscape at Monticello since 1977. Reserved tickets are required. $60 ($30 of your ticket represents a tax deductible gift to support the garden programs at Monticello).

Monticello is the home of Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence and third president of the United States. A revolutionary plantsman, Jefferson wrote, “The greatest service which can be rendered any country is to add a useful plant to its culture.”

Explore Jefferson’s lifelong passion for gardening, botany and agriculture while enjoying the beauty and variety of Monticello’s restored 1,000-foot-long vegetable garden, the winding walk flower border, restored by the Garden Club of Virginia in 1939-41, two orchards, two vineyards and an 18-acre “grove,” or ornamental forest. The gardens and orchards have been restored to their appearance during Jefferson’s retirement years, and many of the trees, vegetables and flowers that Jefferson cultivated grow here today. In tribute to Jefferson, the Thomas Jefferson Center for Historic Plants is devoted to the preservation and distribution of plants known in early American gardens, especially varieties grown by Jefferson.

Gardens and Grounds Tours, offered daily, explore the restored flower and vegetable gardens, grove and orchards. Tours start at 10:15 a.m. until the last one each day at 4:15 p.m. The Monticello Museum Shop, located in the new Thomas Jefferson Visitor Center and Smith Education Center on Monticello grounds, sells a wide selection of historic seeds and plants.