Sandhills Community College kicks off nation’s 250th 

The public is invited to join Sandhills Horticultural Gardens at Sandhills Community College (SCC) for a kick-off event to the semi quincentennial, celebrating the United States’ 250th anniversary.  Alumnus Peter Hatch will offer a lecture on “Thomas Jefferson’s Revolutionary Garden at Monticello” in the Owens Auditorium of the Bradshaw Performing Arts Center on Thursday, March 19 at 1 p.m.

An early graduate of the Landscape Gardening Program at Sandhills Community College Hatch will take a historical look at the gardens he restored at Monticello, where he was the Director of Gardens and Grounds from 1977-2012.

“Thomas Jefferson’s Revolutionary Garden at Monticello,” illuminates how the vegetable garden defined an especially revolutionary and American experience, noted Hatch. “Jefferson broke from traditional European gardens in the size and scope of the garden, its diverse collection of new crop introductions from the western hemisphere, its artificial terracing that created a unique microclimate ideal for warm season vegetables difficult to grow successfully in northern Europe, and the remarkable vegetarian cuisine, “half French, half Virginian,” that the garden inspired.”

He adds, “Jefferson wrote that “the greatest service which can be rendered any country is to add a useful plant to its culture,” and the Monticello vegetable garden, a 1,000-foot-long terrace, became an experimental laboratory, an Ellis Island of new and unusual edible plants from around the world. Jefferson was a strong believer in a vegetable diet, and this revolutionary garden inspired a revolutionary cuisine in the kitchen at Monticello. The Jefferson legacy in food, wine, and gardening is profound — setting a strong foundation and high standard for the farm to table movement today.”

Hatch is a professional gardener and historian with 38 years’ experience in the restoration, care, and interpretation of historic landscapes. A celebrated author of four books on the gardens of Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello, where he served as Director of Gardens and Grounds for 35 years, Hatch has lectured in 38 states on Jefferson and the history of garden plants. Presently, he gardens and botanizes from his home on Lickinghole Creek in Crozet, Virginia, travels extensively to promote his latest work, ‘A Rich Spot of Earth’: Thomas Jefferson’s Revolutionary Garden at Monticello, and consults on the installation and maintenance of both public gardens and private estate landscapes.

He is a native of Michigan, obtained an English degree from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and an A.A. in Landscape Gardening from Sandhills Community College. Between 1974 and 1977 he served as Horticulturist at Old Salem in Winston-Salem, North Carolina before he started at Monticello.

Registration for the lecture is available at www.sandhills.edu/gardenevents

Garden Members: $10, Non-Members:$15. This event is co-sponsored by Central Carolinas Phi Beta Kappa Association. Phi Beta Kappa was founded 250 years ago and it occurred at Thomas Jefferson’s Alma Mater, the College of William & Mary in Virginia.

Additional events will take place throughout the year at the Sandhills Horticultural Gardens as well as featured additions to see in the Gardens related to plants, natural habitats, and times of 1776 in the Sandhills. Please visit the https://www.sandhills.edu/news/calendar.html to watch for upcoming events. To read more about Peter Hatch and his legacy, visit:

https://www.peterjhatch.com/about

Jan. 30, 2026

Contributed.

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