The last time I saw Williamsburg, Va. was waaaay back in 1969, with my parents and my boyfriend Bob, who was visiting from Connecticut. My one souvenir is this obligatory photo of us in the stocks – him looking for all the world like James Taylor, and me wearing a mini-dress I made myself and holding a lit cigarette. Classy!
Finally last week I returned to Williamsburg, alone with my bicycle and excited to see the sites and cruise around capturing gardens to share with you all here. (As I’ve done from places like Rehoboth Beach, DE and Santa Monica, CA.)
Docks Stocks – still there!
The Gardens of Colonial Williamsburg – a Whole Lotta Lawn
Some sites in Colonial Williamsburg. The residence (upper right) is a rare one with perennials.
But I’m sorry to say, this trip report won’t be anything like those others. I have complaints, some justified and some probably not.
First, the extra-wide main roads through Colonial Williamsburg are surprisingly lacking in street trees or other sources of shade. What vegetation I found in abundance was mostly turfgrass. Historic residences, except the one above with the daylilies, were bare of plants.
The back-yard gardens are kitchen gardens.
So before you take me to task, I’ll admit that my complaints reek of 21st Century expectations, ill suited to 17th Century horticultural practices. And I’m on board with historically accurate landscape design and even plant choices for Colonial Williamsburg. (If not there, where?) It just wasn’t what I was looking for in a getaway.
And likewise, I was disappointed by the grounds of the College of William and Mary, which, to be fair, was founded in 1693. But can you blame a visitor, upon seeing a large “Sunken Garden” drawn on a campus map, for expecting, you know, a garden? 
Feast your eyes on the famous Sunken Garden, constructed in the 1930s. Yep, it’s a 2.7-acre lawn!
Landscapes in a newer part of campus played with Williamsburg’s iconic redbrick hardscape but the plant choices were still awfully boring.
Residential Gardens Outside the Historic Core
My tour through residential streets outside the historic center yielded almost nothing of interest – to me or, I’m guessing, to you guys – just three front gardens. This garden in a traditional style is overgrown, but in a good way: I’d love to get tackle it with my trusty loppers.
In my hours of riding around I did finally find two more ambitious and modern front gardens, like this one.
And this one, just across the street, exhibits quite an array of lawn alternatives, like what look like liriope and mondo grass in the front yard. (The little yellow flag caught my attention. Could it be a “Warning: pesticide application” sign? No, I’m happy to report it just marks a utility line underneath.)
And here’s a peek across their side yard and into the back – all with groundcovers other than turfgrass. I wish I’d gotten the address so I could find the owner/gardener and interview them. Anyone recognize the street???
A Crappy Place for Cycling
Going off-topic, here’s my short rant about how unfriendly I found Williamsburg as a cyclist: lack of shade, lots of brick paving, dearth of helpful signage, and routes requiring stairs or – suddenly – highways with no shoulders. And it was hotter that day than forecast, which is no one’s fault, but added to my unhappiness.
I was so unhappy, I blew off my hotel reservation and returned home the very same day. After five hours in town, and a quick visit to Jamestown Beach (very nice).
What I Should have Done
Okay, I should have posted on social media my plan to visit and request for tips for finding the best gardens. That worked spectacularly when I visited Lexington, KY, where I didn’t know a soul but got a VIP tour from a follower who happened to be a professional gardener AND a horse breeder.
Whatever Happened to that Hippie Couple?
Left: somewhere in England. Right, roadside in France.
About a week after our trip to Williamsburg, Bob and I arrived in England, where we began four months of travel around Europe – at first by hitchhiking, then thankfully in a 1959 Volvo that we bought for $150. Our romance survived all that and our time in Aix-en-Provence, France where we picked up some transferable college credits, but alas, not our return to the States, where he chose not to return to our school.
We lost touch for decades, until a mutual friend on Facebook connected us, which led to my visiting him and his family in Asheville, NC, the site of a Gardenblogger Fling. That was followed by hosting Bob and his family for the 2017 Women’s March on Washington, sharing an Airbnb with him and his wife at a class reunion, and more.
Now the old college gang is in regular communication!
Spot on. Your experience exactly matches my last visit to Colonial Williamsburg in 2023. I was very disappointed, especially after reading “The Flowers and Herbs of Early America” by the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.
So much for Williamsburg, but loved how you opened and closed your story with wonderful hippy-era photos. Those were the days, at least what I remember. I enjoy your road-trip reports. Thanks, Susan.
I love your old photos, too. And everyone seems to kick out of them, esp the styles. Being from the very preppie Richmond Va it was so freeing to dress like we wanted. I flew back to Virginia after almost a year in Europe, wearing a Moroccan robe, and my mother was embarrassed to claim me.
We have a historic community near by. Was told that there were no trees in or around when it was a real community. Why? Used all the trees for firewood and wanted bare ground to see anyone attacking. (This was in the 1700’s, time of the French and Indian wars. Ohio was a pretty dangerous place.)
I’m assuming would be similar for Williamsburg?
True, the initial settlements in the wilderness were often surrounded by treeless ground for security reasons. However, there were documented ornamental gardens in Colonial Williamsburg after the village was established and the “frontier” had moved west to the Shenandoah Valley in the early 1700’s.
Susan, your rant absolutely correct. I worked there as a gardener and Garden Historian for 25 years and Colonial Williamsburg gardens are coasting on their past and have been doing so for the past 25 or more years.
Most of the gardening maintenance has been contracted out to lawn maintenance companies, but the landscaping staff was much reduced for many years before that happened 10 years ago.
The heyday of Colonial Williamsburg’s gardens ended before the turn of the 21st century and has continued on a steady downward spiral since then, too bad because they could be so much more.
Sorry to hear but it makes me feel like less of a Scrooge for not liking it. The colonial part and visitors center all seemed about as authentic as Disney World.
I’m glad/sad you mentioned Disney World. I visited there last summer with my family, and my thoughts then were how much it was leaning toward a Disney experience instead of a historic, educational opportunity. The gardens we saw showed pretty much the same plants repeated seemingly without much thought. It was really disappointing. We did attend a talk with a couple of Master Gardeners who seemed quite knowledgeable and very good at what they do. They mentioned the gardens are mostly staffed by volunteers but the Foundation is hiring more full time gardeners. Maybe in the future things will get better . . . Right now it seems they’ve lost the plot.
Great article but I believe they were stocks not docks.
Yes stocks!
Such a treat to be part of your Williamsburg edition of Garden Rant. So silly posing in the stocks. Perhaps some modern day politicians would enjoy yelling “Lock them up!” Little would one know from looking at that photo that I was in fact preparing a plan to dodge the draft a few weeks later. Hey, it was 1968! And on a personal note – yes, we stay in touch 50 years later. Wishing love and peace to you, Susan, and to all your readers.
Bob
Too bad you did not take the time to talk with the Williamsburg landscape department before your visit. I have been attending the annual garden symposiums in person and now virtually for years during which the landscape department updates its work and projects at the beginning of each symposium. They have hired an additional 19 people on the horticultural staff during the past year and are working to develop their nursery to grow the planting materials they require (mainly because many of the materials are impossible to source these days). Additionally the garden archeology work that is being done in conjunction with the Custis property is fascinating. Williamsburg has been and continues to be a work in progress perhaps best enjoyed on foot with its talented staff members.
Thank you for the tour.
My yard is partly unwalkable due to all the garden beds. There are stepping stones for maintenance, but that’s about it.
One of the huge drawbacks of some “ground covers” is that they reduce the entire space to visual interest only. No kids, no dogs, etc. If that is part of the plan, there are way more interesting choices than mondo grass to look at.
Turf grass does have some uses. (St Augustine, especially in our area, is an ‘approved’ native ground cover, don’t ya know) Especially when turf grass isn’t dripping with herbicides and insecticides.
If you are ever back in Williamsburg, I recommend Food for Thought. A wonderful restaurant with a very varied menu. I meet friends up there about once a month. Still haven’t had the opportunity to try everything on the menu that I want to.
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I am wondering what gardens and landscaping looked like in colonial times. I don’t think that the lawn concept came until much later. I remember visiting Thomas Jefferson’s home while on a family trip in the late 60s and they seemed to have put thought into making the gardens and grounds authentic. Also visited Williamsburg then.
Great Rant! I love seeing the older pictures. You were quite the looker.
I visited with my family more than 50 years ago. I clearly remember getting lost among so many other visitors and then my parents scolding me for wandering off. Love your Rants!
I have a book in my library titled FLOWERS AND HERBS OF EARLY AMERICA by Lawrence D. Griffith, published by The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, Williamsburg, VA. c.2008. The author, Griffith, documents his restoration of 100 garden beds in 2001 due primarily to the grant from the Mars Foundation of McLean, VA. The grant was given to the Colonial Williamsburg Landscape and Facilities Services Department in order that the plants at hand could be reevaluated and reinvented to attain more of a realistic version of the plants most likely present and being used in these gardens during Colonial times. Lawrence Griffith, curator of plants, took great pains to research, propagate and document these plants as they filled in the beds. The book features photographs of his work which took years to complete. I was always yearning to get down there to see this collection of historic plants. Now I wonder, what became of these magnificent, unique garden plots? I I guess I’ll save myself the trip down.
This cracked me up!! It reminded me of a coffee- table book my parents had when I was growing up, called “The Gardens of Williamsburg.” seems to me they should take more pride in their gardening as a historic organization, since so much of their identity is rooted in their gardens! So weird!
The Williamsburg foundation also use to operate a historic 17th century archaeological site and museum on the Jame River known as Martin’s 100 on a property shared with Carter’s Grove. Archaeological study and primary documentation of Carter’s Grove proved incongruent with the modern interpretation of slavery so the operation was defunded, shut down, and sold off into private hands. Such is the integrity of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.