and running away, which caused him to view the gardens more negatively. Jefferson's influence Thomas Jefferson loved to garden. He fell in love with designing gardens immediately after his inheritance of Monticello in 1757. Jefferson wanted to construct the gardens of Monticello from his own naturalistic point of view, and thus gathered materials from travelers all over the United States and other countries as well. Many of his acquaintances knew of his passion for gardening and often sent him various seeds and plants. With this assortment of seeds, Jefferson cultivated and designed his Monticello gardens according to his vision. First, Jefferson proposed a 1000-foot vegetable garden which he called the "hanging garden." Once sown, the "hanging garden" was divided into twenty-four different growing parcels according to what was being harvested. For example, one section contained fruits, while others contained roots and leaves. Jefferson also ordered the creation of a "ferme ornee" or ornamental farm. Here, he chose to plant a large tree of varying shades of scarlet, set up rows of purple, white, and green broccoli surrounding the tree, and planted smaller cherry trees along a picturesque walkway. To complete his masterwork, Jefferson designed a pavilion to overlook his gardens and built four roads providing access to them. While Jefferson's gardens did provide his family with food, their primary purpose was to serve as his laboratory where he experimented with hundreds of different types of vegetables from all over the world. He was as meticulous in his experimentation as he had been with his design. He kept a garden book, titled the Garden Kalender, in which he documented every success and failure. He logged the exact dates his seeds were initially planted. He also noted when leaves appeared and when the flowers blossomed. Thomas Jefferson enjoyed experimenting with his gardens and working to produce fruits that were difficult to grow, such as pears, plums, and apricots, even though he rarely succeeded. In his garden book, Jefferson stated that his favorite fruit was the Carnation cherry. He believed it was "superior to all the others." Jefferson also took great interest in the production of grape vines. He aspired to make Monticello-grown wine, but he often failed at his attempts to cultivate grapes. Not willing to give up, Jefferson imported several different vines from America and Europe but never achieved his goal. Still, Jefferson's hard work did not go unnoticed. Near the