Photo credit: Baltimore Sun/Susan Reimer

The doors were not the only things in full flower during a recent visit to Colonial Williamsburg.

Across Duke of Gloucester Street from the stunning holiday wreaths and swags was "the gentleman's garden," filled with fall vegetables.

Even city dwellers had gardens during the pre-Revolution days in Virginia's capital, from which to harvest vegetables and herbs needed for their households.

Though it was December, this garden was going strong, with varieties of cabbage, broccoli, beets and celery, plus greens and herbs. The only difference, we are told, is that the garden would not have had so many varieties of each growing at once.

(The bell jars are used to protect the most tender vegetables from frost and there is a cold frame for varieties of lettuce, but our guide tells us that this garden will continue to produce all winter.)

Across the way was a compost pile about as tall as the colonial house behind which it smoldered. It included not only leaves from the abundant trees in Williamsburg, but the droppings of the horses and oxen who play roles in the city's on-going live theater.

(One note. There would have been no trees in 1775. All of them would have been harvested for building or for firewood.)

Our guide tells us that the size of a gentleman's garden in Williamsburg was limited by one thing: the number of his slaves. The garden would have to be hand-watered -- a continuous process during the hot summer months Colonial Williamsburg.

For more photos from the gentleman's garden, visit my photostream on flickr.