The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1917-05-04
By Bonnie Burnham Randle.

Practical times are these among
the verdant hills of Leon, where the
sterner things of life had seemed to
touch more lightly in the days gone
by, and where rose gardens and an
cestral homes, perhaps, had been a
bit more conspicuous than largely
cultivated areas. Practical times, in
deed, when the man with the hoe and
the woman in the checkered apron are
preparing to come into their own,
and to play a most important part in
the welfare of the community.
Not that the man in this case al
WAYS welded the aforesaid hoe, any
more than the woman wore her check
cred apron, for Tallahassee and Leon
county people have literally. tur~ ed
food Conservationists over night al
most-mainly because they know they
have it to do!
Back yards that formerly served the
purpose of providing a last resting
place for tin cans and things, are
bristling with the newest spring veg
etables to be consumed now and can
ned and dried a little later on when
the fancy prices drop; newly broken
fields along the country roads speak
of additional activity in the planting
1t is the exception, too, rather than
the rule just now to be poor and
gardenless" in Tallahassee.
Flourishing Garden Spots.
One of the largest and most inter
esting gardens in Tallahassee, by the
wav, is owned and superintendent by q
woman, Mrs. Reinette Long Hunt, So
cietv woman, artist, and author OF
"Weelaunee," who is sole owner OF
the famous ancestral home of the
Calls, known in Florida history anC
literature as "the home Of the Talla.
hassee girl"
The place itself is we'll known t(
many FlOridians.
Craving with the passing OF many
summers, its massive pillars preserv
ing Just the right colonial atmosphere
it nestles back among the trees ans
defies the passing of the years.
The earlier social and political IN
terests of Florida have been center
ed there; notable entertainments havl
been held beneath its aging roof
while Maurice Thompson, Mrs
Holmes and other novelists have use'
II as a Modification for their stories
sleeping in the private cemetery 10
Gated in a trOpic tangle a few yard
north of the grounds and perhaps thu
has something to do with the fac
that the home of the Tallahassee gll
is one piece of property IN FIorlQ
that cannot possibly be purchased, ca
though almost fabulous amounts hay
been offered.
The approach to this most beauttJ
of all remaining landmarks Of olde
Tallahassee whisks you magical
from the present to stOrybOOk pas
1t is the first page of souther
novel; appealing, seductive, romanu
mysterious. All this its owner rea
i-es. and she is artistic enough an
remarkable enough to want to pre-
serve every detail of its atmOspheT
But Mrs. Hunt has another side
her nature: practical, self-suffiCien
Sa.f-asSured, characteristics winch al
hers direct from a time when IL
pioneer stock of the Candles ar
Calls, from whom she is descende
made history for the Middle FlOriC
frontier, and perhaps, too, this hl
something to do with the fact tn;
this spring there are seven acres
ground under cultivation just back
the mansion, in a most promising ar
flourishing condition.
Here, on these brilliant App
mornings, too, she may be found
times, directing the labor emplOyC
on the place and enjoying to a mo
thorough degree the thrills and sati
faction which are hers as result
this really ambitious experiment
gardening. Here are Irish and swe
potatoes, corn and every known "
riety of garden truck; strawberri
are ripening in the early sunshine,
young citrus grove is recuperatil
splendidly from the effects of t
February freeze. Nut trees and fri