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Down the Garden Path: What did colonists plant in their gardens? · Kendall County News - Shaw Local

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  Speaker 1: Down the garden path? What did colonists plant in their gardens?
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  Speaker 1: Written by Paula. Coosin and University of Illinois Extension. This
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  Speaker 1: article is being read by an automated voice brought to
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  Speaker 1: you by Everlett In seventeen seventy six. Growing conditions in
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  Speaker 1: the American colonies ranged widely. Plant hardiness zone designations that
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  Speaker 1: we used today were non existent. New Hampshire zone two
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  Speaker 1: billion to Northern Georgia zone eight billion reflected a broad
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  Speaker 1: range of growing seasons, precipitation, microbial environments, and soil conditions
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  Speaker 1: that created environments that helped or hindered growing vegetables and herbs.
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  Speaker 1: To complicate matters, the seeds brought to the New World
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  Speaker 1: from England often failed to grow under the new conditions
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  Speaker 1: the colonists had to eat. They had to figure out
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  Speaker 1: what to grow and how to grow food, and the
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  Speaker 1: soil of New England, especially was hard and rocky compared
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  Speaker 1: to the soft, lusciously rich soil of their native England.
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  Speaker 1: Growing seasons were shorter, and winter's far more brutal. Immigrants
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  Speaker 1: in the American colonies often experienced extreme hunger and starvation
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  Speaker 1: because of these obstacles. Yet history shows that they rose
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  Speaker 1: to the challenge learning from the wisdom of indigenous people. Thankfully,
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  Speaker 1: indigenous people provided guidance. According to the article Native Americans
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  Speaker 1: and Plants by Barbara Klein on the Penn State Extension
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  Speaker 1: Master Gardner website, they introduced colonists to acorns, hickory nuts, persimmons, pawpaws,
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  Speaker 1: and high bush cranberries. They taught colonists to forage for
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  Speaker 1: fiddlehead ferns and wild ramps. Native communities were already cultivating
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  Speaker 1: the three sisters corn, squash, and beans when European settlers
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  Speaker 1: first arrived. However, these crops did not originate in North America. Instead,
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  Speaker 1: they spread gradually and deliberately across the continent as indigenous
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  Speaker 1: groups throughout North, Central and South America traded and shared seeds.
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  Speaker 1: According to the Charlotte Botanical Gardens, these crops developed through
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  Speaker 1: indigenous farming knowledge grow in a way that allows each
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  Speaker 1: plant to support and strengthen the others, while also offering
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  Speaker 1: a balanced and reliable source of food for the people
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  Speaker 1: who tended them. Marsh twenty twenty one. Growing Vegetables and Herbs.
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  Speaker 1: The vegetables and herbs that were cultivated then we continue
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  Speaker 1: to grow in our own gardens. Today, most everyday vegetables
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  Speaker 1: were cultivated in a protected garden close to the home.
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  Speaker 1: This smaller plot supplied leaks, onions, garlic, english gourds, radishes, carrots, cabbages,
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  Speaker 1: and artichokes. In contrast, crops that were needed in much
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  Speaker 1: larger amounts, such as maize, beans and pumpkins, were planted
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  Speaker 1: out in the main fields. Foraretti nineteen seventy one, Herbs
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  Speaker 1: were grown for practical household purposes, their medicinal value, or
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  Speaker 1: for use in cooking. According to the New Canaan Cetea
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  Speaker 1: Garden Club. Some of these are recognizable to us, such
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  Speaker 1: as lavender, echinasia and yarrow for treating fevers, wounds and
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  Speaker 1: digestive issues, camomile for calming tea, and rhubarb roots to
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  Speaker 1: make a golden dye. Others may be unfamiliar to us,
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  Speaker 1: like tansy to repel fleas and insects, and as a
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  Speaker 1: dye or borage used to treat fevers and to add
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  Speaker 1: a cucumber like flavor to foods. The lists of what
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  Speaker 1: was grown in colonial gardens are quite extensive. The Arnold
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  Speaker 1: Arboretum of Harvard University has a hefty List published as
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  Speaker 1: Colonial Garden Plants Favretti and du Wolf, nineteen seventy one.
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  Speaker 1: In addition, both the Mount Vernon and Monticello websites share
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  Speaker 1: information on crops and plants grown by George Washington and
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  Speaker 1: Thomas Jefferson, respectively. Paula Coosin is a certified Master Naturalist
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  Speaker 1: volunteer with the University of Illinois Extension. In twenty twenty,
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  Speaker 1: she was the recipient of the Urban Forestry Community Stewardship
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  Speaker 1: Award from the Chicago Region Trees Initiative at the Morton
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  Speaker 1: Arboretum