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Garden Restoration

Pioneer Vegetable/Herb Garden

15 years ago

My husband and I are thinking of volunteering to restore the garden at a local period reenactment site. This site in central Wisconsin was settled in the 1850s, although the house attached to the garden is probably from the 1880s or '90s. The area is already fenced with a period fence. It's just filled with weeds right now because no one has the time to deal with it.

Can someone get me started? I need some book or links to give me an idea of kind of vegetables were used and basic things like layout and how beans/peas/tomatoes were stabilized (or if they were allowed to creep along the ground).

I'm also interested in any herb ideas as well; medicinal, food, or dye.

Thank you for your expertise.

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Comments (3)

sylviatexas1
15 years ago
You might post a request on the Heirloom Gardening Forum.

Best luck!
ghoghunter
14 years ago
When I think of pioneers I think of Laura Ingalls Wilder. I know she was a little later in the time period but things didn't change nearly so fast in those times. I don't beleive tomatoes were grown or used back then but I remember from Laura Ingalls they grew beans and wheat and corn. They would have also grown potatoes. Pioneers were trying to keep body and soul together so they would have concentrated on edible plants and some herbs. In that series of books Farmer Boy gives the best description of what was grown in Almonzo's father's farm.
Joann
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ghoghunter
14 years ago
Did you volunteer in the garden project? What plants did you decide on and how did it turn out?

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