Early American Gardeners of the Thirteen Colonies

Many hours were spent experimenting with how to extend the growing season as long as possible throughout the year.  Their success was literally a matter of life and death.  It was a continual process of daily aerating the soil and mixing in manure, even during the months of January and February when the ground was almost frozen.  They discovered that the heat created by the compost warmed the soil enough to plant much earlier, and also later, than present gardeners do, but they had to find the right balance so excess manure didn’t affect the taste of their crops.  They also used charcoal dust from their fires to spread on the soil around early crops to absorb the sun’s heat.

The coldest months were spent grafting, sowing seeds and transplanting seedlings in preparation to plant outside. To start seeds indoors, colonists dug up sod in the fall, stored the clods in their cellars over winter, then planted their seed in the inverted sod clumps the next spring.  This worked especially well for crops that didn’t like to be transplanted – the entire hunk of sod was just buried in the garden in the spring.

In the summer were endless hours of planting, weeding, cultivating and destroying pests. But keep in mind that these early gardeners only had crude tools and no pesticides or fertilizers available to them.

Their crops included potatoes, carrots, cabbage, beans, cucumbers, asparagus, pumpkins, leeks, gourds, squash, onions and herbs; corn was grown by nearly everyone.  They grew flowers, fruits and a variety of grains.  They brought many plants and seeds with them, traded for others, and the Native Americans provided them with new ones. 

They also practiced companion planting back then.  Squash, maize and climbing beans were known as the Three Sisters (of agriculture).  Mounds of soil with flattened tops were built for each group of crops.  In the center of each mound several maize seeds were planted.  When the maize reached 6" tall, beans and squash were planted alternately around the maize.  The beans used the maize as a structure to climb up and also provided the nitrogen needed by the other two plants.  The squash was a groundcover that reduced weeds and retained moisture.  Companion planting is still popular today.    

Making maple syrup and maple sugar were reasons for large get togethers in the spring.  Many of the plants they grew were for medicinal purposes such as St. John's Wort, poppies and yarrow.  Plants were also grown for dyes and for use as poison. Native plants were used for glue and tar.  Wild strawberries, blueberries and nuts were abundant. The Native Americans taught them a great deal about the value of native plants and their uses.  They also introduced them to growing tobacco which ended up providing more income than any other farm crop.

Of course they also hunted, fished and raised livestock.

A few of their pest control methods are very interesting and may be something you can try.  Place fresh onion skins on cucumber hills to control squash bugs.  Scatter ashes on plants to control insects.  If you have slug or snail problems, scatter cabbage leaves between your plants, then collect the buggy leaves early the next day and burn them.

Not only did they have to grow enough food to get their families through the winter, they also had to find ways to preserve it.  Here are some of their more effective methods of preservation.

French, Lima and Sugar Beans:  Dry salting, pickling and drying.  To dry salt, young beans were layered in a stone jar with salt – a layer of salt, a layer of beans, etc.  When the jar was full a coarse cloth was tied on top, a board laid on top of that, and then a weight on top to keep it closed.  It was stored in a dry cellar.  Before using, they were soaked in water for 24 hours, changing water often.

Whole Beans:  Dried in the pods and strung on long threads, hanging to dry in the fall.  Later in winter the beans were soaked then cooked at length to produce shucky beans, often called leather britches.

Kidney Beans:  These were often pickled.  String the beans, soak in salt, lye and vinegar for 10 days.  After 10 days, put in a kettle of water and scald until tender.  Remove beans and cool.  Put in white wine vinegar and salt.  These should keep in the cellar until spring.

Cabbage:  Made into kraut, a favorite winter food.

Meat:  Salted, smoked and potted.  (To pot meat, the fat was saved and poured on and around the meat, usually in large jars or crocks.  The fat kept the meat from decomposing. Later, cooks added herbs and spices to the meat, or made sausages from it.)

Eggs, fruit and vegetables:  Pickling, drying and storing in the root cellar.

Fruits:  Preserved as jams, or cooked into pies that could be frozen during the winter months.  Also dried, particularly apples and pears, and then made into  "butters", cooking the dried fruit in water and spices slowly for hours then canning to preserve it.

The foods that were frozen were placed outside in mounds of snow and sprinkled with just enough water to create an icy surround for the foods, keeping them from spoiling.

Mayapple roots, which are toxic, were dried and used as insecticide for crops. Seeds were also soaked in the root powder to eliminate pests before planting.

So even though gardening seems quite a challenge for us these days, imagine what it would have been like back then.  Luckily they persevered and as a result, we're still able to reap the benefits of their experience today.

All images except the final one are from Wikimedia Commons.