Massachusetts
Gardens - An Historical Vignette
The
Mayflower with its fragrant pink and white petals welcoming
the first sign of spring must have charmed the Pilgrim
Mothers. But early Pilgrim life was not easy. Unfamiliar
with the colder climate and untried growing conditions,
the European settler's first plantings were disastrous.
It was only with the assistance of the Native American
inhabitants, that they were able to made it through their
first winters. The Wampanoag Indians first showed the
colonists how to plant and sow corn.
The early
colonists depended on their small gardens for their day-to-day
sustenance and medicine. Each family had brought with
them seeds and live plants to make their new garden. To
ensure the highest possible yields, the soil was carefully
enriched with waste and compost - from human, animal,
and vegetable.
Flowers abounded in these first sparse no-nonsense gardens
of practicality and utility, but not as deliberate additions.
Although the European settlers delighted in their blooms,
plants were chosen for their utility, not their beauty.
The colonists valued above all, the idea that each and
every garden plant should justify its existence .
Bibliography
and Acknowledgments
Shown: Trailing-Arbutus ( Epigaea
regens )
