Rhode
Island Gardens - An Historical Vignette
In 1636, Native
Americans had long been cultivating the fertile land in
Rhode Island . Using dead fish for fertilizer, they raised
corn, beans, pumpkins, squash, cucumbers, and tobacco.
Resourceful and industrious, these Native Americans had
also discovered the importance of crop rotation. A colonist
wrote to his father from Connecticut in 1636, "The
ground seems to be far worse than the ground of Massachusetts,
being light, sandy and rocky. Yet they have good corn
without fish but I understand they take this course, they
have everyone two fields which after the first two years,
they let one field rest each year and that keeps their
ground in hart."
Though rich and
fertile, the soil in Rhode Island was so laden with rocks,
that no plants could be cultivated before the rocks were
removed. However, the imaginative colonists put those
rocks to good use, creating Rhode Island's extensive walls
old stone walls.
Bibliography
and Acknowledgments
Shown: Violet ( Viola )
