Gardening for the Historian

For the past two days my supervisor, Marcia, and I have been working intermittently in the garden outside of the Boone House, planting a new set of crops (rather late in the season) for this year. Marcia had an idea to make the garden more historically accurate, so we started out by removing a few things that really would not have been in the Boone’s garden, like an ornamental flax plant. Next we began planting some things that they would have grown.

But before we did any of that we had to pull weeds.

These are so pretty, why do we consider them weeds?

Okay, so the first project we talked was erecting bean poles and planting our beans around them. These are the beans I was planting. Apparently they were a popular food item back in the 18th century, but they aren’t beans that I was familiar with.

Next we scattered buckwheat and flax over patches of the garden.

We also planted carrots, spinach, and cucumbers, all of which Marcia thinks the Boones or other people living in the Oley Valley would have planted.

In addition to all this we also have some herbs that have already sprouted up. They include leeks, dill, camamille, sage, and chives.

All in all gardening was a nice break from giving tours and running the cash register in the gift shop. It also made me feel a little bit like I was taking part in something that the Boones would have been doing in the 18th century. I think it would be a good idea to have a program on interpretive Sundays on plants, gardening, and herbal remedies of the 18th century, but I think I will leave the task to Marcia, as she is one of the most knowledgeable gardeners I have ever met. I'm glad I worked with her for these past two days because I really learned a lot about plants and plant care!