The Wisdom in Our Ancestors Gardens
The roots for success run deep
War brought a great deal of change to the world, even to the family garden! Through propaganda and appealing to people’s patriotism, citizens were urged to grow as much of their own food as they could, so that there wouldn’t be a shortage of food, thereby allowing the government to send more food to the fighting soldiers. Railway cars that were formerly needed to ship food would then be empty and able to ship soldiers, war supplies and medics. As early as 1940, people of all ages planted, weeded and grew the very best war-garden plots they could. By 1943, victory gardens, and the women, children and elders who tended them, supplied 40% of the produce in the United States. Necessity dictated that they were frugal and creative, even out in the garden. Nothing was wasted, and if possible, was used more than once.
Of course, prior to both world wars, home food production was a way of life for many families. Those households lucky enough to have chickens had live-in pest control, and a supply of eggs in return. Eggshells were never merely thrown away. They were dried, crushed to a fine powder and sprinkled around the stems of plants and seedlings. Water would leach out calcium, phosphorus, nitrogen, zinc, magnesium, potassium, copper and other valuable micro-nutrients. Of course, our ancestors didn’t know about minerals and so on in eggshells. But they did know that plants were healthier with crushed eggshells around the stem.
Companion planting
Our Elders knew that if they planted beans, corn and lettuce together, that the corn provided support for the beans to grow on, the beans provided nitrogen to the soil and the foliage from both plants shaded the lettuce from the scorching sun as the leaves grew. Beans planted among potatoes also provided the tubers with nitrogen, preventing the soil from being nutrient-stripped. Our ancestors took note of what happened in their gardens. They knew that flowers planted interspersed among the vegetables attracted pollinators like bees and butterflies, which in turn pollinated their veggies. It was a winning arrangement for all concerned!
Seed saving
Many of our ancestors immigrated from other countries, bringing their favourite seeds with them. Many of our favourite heritage types of tomatoes, beans, squash and melons spread across the world this way. Our grandparents and great grandparents knew which seeds would produce high yields, or earlier crops or which ones would produce bigger vegetables. They learned how to save these seeds, relying on themselves and their own seed to provide them with a garden, and food, the following years. These days, seed saving is seeing a renaissance. Our commercial seed supply shrinks ever more each year due to big business taking over the seed market and then consolidating, growing bigger and bigger, but only releasing a limited number of seed strains to the market. As a result, home gardeners have fewer and fewer choices when it comes to planting time. Saving seed from heirloom vegetables is the answer, just as our ancestors did.
Don’t coddle your tomatoes
Another “trick” our fore-bearers knew, was not to coddle one’s tomatoes. If a seedling from their favourite seed grew leggy, they simply dug a hole deeper, or a shallow trench, and buried the seedling right up to its leaves. In time, the plant sent out all kinds of roots along the stem, giving it an even more solid foothold in the garden. Gardeners knew too, not to water shallowly or frequently. Tomatoes benefit from deep watering a few days apart. Their roots run deeper, the fruit is less prone to insect attack and the plant is hardier overall. This results in better seed, too. Handy for the home gardener who saves their own seed for next year’s garden!
Resources:
Victory Gardens: The Canadian Encyclopedia
