About this item
Vegetable Gardening the Colonial Williamsburg WayFrom the nation's foremost historical preservation site comes a guide to traditional -- andstill relevant -- methods and advice for planting and tending a productive vegetable gardenIn a colonial-style garden, the broccoli is purple and "turkey" cucumbers grow to three feet long; oiledpaper predates plastic for sheltering spring plants; and fermenting manure warms the seedlings. Findinginspiration and value in 18th-century plants, tools, and techniques, the gardeners at Colonial Williamsburg have discovered that these traditional vegetable-growing methods are perfectly at home in today's modern organic gardens. After all, in the 18th century, organic gardening was the only type of gardening and local produce the only produce available.Author Wesley Greene founded the Colonial Garden in Colonial Williamsburg's Historic Area in 1996. He and his colleagues have painstakingly researched the ways the colonists planted and tended their vegetable and herb beds, most of which are more relevant than ever. Along with historical commentary and complete growing instructions for 50 delicious vegetables, including colonial varieties still available today, gardeners and folklorists will find weather-watching guidelines, planting techniques, and seedsaving advice for legumes, brassicas, alliums, root crops, nightshades, melons, squash, greens, and other curious and tender produce.
About the Author
Bob Murray, a botony professor at North Idaho College in Coeur d' Alene first inspired me to pursue botany as a career. I finished a degree in botany at the Univ. of Maine, Orono and while visiting my parents in Virginia was offered a job by Colonial Williamsburg as garden foreman at the Governor's Palace. That was 1981. In 1996 I founded the Colonial Garden and Garden Shop on the Duke of Gloucester Street. Here Jennifer Mrva and I practice gardening with period tools, plant varieties and the best advice from the most accomplished 18th century English gardeners. This is an interactive site where kids haul water from the well, put it out with watering cans, help us plant and share in the harvest. We also have a small garden shop that offers heirloom plants, seeds, bulbs and garden related items. The best part of the job is the opportunity to meet great gardeners from all over the world. We would love to meet you too!
