Week 2: The Art of Cultivation/Not so Native Plants

Week 2 at the 1812 Garden. Please notice the lack of weeds, the new bean teepees, and how far along the beets are!

A gardener "should provide himself with a blank book. In this book he should first lay out a plan for his garden, allotting a place for all the different kinds of vegetables he intends to cultivate. As he proceeds in the business of planting his grounds, if he were to keep an account of everything he does relative to his garden, he would soon obtain some knowledge of the art"

-Thomas Bridgeman, 1836

So this blog will serve as my blank book, and in accordance with Bridgeman I will first lay out the plan of the 1812 Garden. It must be noted, that this is the original plan of where things were planted, the ‘geometric ordering of bounded earth’ as Michael Pollan calls it, before the complexities of summer growth. This map in no ways chronicles where things actually came up, grew, flourished or took over.

The different plots are labeled buy plant and boxed in green. The Gray boxed represent where crops fully or partially failed. None of the herbs planted from seed, mustard, kale, melons, pepper, cabbage, eggplant, turnips, ancient wheat or alliums sprouted  (most likely due to a late frost). 

For a complete list of all the heirloom varieties planted (or replanted) in the 1812 Garden, please visit our website.

Considering the fact that the entire garden, regardless of what was planted where, has been overtaken by Velvetleaf, I thought it might be interesting to highlight other not-so-native species. Many of what we consider "native" species are truly aliens introduced over the years.  Just like Velvetleaf, many of these species were introduced with a purpose (for example teasel pods were originally dried and used to card wool and other fibers) but now many are only seen as weeds.  Some of these plants were used for food, some as medicines, and some (like teasels) became tools. Below is a list of some not-so-native plants in central New York. This list is nowhere near complete, but merely exemplifies just how many of our beloved ‘native’ plants are indeed aliens.