The following is an excerpt from Michael's first book: The New Traditional Garden (Ballantine 1999) To obtain the complete article, click on the book icon to your left.

Few people think of gardens when they think of Plimoth Plantation, but for those interested in our earliest horticultural beginnings, Plimoth is a mecca. The product of meticulous research, each house and its garden has been recreated, as closely as possible, to reflect the lives and known preferences of its owners. As such, these landscapes provide a fascinating microcosm of 17th century horticultural life in the Americas.

And an easy life it was not. Unaccustomed to the colder climate and strange growing conditions, the European settlers failed miserably with their initial plantings and barely made it through their first few winters. Only the assistance of the Native American inhabitants saved the day, and even with that the colonists still struggled for years afterward. By dint of great effort though, they eventually learned the secrets to successful gardening in the new land. But no pleasure grounds, these first gardens!

The landscapes at Plimoth were no-nonsense exercises in practicality and utility: living larders. Intimately linked to the tiny thatched houses by a rough fence of wooden pales, each yard was carefully subdivided into small, rectangular beds, with 3- to 4-foot dirt paths between them. (See the plan, right.) The garden beds were just wide enough to be weeded easily from either side, and raised with rough-hewn planks or stones brought from the nearby shore. Crammed into these beds were a wide selection of plants both for medicinal and culinary use, as the gardens were expected to maintain the family until the main field crops came in, as well as to provide food additives and medicines throughout the year. To assure this supply, the woman of each house before leaving the Old World had gathered together seeds or sometimes even live plants to bring to her new garden, each with a specific purpose to justify its presence. A sample plant list (Page 25) from one of these gardens shows how much the early colonists depended on their gardens for their day-to-day existence.

To guarantee high yields in such small spaces, the soil was carefully enriched. All wastes - human, animal and vegetable - were carefully hoarded, composted in piles and added to the gardens when ready. Another common practice was one we would today call "over-seeding." For example, onions, which are slow to germinate, were overseeded with lettuce, which is quick to mature. As the lettuce grew, it was removed, allowing space for the onions and providing a double harvest from a single space.

Flowers abounded in Plimoth gardens, but not as deliberate additions. Although the colonists greatly appreciated their beauty, blooms were incidental in these first gardens; plants were chosen for their usefulness, not their aesthetic value. If flowers occurred, all the better. (One of the most striking, by the way, is elecampane [inula helenium], a 6-foot stately plant with velvety leaves and lovely, daisy-like flowers.) It wasn't until much later that more prosperous circumstances permitted the luxury of planting solely for beauty's sake.

So what can we learn from these first, simple gardens? The value of space - the idea that each and every garden area should justify its existence and should produce something for the greater good of the landscape, be it of a practical, tangible value or a purely aesthetic one. Too many parts of our modern landscapes merely exist without purpose or definition. This is ridiculous, especially given the ever-shrinking and ever-more-costly nature of our land resources. "Waste not, want not" goes the old adage, and it's never been truer than in today's gardens. It's time, again, to concern ourselves with how we relate to our land and how it relates to us.

A 2000-Year-Old Tip from Plimoth
Ancient Indian lore tells how the crow brought corn to man as a gift from the gods thousands of years ago, making Native Americans this continent's first gardeners. In fact, it was the Wampanoag Indians who showed the first European settlers at Plimoth how to plant and sow corn, without which they surely would have perished during their first tenuous years. The Indian method of planting was completely different from the European way, as the Native American system managed to take from the land without polluting or depleting it, demanded much less work, and produced much greater harvests. I was fascinated to learn about this ancient tradition at the Wampanog village at Plimoth Plantation. Not only is their system extremely clever, in that it incorporates the best aspects of what we would today call "companion planting," but it also produces a highly balanced and nutritious crop of beans, corn and squash, all from the same square-foot mound and without chemicals. Small garden owners take note: If you have always wanted to grow corn in your garden but avoided it because it would take up too much room, try this: You'll be happy you did.

First, dig a 6-inch deep hole and throw in a dead fish or several fish heads. (Fish emulsion fertilizer will work well enough for the fish-less, though I must say, having tried it both ways, the real thing works better). Cover up the fish (or fertilizer) and form a mound about 5 inches high. Make as many mounds as you wish and space these about 3 feet apart. Plant your corn in the center of the mound. Modern varieties may be used, but you may want to experiment with some of the interesting heirloom types now available. When the corn has reached hand-height, plant pole beans (any variety of climbing beans will do) immediately around the corn, and then plant squash around the outside of the mound. Now here's the neat part: You have just planted a perfectly balanced miniature habitat. As the corn grows taller and takes nitrogen from the soil, the beans, which add nitrogen to the soil, use the bare lower stalks of the corn as a natural trellis. In the meantime, the prickly-haired, large-leaved squash (or watermelons, or pumpkins - all were traditionally grown) happily spreads out along the ground from the base of the mound, keeping the soil naturally moist and shaded, preventing the growth of extraneous weeds and discouraging animals (and children) with their scratchy leaves. By autumn, you'll have a rich harvest of corn, squash and beans and an enriched garden, all from a single 2,000-year-old tip. What more could you ask?

Practical Details
Plimoth Plantation is located in Plymouth Massachusetts, about an hour south of Boston on Route 3A. The Plantation has recently started a seed program, which sells native, heirloom, and kitchen garden seeds appropriate to the 17th century. For info call: 508-746-1622 x322.
My thanks to the entire Horticultural Staff at Plimoth, especially John Forti and Nancy Miller, for help with this article.

Schematic Layout of a 1627 Kitchen Garden at Plimoth Plantation:

Notes: *Harvested as annual. **Depending on climate and care.