THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, February 5, 1995 TAG: 9502030132
SECTION: HOME PAGE: G1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ROBERT STIFFLER
LENGTH: Medium: 53 lines
TODAY'S GARDENERS owe a debt to the native people who shared their crops with early American colonists. Historians say the settlers would have starved during those first hard winters without gifts of food from the natives. And today's vegetable gardens would be without such staples as squash, pumpkins and corn.
You probably already grow some native crops. Lee Taylor, professor emeritus of horticulture at Michigan State University, suggests gardeners may want to go a step further this spring and grow more of the crops that the Indians grew. Particularly if you have small children, it can be an educational and fun experience for them.
To grow a garden in the style the Indians used to plant their crops, start by piling soil in a hill 1 foot high and 2 to 3 feet across. When white oak leaves are as large as mouse ears, plant six to eight kernels of corn in the center of the hill. When corn is 12 inches high, prepare more mounds about 2 feet high and 2 feet across in a circle around the corn mound but 3 feet away from it. In those mounds, plant pole bean, squash, gourd or pumpkin seeds.
In a larger circle about 12 feet in diameter, plant sunflower seeds and artichoke tubers.
Next thin corn to the four strongest plants, the squash to the two strongest and the beans to the four strongest plants in each hill. When the beans begin to vine, start them climbing the corn stalks.
The squash, gourd and pumpkin vines will fill in the area within the sunflower circle. The vines are so rough and scratchy that often raccoons will not walk through them to reach the corn.
Vegetables appropriate for an Indian garden include: black Mexican or black sweet corn; Jerusalem artichokes; Connecticut field pumpkins (a direct descendent of the pumpkin the Indians gave to the early settlers); small-fruited gourds; Russian mammoth sunflowers; Kentucky wonder or scarlet runner pole beans; and Boston marrow, green hubbard, summer crookneck and white bush scallop squash. In England, squash are still called marrow.
Many of these vegetables have gone out of style because they take so much room in a garden, and most gardens today are small.
But if you live in a rural area, or have just moved into a home on an unplanted lot, grow some of these old-time Indian vegetables. They will all contribute to a healthy diet. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
ALL AMERICA SELECTIONS
Indian vegetables such as pumpkins, squash and gourds thrive in
local gardens.
by CNB