Essay On Loyalist Kitchen Garden
Loyalist Kitchen Garden
Spring is here and with that comes the time to plant our gardens. Today we plant gardens as a hobby rather than a necessity but for our early ancestors, the kitchen garden was one of the most important things for their survival.
When our ancestors arrived in Haldimand in 1783 they were faced with a vast treed landscape. The first order of business was to clear the land, build a shelter and to plant a garden . There were no general stores, markets or even neighbours nearby, their survival depended on what they could grow to help them make it through the winter.
The Kitchen garden was filled with all the staples needed for the family including vegetables, herbs and flowers. You may wonder why flowers would be considered important, but indeed they were for a number of reasons. Flowers were used to ward off pests in the garden, used for flavouring food and for medicinal purposes. Every early garden would have flowers growing around the perimeter of their plots, strategically placed to …show more content…
Corn, beans and squash complement each other nutritionally. Corn provides carbohydrates, the dried beans are rich in protein, and squash yields both vitamins from the fruit and healthful, delicious oil from the seeds. These three vegetables contained everything you would need to survive. They grew together to protect each other. Corn provides a natural pole for bean vines to climb. Beans fix nitrogen on their roots, improving the overall fertility of the plot by providing nitrogen to the following years corn. Bean vines also help stabilize the corn plants, making them less vulnerable to blowing over in the wind. Shallow-rooted squash vines become a living mulch, shading emerging weeds and preventing soil moisture from evaporating. Spiny squash plants also help discourage predators from approaching the corn and
Spring is here and with that comes the time to plant our gardens. Today we plant gardens as a hobby rather than a necessity but for our early ancestors, the kitchen garden was one of the most important things for their survival.
When our ancestors arrived in Haldimand in 1783 they were faced with a vast treed landscape. The first order of business was to clear the land, build a shelter and to plant a garden . There were no general stores, markets or even neighbours nearby, their survival depended on what they could grow to help them make it through the winter.
The Kitchen garden was filled with all the staples needed for the family including vegetables, herbs and flowers. You may wonder why flowers would be considered important, but indeed they were for a number of reasons. Flowers were used to ward off pests in the garden, used for flavouring food and for medicinal purposes. Every early garden would have flowers growing around the perimeter of their plots, strategically placed to …show more content…
Corn, beans and squash complement each other nutritionally. Corn provides carbohydrates, the dried beans are rich in protein, and squash yields both vitamins from the fruit and healthful, delicious oil from the seeds. These three vegetables contained everything you would need to survive. They grew together to protect each other. Corn provides a natural pole for bean vines to climb. Beans fix nitrogen on their roots, improving the overall fertility of the plot by providing nitrogen to the following years corn. Bean vines also help stabilize the corn plants, making them less vulnerable to blowing over in the wind. Shallow-rooted squash vines become a living mulch, shading emerging weeds and preventing soil moisture from evaporating. Spiny squash plants also help discourage predators from approaching the corn and