" Of the nearly 500 colonist living at Jamestown in the declension of 1609 , only 60 remained by the spring of 1610 . This time period is remembered as " the famish time " . The following twelvemonth remaining colonists redoubled their efforts to grow enough food . They had only the seeds of English plants that were not well accommodate to the warmth of the Virginia summertime .

Tribes of New England were well entrenched in growing wintertime squash rackets , which became known by the colonist as " vegetable centre " . The first Thanksgiving featured various surd shell squash and pumpkins grown by the Indians . The settler quickly pick up the soundness in cultivating a plant that was native to the area yielding fruits that could be stored in a cellar for much of the winter .

The best way to get a material time feel for how the first colonist grew their own food for thought is to visit Colonial Williamsburg . This hold out chronicle museum at Williamsburg , Virginia shew visitant just how these gardens were arrange up to feed a family . This was done without garden centers and hardware stores , using only what they could find in their New World home .

Proven Winners - #1 Plant Brand

This leger offers a glimpse of what it was like to garden on a compound homestead and explicate how we can hire some eighteenth - one C praxis in today ’s garden .

Gardening in the 18th century has changed little from how we civilize organic backyard vegetables today . A truly inspirational book lays it out for us from paling fencing to crops and cloche . veg horticulture : The Colonial Williamsburg Way(Amazon , $ 25 ) , by Wesley Greene avail you get a real feel for what it was like to garden on a primitive homestead . The claim page express " 18th Century Methods for Today ’s Organic Gardeners " proves little has transfer here except that we gratefully do n’t have to tote buckets of water to keep our plants alive . The natural simplicity of these former American garden created with little more than instinctive soil , animal manures and plant life material cue us we are a nation steady down in agriculture , blending the Old World plants with New World natives for the deep inheritance on globe .

Images from the book of account show how gardens were irrigate by early settler .

Squash_0
Garden Design
Calimesa, CA

Squash_0
Garden Design
Calimesa, CA

Squash_0
Garden Design
Calimesa, CA