|
Introduction
Cultivating the Garden |
Planting the SeedsThe earliest records relating to gardening in this country come from the 17th century, in particular from the reports of the Jesuit missionaries in New France who wrote about the agricultural practices of aboriginal North Americans and who collected the new plants they discovered growing there and shipped them back to France. At about the same time, Champlain's settlers were establishing the small gardens essential to their survival. Before the end of the century, the northern forts established by the Hudson's Bay Company were growing cabbages and turnips in the Arctic.Native Agriculture and Plant UseWhen Europeans first began to settle in what is now Canada, many indigenous peoples were living by hunting and fishing alone, but others were practising agriculture, either directly or by tending and harvesting wild crops.The Hurons were particularly adept farmers. By the time the Europeans arrived, they were working large acreages, devoted for the most part to their major crops, the "three sisters" - maize (corn, Zea mays), beans (Phaseolus vulgaris), and squash (Cucurbita pepo), which are believed to have originated in Mesoamerica. The three were planted together in small hills. As the corn grew straight and tall, it provided a stake around which the bean plant climbed, with the squash spreading over the earth and keeping down weeds. The healthiest seeds were saved for the next year's planting, and extra seeds were put aside for bad years. Wild herbs and other plant life were used as medicines and for food, in much the same way as they were throughout the rest of the world at that time. Fruits, nuts and berries were especially important, and were gathered and eaten, or dried for future use. When the Europeans arrived, the aboriginal gardeners passed on their knowledge of indigenous plants, including how to render sweet sap from the sugar maple (Acer saccharum) into syrup and sugar. They, in turn, adopted many of the new seeds and fruit trees brought by the immigrants.
|