Author: Carol (Page 10 of 18)

4 septembre 2014 jeudi (Thursday)

Long Anglais cucumbers, new garden beds, and espaliered apple tree beyond.

93 F, Cloudy

3 mph SE wind

The FdC Jardin Potager Heirloom Saturday will be held this weekend, September 6, regardless of a chance of showers Saturday morning. Make your way to the fort’s store building across from the garden beginning at 10 AM and seed samples of flower and fall vegetables with accompanying information will be shared. Late summer and early fall is a perfect time to relocate seedlings discovered while replanting the jardin for the fall season. There are a limited number borage, calendula, rue, and wormwood seedlings looking for a good home. Later in the morning, with the cooperation of the weather, we can walk in the garden where you may gather some of our jardin seeds of your own.

Native Columbine

The descriptions of early New France and Illinois country French colonial gardens leave such a strong vision of beauty mixed with utilitarian need. As noted by many observers ranging from the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century through modern historians, l’habitant garden reflected comfort, pleasure, and aesthetic qualities to a greater extent than those of the British or American colonists. According to Swedish botanist, Pehr Kalm, whose mid eighteenth century travels through North America remarked on the tradition of the kitchen garden in French communities and opined that style of household gardening was brought to the Mississippi Valley from French Canada, where it was common to find kitchen gardens from Quebec to Montreal. In 1793, a young lad from Philadelphia, Henry Brackenridge, much admired the kitchen garden of the Vital St. Gemme Bauvais residence in Saint Geneviève, located in that French community across the Mississippi on its western shore:

Cockscomb, globe amaranth, ageratum

“The garden-in which the greatest variety and the finest vegetables were cultivated, intermingled with flowers and shrubs: on one side of it there was a small orchard containing the choicest fruits. The substantial and permanent character of these inclosures is in singular contrast with the slight and temporary fences and palings of the Americans.”

Nick tying the espalier apple trees limbs.

These accounts help create our jardin potager layout and give us insight to the creative and talented horticultural skills of the early French colonists. While we may never know the exact varieties of plants grown in their jardins, through research into the popular and general plants of the era, our garden offers heirlooms common throughout Europe and America in the eighteenth century. Furthermore, in the fifth year of our jardin potager project, the varieties that have excelled in our climate and conditions in the Illinois country have revealed some hardy and reliable choices for a heritage garden. This Saturday we will focus on the successful heirloom flower standouts appropriate to the eighteenth century. They include; ageratum, balsam, bee balm, borage, calendula, columbine, globe amaranth, love in the mist, French or common mallow, nasturtium, heliotrope, rose mallow, fringed pinks, and field poppies. These flowers while providing beauty also often had culinary/medicinal/herbal qualities as well.

The weather this weekend should be rain cooled and a perfect time to reflect a moment on the heirlooms of the past. It is hoped that you may visit our jardin and share in a little garden history.

You are invited to Fort de Chartres Jardin Potager Heirloom Saturday, September 6, 2014, 10 AM-Noon. The history of our jardin’s heritage flowers and herbs and how to save their seeds will be explored. FdC flower sample seeds packets and a few seedlings will be available. À bientôt.

Jardin Potager, Summer 2014

17 Août 2014 Dimanche (Sunday)

77 F, Rain

7 mph WNW wind

August in the late summer season of the Illinois Country brings heat combined with periods of heavy rain. The summer  garden is nearing its completion and the time has arrived to plan and plant for the fall jardin.

In a letter sent from New France in 1632, Father Paul le Jeune, of the Society of Jesus, remarked:

“All considered, this country here is very fine. As soon as we had entered into our little home, the 13th of July, we began to work and dig the earth, to sow purslane and turnips, and to plant lentils, and everything grew very well; a very short time afterwards we gathered our salad… You would be astonished to see the great number of ears of rye which were found among our peas; they are longer and more grainy than the most beautiful I have ever seen in France.”

Heirloom Flowers, Cockscomb, Globe Amaranth, Ageratum

The Fort de Chartres jardin potager is in the process of gathering the last of the summer produce, Long Anglais cucumbers, St.Valery carrots, Bull Nose peppers, seed heads of herbs and flowers. Soon the garden beds will be cleared and prepared for the fall planting. Most surprisingly, the jardin heirloom flowers have survived the neglect of recent months. Ageratum, Balsam, Cockscomb Celosia, Globe Amaranth, French Mallow, Fringed Pinks-their growth bringing beauty and hope. While the temperatures remain warm, it is time to plant peas, beets, kale, leeks, and radishes. Spinach can be started indoors, readied for transplanting into a garden bed once the heat diminishes.

Some time has passed since my last garden post, I beg the indulgence of those interested in the Fort garden’s progress. This summer has been spent in a different sort of nurturing journey.  As my mother’s health waned over the past months, my energy has been focused on her path to a garden of serenity and peace. I appreciate the Fort staff and jardin volunteer, Jennifer Esker, for their assistance keeping the garden in a semblance of order. Their energy  will smooth the seasonal transition to a fall garden making it easier than otherwise possible.

Summer morning breakfast, my granddaughter Olivia with her GG.

This gardener’s endeavors are a direct inspiration of her mother‘s loving guidance. Earliest memories in our family garden, evoke the sights and smells of the many fruits and vegetables grown on crowded plots, bursting with produce and surrounded by flowers. We weeded, picked, and ate our way through the summer months, and dined throughout the winter on the preserved garden produce. Our family’s immigrant background was explored through the seeds and plants grown throughout the extended family, the taste of our heritage preserved in our food, drink, and baked goods. Family members shared seeds and plants from the old country, bathing my childhood in the glow of a communal memory. Gardening was a part of our everyday life, as natural as breathing, the efforts of this labor something to be shared and enjoyed. My mother, in particular, was a master nurturer and whether child or plant, she guided and protected, with amazing results. Often tucked away in her garden corners, she would casually have a plant slip rooting, a seamless effort which brought forth without fail, a new breath of life. I came to the love of the outdoors through both my parents, but my love of gardening, the nurturing of life from the tiniest seed or slip, grew from my mother’s loving hand. And as I transition in life from her loving presence, to a world suffused in the knowledge she imparted, I am forever grateful.  Toujours dans mon cœur: “Always in my heart.”

2013 Garden Weekend

15 Janvier 2014 Mercredi (Wednesday)

30 F, Sunny

9 mph WNW wind

The annual garden weekend is a little over a month away. Recent weather makes one pause, but no matter the conditions, work continues in the garden. Visit historic Fort de Chartres as a few habitants recreate the experiences of the colonists of the 18th century Illinois Country. We will prepare the kitchen garden for the late winter and early spring plantings. No matter the weather, as last year proved, it is fun to talk about gardening and seeds whether out in the garden or standing in comfort in the Guard room near the fire. Jardin Potager heirloom seed packet samples and seed starting information will be available to share with those who visit with us Saturday, 11 AM-3 PM, or Sunday, 11 AM-2 PM. Laissez le jardinage commence! Let the gardening begin. Or as our reader from the French Alps, Jerome, more correctly expressed-Attaquons les travaux du jardin!  Let’s start the work to be carried out in the garden.