Sunday, March 3, 2013

plants for a ye olde "peasant" garden

photo by PermaCultured
This post was kind of inspired by a former neighbour who had told her daughter that "gardening is for peasants" as I was digging up new beds for the home I am currently in. Having heavily manicured lawns and shrubs, and fancy plants like peonies are ok of course, as long as you hire a peasant to do the labour. Vegetable and herb gardens were way beneath her. 

So here is my tip of the hat to the lowly plants found in the peasant gardens of yesteryear. ;)

Below you will find just a few of these plants that were historically grown and wildcrafted by the underclasses for food, medicine, industry, magic, and sometimes other uses. This is just to give folks an idea, should you wish to grow your own "peasant" garden.

    3 comments:

    H.A. Blackthorn said...

    What a fascinating article! I love to garden but know precious little about Medieval gardening. I do wish I had more land so I could grow vegetables, but in the meantime I will make do with herbs.

    Grey Catsidhe said...

    Wow, what a snobbish neighbor you have! From one peasant gardener to another, high five!

    nefaeria said...

    Raven: I am glad that you enjoyed it. :) I barely scratched the surface on what info is available out there; the books that I suggested are a pretty nice place to start should you be interested for future garden design or plant selection.

    Grey Catsidhe: Haha, I know, eh? Thankfully she has moved on and our new neighbour seems a lot more down to earth. Gods bless the peasant gardeners! ;)