The Gardens of Black Creek Pioneer Village
In mid-nineteenth century Ontario, the household garden played a major role in the daily life of the pioneer. The plants found growing in the gardens, orchards, and fields of Black Creek Pioneer Village in Toronto, Ontario, are representative of those grown by the early settlers for food, medicine, and other domestic uses.
While strolling through the Village, now celebrating forty years of heritage education, visitors will encounter a wide array of gardens that have been carefully planned to resemble those of earlier times. The following three historical herb gardens are of particular interest to the herb enthusiast.
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Many of the plants growing at the Village could be considered herbs because whether wild plants or garden flowers, they were useful in a variety of ways in the daily lives of pioneers. Every plant that could provide a use was valued - whether it supplied a moth repelling scent or provided healing qualities to a lard salve or yielded a vivid dye. Pioneer theme gardens can preserve this knowledge of heritage plants to be shared with school children, Sunday School classes or even the local boy scout troop.
Many of the trees and plants in the garden, surrounding the restored Doctor’s home, served as a "natural pharmacy" from which the nineteenth century doctor could prepare remedies and cures for the villagers. This authentic garden was developed and maintained by the Southern Ontario Unit of the Herb Society of America. The following perennial herbs are typical of those commonly used to stock a storehouse of remedies.
Comfrey
Symphytum officinale
Old time remedy herb used for compresses applied to injuries.
Elecampane
“Recipes would be exchanged over a cup of herbal tea and people who could cut a fine quill for writing were much in demand.”
- Dorothy Banks
With summer’s labours over, in autumn Canadian settlers looked forward to craft-making, when they finally had a little time to take pleasure in the fragrant leaves and petals which they had so carefully collected from their gardens and fields.
As I write, the autumnal Vancouver monsoons rain down upon us. It is a good time to reflect on a healthy diet through enjoying your home-grown herbs, whether they be fresh or preserved by you in your kitchen.
Humankind has used herbs from time immemorial as preservatives for embalming bodies as well as for preserving food. We are familiar with the deliciously calming perfumes from lavender, anise, santolina and, indeed, the culinary herbs too, the thymes, mints, and marjorams to mention only a few. Then there are the spices from warmer climates.
Gordon’s Gin and the National Trust for England have together recreated the original juniper walk at Ham House in Surrey as part of an ongoing project to replicate the seventeenth century gardens using original drawings. This unlikely partnership of distillery and heritage preserving organization is planning to plant more of the berry-producing strain of juniper rather than the current non-berry producing plants; in this way, visitors can then enjoy the fragrance of juniper berries on the bush and not berries placed in pots, as at present.
Creating beautiful herb gardens with a few tricks of the trade!
Herb gardening is all about the gardener's own personality and taste. Herb gardens can be as wild as the deepest jungles of Africa to the most formal designs of precision and form. Herbs lend themselves to many garden designs and no two herb gardens are alike. Just as the stately wild mullein is at home in a naturalized garden, so too is the garden variety found strategically placed, dominating the English castle wall.
Dyes derived from plants such as those growing in this display garden were used to create the warm and bright colours in woollen materials. Natural dyes from wild and cultivated plants provided a rich palette of earthy tones that were incorporated into blankets, socks, and even woollen undergarments that protected the wearer against the harsh Canadian winter.
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