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Issue 86
July 2001
GEDDY GARDEN NEWS
The phlox in the garden beds
Turn red, turn grey,
With the time ofday,
And smell sweet in the dusk
Then die away.
Fredegond Shove
The Waterm ll"
Our summer activities at the Geddy Site are keeping us busy. The Junior
Interpreters had their annual picnic and it was very successful. Our scarecrow was officially named,
thanks to the suggestion offered by Julia Frankel. The winning name was Miss Evergreen — a
most
appropriate name for several reasons. She has been successful in keeping our kitchen garden green,
but also she is attired in a green scarf, a green apron, and even her straw hat is decorated with green
ribbons. I had a nice experience in regard to our scarecrow a week or two ago. A woman, who was
visiting from Connecticut, approached me as I was gardening and asked if she could sit in the garden
and sketch some of the plants. Of course, I welcomed her. We enjoyed chatting as she pursued her
hobby and I was happy for her company as I did my work. She told me her name was Joan Olson
and she was a teacher.
It was one of those balmy, wonderful days and as the morning came to an
end Joan told me she wanted to express her thanks for the most peaceful, pleasant day of her visit to
Williamsburg. She then presented me with a lovely watercolor of Miss Evergreen.
I was pleased
and delighted. It is moments like that that make me really appreciate this job!
Another summer activity on the Geddy Site was the cooking of some of the
Newtown
Pippins
from our orchard.
Phyllis Putnam and Sara Finldestein picked and prepared the
apples and we enjoyed the results.
I planted some heirloom seeds of cantaloupe melons that Wesley gave me and they
are growing
nicely.
They are a type called charenties.
The melons themselves
have not yet
appeared, but I am anxious to see what they will look like. Wes said they will resemble what was
called the Spanish melon of the past. I will keep you posted about the actual appearance of the fruit
once it occurs.
I have also planted watermelons this year and I'm sure they will become featured
players at a future summer activity in the Geddy yard.
I attended the official reopening of the Maze at the Governor' s Palace recently. The
Maze was closed for the past two years as is was in disrepair and undergoing very necessary replanting.
The decision was made to use Yaupon holly for the hedge, as it grows quickly and full
and should do well.
�The funding of the restoration of the Maze was through a very generous gift of
George and Anne Miller of Salisbury, Maryland. Mrs. Miller spoke of her happy memories which
included wandering through the maze while visiting Williamsburg. She wanted other children to
have that same opportunity. We are most grateful for the gift.
Mazes or labyrinths have been popular for centuries.
They go back to antiquity.
Pliny mentions four famous mazes or labyrinths, the Egyptian, the Cretan, the Lemnion, and the
Italian.
The words labyrinths and maze are generally interchangeable, although maze is the word
more commonly used in regard to the turf maze.
There are also church mazes made of stone and
The significant meaning of some of those was the allegorical path to salvation. The term
labyrinth is more commonly used in terms of the church designs. There is a document in the Vatican
mosaic.
Library of a medieval Christian labyrinth dated AD 860- 862! The oldest Christian medieval maze can
be found in Chartres Cathedral.
Chartres
It is made of blue and white marble.
I hope to some day visit
and see it.
Landscape mazes were found in France, Holland, Ireland, Spain, and Italy, as well as
England. They were in herb knot gardens as early as the 13th century.
Henry Wise planted the maze in Hampton Court between 1689 and 1696 during the
reign of William III.
It was one of many mazes found in 17th century English gardens. By the 18`h
century the tall hedge -like affect was popular. Hampton Court was originally of horn beam, but
later replaced by hollies, yews, and elms.
Arthur Shurcliff wrote in a letter in 1935 that our maze should be " based on the
famous maze of Hampton Court and follow that design."
unusual
interest
and amusement
to those who enter it."
He went on to say it was " a maze of
In another letter he wrote that Mr.
Rockefeller " considered the idea of the maze and thought favorably of it."
surprised.
I have had the pleasure of going through the Hampton Court maze and I was quite
Having spent years leading groups through our maze here in Williamsburg I entered the
Hampton Court maze feeling very confident. I started out thinking " a piece of cake";
however, it
wasn' t long before I realized our palace maze is a very condensed version of the original.
I did
eventually learn the key to the puzzle and I' m happy to share it with you.
As you enter, take the first available left, then take two rights, after that go left at
each opportunity until you reach the goal.
This will not only save you time, but also spare you the embarrassment of running
into the blind alleys and dead ends as I did on my first experience.
It still was silly and fun, and
that' s what a maze is about, after all.
Janet Guthrie
�
Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
Geddy Garden News
Description
An account of the resource
The Geddy Garden News was a monthly newsletter produced by employee Janet Guthrie who worked for many years as a garden interpreter at the James Geddy House. The Library holds a partial run of this newsletter (issues 33-114 with some gaps) for the years 1996-2003. The newsletter ceased publication in 2003 upon Guthrie’s retirement.
Subjects covered most often in the newsletters are 18th century gardens, gardening publications, gardens of the Founding Fathers, plant uses, early and pre-Christian folklore, and seasonal customs. Much good and interesting information is found within these newsletters, but current users should be alert for some now archaic interpretive sources, Latin errors, and cultural generalizations, especially with Native peoples/nations of North America which are often treated as one culture instead of many.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Guthrie, Janet
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
Geddy Garden News, no. 86, July, 2001
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Guthrie, Janet
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
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6661277e48faa2cce7ba75069e3ec448
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June 2001
Issue 85
GEDDY GARDEN NEWS
The kiss of the sun forpardon,
The song of the birds for mirth,
JOHN D. ROCVEFEI _ ER, JR. LIBRARY
COON!. ''' ' `'.:)
r,U. 1RG FOUNDATION
One is nearer God's Heart in a Garden,
i:; 1776
x
Than anywhere else on earth.
Virginia 23187
Dorothy Frances Gurney
God' s Garden
The sun has certainly chosen to kiss us lately. It has been quite warm, but Thomas Jefferson wrote
in his notes on Virginia that Williamsburg was the hottest part of Virginia. I am enjoying the kiss of the sun,
though, and I always love the song of the birds. All of my life I have been interested in birds. As a child I was a
card-carrying member of the Junior Audubon Society. I had the encouragement of my dad who shared my interest,
and together we fed and watched the birds.
It is therefore no surprise that I enjoy reading and learning about the
travels and contributions of the early naturalists.
In the eighteenth - century age of reason and enlightenment there were several very important
naturalists documenting ornithology here in the colonies. One of those men was John Lawson, who became the
surveyor -general of North Carolina and Virginia, and studied and recorded what he saw. He visited Williamsburg in
1710 and associated with Clayton and William Byrd II. In his book, A New Voyage to Carolina, he described and
listed many of the birds he had seen, but did not include illustrations. He was reportedly killed in New Bern, NC by
Tuscarora Indians shortly thereafter.
Another major contributor to our knowledge of the nature in colonial America was Mark Catesby.
He traveled from England to Virginia and stayed with his sister in Williamsburg, who was married to Dr. William
Cocke. While in Williamsburg he painted plants, birds, and animals, joining the proper plants with the insect or
animal with which it belonged. His pictures were eventually published in the Natural History of Carolina_ Florida,
and the Bahamas in 1731. He stayed in Virginia seven years.
These men wrote of the good birds and some times of the bad birds. Pigeons were among those
considered bad birds.
They were called Turtle Doves or Doves. Dove cotes were built by the colonists to house
them. Considered a delicacy, they eventually ended up on the dinner table. Lawson wrote of them, ` Turtle Doves are
here very plentiful• they devour the Peas; for which reason People make traps and catch them." The crow, blackbird, or Raven was
considered another enemy of the farmer.
Landon Carter, the old curmudgeon, wrote throughout his diary of damage done to his crops by
the birds. He wrote of a row of seventy hills of corn having been destroyed by crows. Other times he complained
of crows destroying his oat crops. Crows are scavengers who eat a varied diet, everything from corn to grain crops,
including insects and even garbage. Lawson wrote, " Crows are here less than in England They are as good meat as apigeon;
and neverfeed on any Carrion. They aregreat Enemies to the cornfields and cry and build almost like Rooks."
�On the positive side, a few good things can be said about the crow. Crows are intelligent and can
even imitate human speech. Be eating worms, grubs, and corn borers they help control the insect population.
Indians were known to sing while they gardened and there is an old Indian garden song which says,
when freely translated, " It is hard work to care for a garden.
The blackbirds come and eat it up. Come, my brother, and kill
them."
Not all the colonists held the black bird in such low esteem, however. There were at least a couple
who appreciated them. Joseph Addison in 1712 wrote in the Spectator, " I value my garden more for them being full of
Blackbirds than Cherries, and mgfrankly give themfruitfor their songs. By this Means I have always the Musick ofthe Season in its
Perfection, and am highly delighted to see the Jay or the Thrush hopping about my Walks, and shooting before my Eye across the several
Glades and Alleys that Ipass through."
William Lawson, a bit earlier in 1618, had similar feelings when he wrote of the Blackbird and
Therestle, "
But I had rather want their company than my ripe cherries or berries."
Birds and man add beauty to the garden by cross pollinating flowers. My very favorite good bird is
the hummingbird. Hummingbirds can fly forward and backwards and even hover for long periods of time. It is
fascinating to watch them in action as they busily buzz about their business. They are feisty and territorial and
during breeding season have been known to chase away the big birds like crows, Blue Jays, and Red- tailed Hawks.
They are probably among the cleanest and best groomed of birds. These fastidious birds preen
constantly to keep their feathers clean and oiled and free of parasites.
These wonderful birds fascinated Catesby and Lawson, also. They are tiny - the Hummingbird is
only about 3 3/ 4 inches in length. Catesby commented, ' The body is about the size of a Humble Bee... It receives itsfoodfrom
flowers, after the manner ofBees; its tongue being a tube, thru which it sucks the honyfrom them. Itpoises itselfby the quick hovering
ofits wings, that it seems without motion in the air:" Catesby painted the Hummingbird with the Trumpet flower. It is one
of my favorites of his watercolors. We at the Geddy House can see this scene repeated in the summer as the
Trumpet Vine on our fence attracts the Hummingbird. They are attracted to plants with bright colored, usually red
blossoms, like the red Buckeye tree. Landon Carter mentioned an unusual event in his diary on August 30, 1778, A
humming bird catch sheltering itselffrom the weather was kept in a cagefor more than afortnight on hony and waterfrom a wooden
spender spoon. At last it got out and went away. After much labor it catch it in Vain I said great Chance but it came Tomorrow to
the cage."
To attract Hummingbirds to your own place, plant flowers of red colors and tubular shapes. They
flock to such flowers as Fuchia, Buddleia, Columbine, Honeysuckle, Flowering Quince, and Beebaml, aka Manarda.
Use a red colored feeder, preferably shaped like a tubular flower. Fill your feeder with one part of refined sugar to
four parts of water. Never use red food coloring. That is why it is important to have the red color on the feeder.
Do not do what Landon Carter did either, that is, do not feed the birds honey as it can be fatal to the birds. Plant
ferns near your feeder, as ferns are a favorite nesting material for the Hummingbird. Even their nests are interesting
as they are sock -like in shape.
I agree with William Lawson when he wrote, '
The Hummingbird is the Miracle ofall our wing' dAnimalr. "
2anet juthrie
�
Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
Geddy Garden News
Description
An account of the resource
The Geddy Garden News was a monthly newsletter produced by employee Janet Guthrie who worked for many years as a garden interpreter at the James Geddy House. The Library holds a partial run of this newsletter (issues 33-114 with some gaps) for the years 1996-2003. The newsletter ceased publication in 2003 upon Guthrie’s retirement.
Subjects covered most often in the newsletters are 18th century gardens, gardening publications, gardens of the Founding Fathers, plant uses, early and pre-Christian folklore, and seasonal customs. Much good and interesting information is found within these newsletters, but current users should be alert for some now archaic interpretive sources, Latin errors, and cultural generalizations, especially with Native peoples/nations of North America which are often treated as one culture instead of many.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Guthrie, Janet
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Geddy Garden News, no. 85, June, 1999
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Guthrie, Janet
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
-
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075d818f1e9f2860bef058856973ec98
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May 2001
Issue 84
Z
O
4
CO
J
Z .-
r
M
NI
O (
cc
c ' - .
Cc: ^
I a
c) -
C
The word May is aperfumed word It is an illuminated initial
x 5- . `
O°
4 <
GEDDY GARDEN NEWS
co
oo
It meansyouth, love song, and all that is beautiful in life.
a-
Longfellow
E
to
z Z }
r
zo of
To celebrate the beauty of May we once again went-a-Maying, that is to say we re-
cc., enacted the ancient rite of dancing around the Maypole on May Day. Customs and celebrations
varied in different countries.
In Provence one tradition was a poetry competition in which the
winners were awarded flowers made of gold and silver. That custom continued until the Revolution.
A tradition which developed in some parts of America involved the filling of small baskets with
flowers and candy. These baskets were placed at the doors of loved ones.
On May Day we
continued that tradition by encircling our May pole with baskets of beautiful spring flowers.
Pepys refers to May Day in his diary.
He mentions in 1667 he was traveling to
Westminster. He states, ` 7n the way meeting many milk -maids with their garlands upon theirpails, dancing with
afiddler before them."
Among the vegetables I am growing in the Geddy garden are cucumbers.
ancient vegetable is found in the Bible. "
This
A lodge in a garden of cucumbers" was mentioned by
Cucumbers originated in India and were introduced into China in the 2nd century B.C., then
grown in North Africa, Italy, Greece, Asia Minor, and eastern countries. Columbus brought them
Isaiah.
to the New World and they were being planted in Haiti in 1494. In 1539 DeSoto found them being
grown in Florida by the Indians. They were being grown in Virginia as early as 1609. They were
used cosmetically and medicinally.
Gerard' s Herbal recommended that cucumbers be used as a face wash to sooth sun
burn and to improve the complexion. Nicholas Culpepper recommended them as a diuretic, " to
cleanse the passages."
There are some people in the present time who combine the juice of the
cucumber with buttermilk to produce a cosmetic skin bleacher. Another medicinal practice is to
drink the cucumber juice mixed with carrot juice for the retention of uric acid in the system. This
treatment is believed to be beneficial for rheumatic ailments. Cucumbers are a healthy food. They
contain potassium, which is valuable in blood pressure conditions. The drinking of cucumber juice
serves to aid in problems with teeth and gums, splitting of finger and toe nails, and even helps
control falling hair. Homemade hand lotions and ointments are used by people for chapped and
rough skin.
�Cucumbers have been eaten in almost every way imaginable.
They have been
pickled, sauteed, fried, stuffed, and have been served raw, in sandwiches, and in yogurt, soup and, of
course, in salads.
Instructions for pickling cucumbers can be found in almost all the cookbooks used
by the colonists. Hannah Glasse, Mary Randolph, Susannah Carter, and Amelia Simmons all
included instructions for the pickling procedures.
Thomas Jefferson grew cucumbers, both the long green type and gherkins. Gherkin
is an Aryan word for the small pickling cucumber.
In a letter to Thomas
Jefferson mentioned that cucumbers were a great favorite of his.
Worthington
in 1825,
He was also involved
with
exchanging cucumber seeds with his friends.
At Mount Vernon, Washington served cucumber soup, which was made with a
chicken stock and contained milk, onion, butter, flour, and pepper.
Cucumbers were being enjoyed in salads as early as 1585. A recipe in The Good
Housewifes Jewell. written in that year, included " cucumbers with the leaves andflowers ofhearbes in a .spring
salad that was seasoned with lemons, ginger, and oyle. "
Cucumbers seemed to present problems for Landon Carter. In his diary in 1766 he
complained that his daughter, Judy, ate cucumbers late at night, " as well as all sorts of bilious trash."
Then in the year 1772 he complained that all of the cucumbers he planted died from lack of rain.
Two arguments that upset him greatly were with his son and both were related to
cucumbers. One was about his eating of the cucumbers at table and the other was involved with the
selection of the proper size of gherkins for pickling. Landon was a chronic complainer.
The reference to something being " as cold as cucumbers" came from a 17t- century
play called Cupid's Revenge. That thought seemed to be repeated in a poem written in the 19th century
by Rossiter Johnson called Ninety- nine in the Shade.
O, fora lodge in agarden of cucumbers!
O, for an iceberg or two at control!
O, for a vale which at midday the dew cucumbers!
O, for apleasure trip up to the Pole!
02anet juthrie
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Geddy Garden News
Description
An account of the resource
The Geddy Garden News was a monthly newsletter produced by employee Janet Guthrie who worked for many years as a garden interpreter at the James Geddy House. The Library holds a partial run of this newsletter (issues 33-114 with some gaps) for the years 1996-2003. The newsletter ceased publication in 2003 upon Guthrie’s retirement.
Subjects covered most often in the newsletters are 18th century gardens, gardening publications, gardens of the Founding Fathers, plant uses, early and pre-Christian folklore, and seasonal customs. Much good and interesting information is found within these newsletters, but current users should be alert for some now archaic interpretive sources, Latin errors, and cultural generalizations, especially with Native peoples/nations of North America which are often treated as one culture instead of many.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Guthrie, Janet
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Geddy Garden News, no. 84, May, 2001
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Guthrie, Janet
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
-
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b2743ff852265bfa00403e89d27f0e66
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Text
April2001
Issue 83
GEDDY GARDEN NEWS
I wandered lonely as a cloud
Thatfloats on high o' er Vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd
A host ofgolden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
William Wordsworth
cp
All daffodils are jonquils. There are both yellow and white daffodils. Some open yellow and
turn white.
means "
The common
name " daffodil"
is derived
offodyle,"
which
Daffodils are members
of the
from the Old English, "
that which comes early." They bloom in March or April.
amaryllis family and as well as being called jonquils they are also called offradils and
daffydowndillies.
Daffodils were brought from Spain to England in 1596. John Parkinson wrote forty pages
about them and Gerard' s Herbal tells us they grew wild and abundantly in meadows and fields in the
western part of England.
Galen wrote of the virtues
of daffodils.
He mentioned their cleansing faculty and their
ability to " glew together very great wounds, yea and such gashes or cuts as happen about the Veins."
When mixed with honey and nettleseed they were a treatment for sunburn.
He also suggested
mixing it with darnel meale and honey to serve as a drawing salve for thorns and splinters.
We find cultural notes about daffodils in The Garden Book by Sir Thomas Hanmer, written
in 1659 in England.
In 1700 they played a part in the natural look in landscape which had become popular. In an
effort to create the real wilderness look they were combined with wild thyme and primroses in
This look was suggested by Timothy Nourse in Campania Foelix to give the
feeling of perpetual spring.
terraced gardens.
There are two schools of thought on the classical Latin name, Narcissus.
Some believe it
came from Greek mythology. The youth Narcissus was punished by Nemesis for spurning the love
of Echo. Narcissus fell in love with his own reflection when he saw it in the water and he drowned
in the effort to embrace it. He was changed into the flower narcissus. Due to this association, the
flower has become in art a symbol of coldness, indifference, selfishness, and self love.
�The other belief is that the name came from the narcotic qualities of the plant. Daffodils
produce an oil with an earthy odor which can be slightly narcotic.
We know that daffodils were transported and enjoyed as ornamentals. Early settlers brought
them from Britain and they multiplied.
We can find daffodils in Furber's prints. In 1730 Robert Furber illustrated twelve plant
plates and the month of April shows the double and single jonquil.
We learn through garden diaries, notes, and lists that the daffodil or jonquil was found in
colonial gardens.
Collinson sent seeds of the double white daffodil to Bartram.
lamented, "
My garden is entirely ruined with the piercing winds and frosts.
In one letter Clayton
All the flowers which
were in the leaf tender, as Narcissus, Polyanthys, lxia, lavecodum, etc. are destroyed."
This he wrote
to Bartram.
Thomas Jefferson planted single jonquils ( Narcessus Jonquilla) at both Shadwell and
Monticello and listed in his garden book when they bloomed. Lady Skipwith at, restwould listed
double and single polyanthus narcissus among the flowers in her garden.
I have some helpful hints for growing your daffodils.
Plant the bulbs eight to ten inches
deep in sandy soil. You can use raised beds if you desire. Plant them where they will receive 3/4 of a
day' s sunlight, not in the shade. Daffodils face the sun and are not eaten by pests.
Fertilize in the
fall with a bulb food.
I recently had the experience of visiting Brent and Becky' s Daffodil Farm in Gloucester,
Virginia. We walked through row upon row of daffodils in trial fields. They grow the daffodils for
ten to fifteen years to thoroughly test the growth and development of the individual daffodils.
Brent' s grandfather bought an old plantation house in 1900 and started the daffodil business
on the property on the Back River on the Mobjack Bay. Brent grew up on the property, part of the
old plantation, and he was immersed in the business of daffodil farming. Today he has one of the
most successful daffodil farms in the country.
There is an annual Daffodil Festival in Gloucester on the first Saturday of April.
I am
vowing to be there next year. I want to experience what Wordsworth did. I want to see a crowd of
golden daffodils dancing in the breeze. Don' t you?
2anet juthrie
�
Dublin Core
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Title
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Geddy Garden News
Description
An account of the resource
The Geddy Garden News was a monthly newsletter produced by employee Janet Guthrie who worked for many years as a garden interpreter at the James Geddy House. The Library holds a partial run of this newsletter (issues 33-114 with some gaps) for the years 1996-2003. The newsletter ceased publication in 2003 upon Guthrie’s retirement.
Subjects covered most often in the newsletters are 18th century gardens, gardening publications, gardens of the Founding Fathers, plant uses, early and pre-Christian folklore, and seasonal customs. Much good and interesting information is found within these newsletters, but current users should be alert for some now archaic interpretive sources, Latin errors, and cultural generalizations, especially with Native peoples/nations of North America which are often treated as one culture instead of many.
Creator
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Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Guthrie, Janet
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Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
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Title
A name given to the resource
Geddy Garden News, no. 83, April, 2001
Creator
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Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Guthrie, Janet
Publisher
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Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
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06d2c9d3d56f96b86d6c2563bef60990
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March 2001
Issue 82
JOHN D. ROCKFFF! !
rp '
COLONIAL `Mi.
GEDDY GARDEN NEWS
P. 0. ; t,; X i / / E
Willi:; msDurg, Virginia 23187
Spring has come whenyou can
putyourfoot on three daisies.
Folk Saying
Crocuses, daffodils, anemones, and hyacinths are some of the spring flowers
greeting us presently. Although they are delicate in appearance, these flowers have a
strength and boldness that enables them to brave the changeable days of this season.
Birds singing and the geese in the sky heading north are signaling to us to
take notice of what nature has in store for us. I have a couple of favorite symbols of
spring, as I' m sure everyone has. My particular favorites are bright sunny yellow in
color.
One is a forsythia bush which shouts spring is here. The other is Basket of
Gold (Aurinia soxatilis), an evergreen perennial which requires very little attention. I
simply snip off the old flowers and stalks in the fall and I' m rewarded each spring
with a rush of little flowers that resemble a basket of gold ( as the name implies).
Henry Ward Beecher wrote, `Flowery are the sweetest things God ever made andforget to put a
soul into."
I' ve been reading a lot about the art of simpling. A simple was a medicinal
plant that possessed a virtue that enabled the plant to offer a simple remedy to an
existing misery. I found some of the early uses of plants and trees of great interest.
The medicinal uses are familiar to many, but some of the more unusual uses are
fascinating. For example, the use of the leaves of the costmary plant. They made
bookmarks of the leaves, which accounts for the plant also being called Bible Leaf.
Another leaf which had an unusual use was mullein leaf.
It sometimes
served as a
diaper.
A form of ink was made from the expressed juices of Batchelor Buttons.
There were many interesting cosmetic uses for both men and women, as
well.
They ran the gamut from head to toe.
Straw was the main ingredient
refreshed
colonial
in foot baths.
We will start with the toe.
Lady Bed
A decoction of the plant soothed and
feet.
There were treatments to prevent and remove or hide wrinkles.
A balsamic
water made with barley and other ingredients was thought to be helpful. The juices
from the flowers of the primrose was another treatment used to take away wrinkles
�and cleanse the skin.
Freckles were considered
unattractive
so the distilled water
from the leaves of lovage was applied to remove the spots and freckles from the
skin.
Colonists used yarrow as a head wash and it was believed to be helpful in
keeping hair from shedding. Women used a variety of rinses for their hair.
Rosemary was often used, as well as an infusion of the chamomile flowers as a hair
rinse.
Yarrow was used by blonds because of its yellow tint. Leaves of some trees
were also useful as hair dyes.
Black hair dye came from the leaves of the Golden
Rain Tree and the green hulls of the walnut tree were used to darken gray hair.
Indians had their cleansing plants, too.
Hellebores
They used the powder of the
leaves to kill head lice.
Wig makers were using pomades that contained rose water, allspice, and
Cloves were especially valued for their powerful fragrance. Cloves and
allspice are members of the myrtle family. Cloves are unopened flower buds and
they were greatly appreciated by all for their perfume qualities; especially by the
cloves.
French, who called them nails.
Perfumes were derived from distilled oils of such plants as lavender, lemon
The fragrances were used to sweeten linens, soap, and
people. The practice of strewing herbs was still in place as it had been for centuries
in homes and churches.
Southernwood, hyssop, for its sweet mild odor, and
rosemary, for the smell of the sea, were among the favorites as strewing herbs.
balm, mint, and lovage.
For dental hygiene they chewed the twig of the dogwood tree.
workable toothbrush.
It was a
A variety of mints, spearmint, apple mint, or peppermint,
were sweet smelling mouthwashes. Rosemary was often used as a breath freshener
and sweetener and sage a teeth whitener. Sage tea was a seasonal drink. It was taken
in spring and fall seasons. It was believed to have special properties that assured you
to have a long life.
In our Geddy garden we have right now an abundance of apple mint, which
It is simple to make. You pour a pint of boiling
water over an ounce of mint leaves and let it steep for ten minutes or so, then
makes an excellent tasting tea.
sweeten,
drink, and relax.
I will pass on the opportunity to assure myself longevity,
but go for the pleasure of the moment.
2anet futhrie
�
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Title
A name given to the resource
Geddy Garden News
Description
An account of the resource
The Geddy Garden News was a monthly newsletter produced by employee Janet Guthrie who worked for many years as a garden interpreter at the James Geddy House. The Library holds a partial run of this newsletter (issues 33-114 with some gaps) for the years 1996-2003. The newsletter ceased publication in 2003 upon Guthrie’s retirement.
Subjects covered most often in the newsletters are 18th century gardens, gardening publications, gardens of the Founding Fathers, plant uses, early and pre-Christian folklore, and seasonal customs. Much good and interesting information is found within these newsletters, but current users should be alert for some now archaic interpretive sources, Latin errors, and cultural generalizations, especially with Native peoples/nations of North America which are often treated as one culture instead of many.
Creator
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Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Guthrie, Janet
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
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Title
A name given to the resource
Geddy Garden News, no. 82, March, 2001
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Guthrie, Janet
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
-
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ac83727053d2b2a8e871166ba1840194
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February 2001
Issue 81
JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER, JR. LIBRARY
COLONIAL WILLIAMSBURG
FOUNDATION
GEDDY GARDEN NEWS
P. 0. Box 1776
Williamsburg, Virginia 23187
IfFebruary brings no rain
Tis neithergood forgrass norgrain
Old Proverb
Fickle can best describe this February. Our temperatures have varied from
day to day. We had been enjoying unseasonably warm sunshiny days last week when
the temperature suddenly dropped and overnight we had a snowfall.
The snow
quickly melted and the temperature has risen once again.
I took my vacation the first two weeks of February and had the pleasure of
cruising in the Western Caribbean. This was my first experience on a cruise ship and
also in seeing this part of the world. There was so much to learn!
In the Bahamas we visited the island of Eleuthera, which was discovered by
Christopher
Columbus
in 1492.
It was given its name later by the Europeans who
settled there in search of religious freedom in the 17th century. Eleuthera is a Greek
word meaning freedom. There were also some notorious pirates who frequently
haunted
the Bahamas.
Among them were some familiar names to us such as
Edward Teach, aka Blackbeard, and Mary Read.
I also learned about the multi cultured inhabitants of the islands and their
customs. This being Black History month, it was a most appropriate time and place
The national motto of Jamaica is " Out of Many, One People." It was in
Jamaica that I visited my favorite site. It was a privately -owned botanical garden
to visit.
called Shaw Botanical Garden.
We were led through the beautiful garden by a very
well informed guide and a professional photographer, both of whom were teaching
us many things.
Many of the tropical plants are the same as those found in West Africa and
African slaves brought their knowledge of herbs and their uses with them to the
islands. The native Caribs have in some cases added to and changed some of the
medicinal uses.
Although modern medicine exists in some of these places, I was
amazed to learn that many older people living in remote areas still use the herbal
remedies. It is still the belief there that " every bush has a remedy."
�Not only are plants used internally in teas and externally as salves and
poultices, but are also widely used in baths, both in the past and now. Herbs are
combined in baths for diverse reasons. They are taken for good luck in ritual
cleansing for their spiritual beliefs. They bathe for protection from malignant spells
and bad forces.
Baths are taken at certain time of the moon.
for refreshing relief from fatigue.
Baths
There are also herbal baths
are also
taken
that are taken to
remedy specific illnesses, so not all baths are taken for religious reasons.
Fishermen
even give baths to their boats for protection from evil spells, bad weather, and a
poor catch. I found the bath custom fascinating.
Of course, I saw loads of palms. The fronds are used throughout for
thatching shelters and fans. There are over 300 varieties of non -edible ginger lilies,
many pine trees including the Norfolk pine, which the natives used in the past for
the making of masts in sail boats. Commonly found throughout the area is
Bougainvillea and a vine called Pommedeliane, which has fragrant ivory colored
flowers with purple stamens. Its stem is used in the making of baskets, usually with
the help of some bamboo. Bamboo is also used for fencing, fishing poles, and pots.
Another way plants are used on the islands is in the making of jewelry. A
native plant of Asia called Job' s Tears produces seeds which are used in the making
of jewelry and other decorations. I especially liked the Jade Vine ( Fabraceae) which
produces a beautiful crimson flower, as well as a green one. Many of the exotic
plants have interesting myths accompanying them.
For instance, if a couple makes
love beneath the African Tulip Tree, it will not result in the conception of a baby.
This tree is therefore also known as the contraceptive
tree.
I found myself making sure not to eat bananas after a certain time of day or
while I was in the hot sun, as it is considered unhealthy to do so.
Although some of this folklore seems strange to me, I found it all interesting.
I enjoyed learning about the history of the land and its inhabitants, but it was the
exquisite beauty of the flora that I found unforgettable.
anet j`'
uthrie
�
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Title
A name given to the resource
Geddy Garden News
Description
An account of the resource
The Geddy Garden News was a monthly newsletter produced by employee Janet Guthrie who worked for many years as a garden interpreter at the James Geddy House. The Library holds a partial run of this newsletter (issues 33-114 with some gaps) for the years 1996-2003. The newsletter ceased publication in 2003 upon Guthrie’s retirement.
Subjects covered most often in the newsletters are 18th century gardens, gardening publications, gardens of the Founding Fathers, plant uses, early and pre-Christian folklore, and seasonal customs. Much good and interesting information is found within these newsletters, but current users should be alert for some now archaic interpretive sources, Latin errors, and cultural generalizations, especially with Native peoples/nations of North America which are often treated as one culture instead of many.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Guthrie, Janet
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
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Title
A name given to the resource
Geddy Garden News, no. 81, February, 2001
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Guthrie, Janet
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
-
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7f7028ea3479312a8315174081c004e1
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r ORRARY
JOHN D. ; "
COLONIAL
OUNDATION
Wiiliarns
s 23187
Issue 80
January 2001
GEDDY GARDEN NEWS
The colors in the winter sky at sunset are signals of the weather to come. Wind and
rain are predicted by a pale yellow sky and snow is signaled by a pale green sky. We have not seen
many green skies here in Williamsburg so far this January, but winter is far from over.
This week I noticed our picket fence is in desperate need of repair. Several pickets
have fallen out and are nearly on the ground. As I tended to the problem I began thinking about the
existence of fences in 18t- century Virginia. Winter was the season in which every property owner
would attend to the maintenance of the land. That land can be described in four terms. The term
landscape" covers the combined site of gardens, yards, and grounds. The term "garden" refers to
the enclosed area used for the growing of herbs, vegetables, flowers and fruits. The term " yard"
originally referred to specific spaces like barn yard or door yard. The word " grounds" refers to the
trees, lawn or greens, or shrubs on the property. The layout includes the paths, terrace, and fences.
In 1754, Jean Jacques Rousseau wrote, " The first man who, having fenced in a piece
of land said, ' This is mine,' and found people naive enough to believe him, that man was the true
founder of civil society."
Ditches and post holes survive from the early Palisade, which was built in 1626 and
ran in a straight line. Ditches and Queen' s and College Creeks were on both sides. It was a large, 810 foot wooden fence and served to protect the area of Middle Plantation which was situated
between the James and York Rivers. That was the first fence of importance in the area. By 1623 in
Henning's Statutes it was stated, " Freemen shall fence in 1/ 4 of an acre for garden for planting
vines, herbs, roots and mulberry trees."
In 1624 there was an act requiring the settlers to plant
gardens to prevent famine.
An earlier reference to fenced -in gardens can be found in the Odyssey by Homer.
An old folk saying goes, " A hedge between, keeps friendship green."
Good fences make good neighbors."
Later, Robert Frost tells us,
Green hedges were popular in England as barriers and fences. John Evelyn wrote,
A hedge ofHolly, Thieves would invade,
Repulses like agmwing Palisade;
Whose numerous leaves such Orient Greens invest,
As in deep Winter do the Spring arrest."
Among the many instructions for maintaining the grounds at Castle Hill in Devon in
cut the thorn hedges each side of the Fir walk three times and keep the fence,"
also the " Keeping a good fence around the paddock."
1752 was to "
and
Such live fences or hedges were not being used here until the end of the 18th century
when the thorny hedges began to be used by the more progressive planters.
In 1705 there were specific requirements for fencing established by the General
Assembly.
It stated, "
every person having any lots or half acres of land contiguous to the great
street shall enclose the said lots, or half acres with a wall, pales, or post and rails within six months
after the building, which the law requires to be erected there upon."
�There were several types of fences used. Paled fences, which were frequently used in
England, were also used here. These were post and rail fences, usually unpainted or painted Spanish
brown and stood about four to five feet tall and approximately 8 to 9 feet apart. They enclosed
gardens, orchards, pastures, and public buildings. Churches and church yards were also fenced in
and the vestry of the church was responsible for building and maintaining their church fences.
Our Virginia planters had fences because of their awareness of the value of their
George Washington realized the increasing value of land when he wrote to his stepson,
Lands are of permanent value, but our Paper Currency
continues to depreciate and no human foresight can tell how low it may get. The advice I shall give
property.
Jack Custis, on October 10, 1778. "
is that you do not convert the lands you now hold into cash but that you exchange land for land."
We know that Thomas Jefferson had a ten -foot high paling fence around his fruit
orchard.
Fruit orchards were of such great value that settlers began planting their fruit trees before
they began the building of their houses on their land. Although the practice of espaliering fruit trees
was very popular in Europe, it was not as much needed here. The espaliering of fruit trees was the
training of the plant to grow against a wall or trellis in front of a wall in an effort to have the heat of
the wall protect the plant and the blooms of the fruit trees from frost. The idea of cordoning is
similar. It trains the plant to grow along wooden supports. These practices were done here, but not
as necessary due to the milder winters experience here.
They used certain woods for the fences. Durable, seasoned, decay -resistant woods
such as cedar, locust, and oak were used for the posts. Poplar, chestnut, and pine were used for the
pales, and often oak for the rails.
The other types of fencing used were post and board fence, plank and chevaux de
Frise.
This latter type was used to prevent horses from attempting to jump over the fence.
The
worm fence was also popular here. It was a portable, stacked, split -railed fence built in a zig-zag
design and seems to be original to America. The rails were not secured with nails, but loosely piled
and easily put together. They served to corral livestock and their portability was an asset.
Many of the advertisements in the Virginia Gazette describe property for sale such as
the ad by William Tompkins in July 1766. He mentions his two tracts of land, a dwelling house with
2 two rooms, convenient out houses, a garden newly paled in, a quantity of fruit trees, etc., and
adds the whole under a good fence.
The barbed wire fence was not invented until 1873.
Nicholas Cresswell, a loyalist who kept a journal while traveling through our country
from 1774 to 1777, mentioned the conditions of property in Hampton, Virginia, in 1777. He wrote
in April of that year, " All the garden palings, fences, & etc. in the neighborhood are entirely burnt
up."
He said the soldiers who were quartered there the previous winter had used all the wood for
fuel.
We often quote the 17th century John Locke here at the Geddy House.
particular note of his theory of education.
He stated, "
We take
The only fence against the world is a
thorough knowledge of it."
09anet juthrie
�
Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
Geddy Garden News
Description
An account of the resource
The Geddy Garden News was a monthly newsletter produced by employee Janet Guthrie who worked for many years as a garden interpreter at the James Geddy House. The Library holds a partial run of this newsletter (issues 33-114 with some gaps) for the years 1996-2003. The newsletter ceased publication in 2003 upon Guthrie’s retirement.
Subjects covered most often in the newsletters are 18th century gardens, gardening publications, gardens of the Founding Fathers, plant uses, early and pre-Christian folklore, and seasonal customs. Much good and interesting information is found within these newsletters, but current users should be alert for some now archaic interpretive sources, Latin errors, and cultural generalizations, especially with Native peoples/nations of North America which are often treated as one culture instead of many.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Guthrie, Janet
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
Geddy Garden News, no. 80, January, 2001
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Guthrie, Janet
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
-
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4ee58778ef74e28b94c6db35ab01542a
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December 2000
Issue 79
GEDDY GARDEN NEWS
Now thrice welcome Christmas,
JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER, JR. LIEn '
COLONIAL WILLIAMSBURG FOUNbi
P. 0. Box 1776
Williamsburg, Virginia 23187
Which brings us good cheer,
Mincepies andplumporridge,
Good ale and strong beer,
With pig, goose and capon,
The best that can be.
So well doth the weather
And our stomachs agree.
Poor Robin' s Almanack 1695
The garden has been put to bed and we turn our attention to the celebration of
Christmastide.
Many of the Christmas traditions of the past are associated with food. It is interesting to
trace these food traditions as they descended through time and reinvented themselves. As we enjoy
our familiar Christmas foods in America today we can look back to the ancient food customs of
Britain to find their origins.
On December 26, 1771, the child, Sally Cary Fairfax of "Toulston," Fairfax County, Virginia,
wrote in her diary, "
On Thursday the 26th of decem. Mama made 6 mince pies, &
7 Custards, 12 tarts, 1
chickingpye, and 4 pudingsfor the ball"
Today' s mince pies are usually sweet desserts but originally that was not so. The pies, also
known as mince tarts in the 17th century, contained an assortment of chopped meats and chicken as
well as fruits such as orange and lemon peels and raisins cooked with sugar, spices, and eggs. The
baked tarts or " minc' d pyes" carried with them many superstitions. For instance, in certain villages
in England it was believed that for each pie consumed at the home of a neighbor during the twelve
days of Christmas the eater would be granted a month of happiness in the coming year. It was the
custom to treat the door- to- door Christmas carolers to a mince pye and a hot drink at each house.
In Shropshire, England, a visitor to your home during Yuletide was to be offered a mince pie and a
glass of wine for good luck, regardless of the hour of the day or night.
Samuel Pepys mentioned eating mince pies in his diary of January 6, 1662. He was dining at
the home of Sir W. Pen, who was celebrating his 18th wedding anniversary.
Robert Herrick wrote a poem in 1648 that tells of guarding the mince pies from thieves at
Christmas. He wrote,
Come, guard this night the Christmas -pie
That the thief though n' er so slie,
With flesh -hooks don' t come nie to catch it
From him who all alone sits there,
Having his eyes still in his eare,
And a deal of mighty feare to watch it"
�In E. Smith' s, The Compleat Housewife, in 1742, Minced Pyes are listed in the first course
for the Bill of Fare for December. William Parks printed this book in Williamsburg. We also find
mince pie and plum pudding in The Virginia Housewife by Mary Randolph.
Some other food associated with the season were Pikelets or crumpets. These were enjoyed
in the Midlands, the inland counties of England. They were glorified pancakes, thicker than regular
pancakes, prepared on a hot griddle and served at 5 o' clock Christmas Day tea with home made
preserves.
Perhaps the best-known traditional Yuletide food in England is plum pudding. These cakes
were prepared on the fourth Sunday of Advent, which was called " Stir Up Sunday" which referred
to the Collect in the Church liturgy which began, " Stir up, we beseech Thee, 0 Lord, the wills of
Thy faithful people; that they, plenteously bringing forth the fruit of good works, may of Thee be
plenteously rewarded." Those first two words served as a cue to the woman of the house to begin
You were
preparing her plum pudding. It, like the mince pie, was surrounded by superstitions.
believed to have good luck throughout the year if you made a wish with the first mouthful of plum
pudding on each of the twelve days of Christmas.
Another traditional cake or bun was called wigs.
In Shrewbury these caraway filled,
geometrically shaped cakes were eaten on Christmas Eve after being dipped in ale.
In Coventry, Warwickshire, it was a custom in the past for Godparents to treat their
to God cakes. These were puff pastries filled with currants and spices. Godchildren
Godchildren
made a special effort to visit their Godparents on New Year' s day where they were blessed and fed
the special triangular cakes.
Not all of these English customs made their way to our country, but some did. The idea of
Christmas feasting prevailed in Virginia. One rather sad account of Christmas Day is found in the
We
dairy of Francis Baylor Hill of King and Queen County in 1797. She wrote on Christmas Day, "
had afine bowl ofEggnog & a large cake, no body to eat & drink with us but George & Fanny Gwathney. I never
in my life spent such a lonesome x mas."
Christmas is not only a time for customs, but a time for memories. So, allow me to
reminisce and recall a favorite Christmas tradition in my childhood. My love affair with Christmas
trees began when, as a child my parents, brother, sister, and I would make the annual trek into New
York City to view the majestic Christmas tree in Rockefeller Center. It was awe inspiring. It was an
exciting day filled with special events. We went to see the Christmas show at Radio City Music Hall
and watched the beautiful costumed Rockettes tapping away in unison. Watching the ice skaters at
Rockefeller Plaza, beneath that enormous beautiful tree was a part of the special activities that made
up my Christmas traditions. Because the tree represents a special happy childhood memory for me,
I always try to familiarize myself with each year' s Rockefeller Center tree. In the honored position
this year is an 80 year old Norway Spruce tree from Buchanon, a small town in New York.
Buchanon, with a population of approximately 2,500, is located about 45 miles up the Hudson
River.
To find the special tree, a research team searches by helicopter for a tree of the right height,
between 80 and 100 feet tall.
thousand lights.
It must be healthy, strong, and majestic.
It will eventually wear 30
�In the 18th century they brewed a spruce beer, which was a non- alcoholic drink made from
boiling the leafy twigs of spruce. Mary Randolph in the Virginia Housewife, and Amelia Simmons,
in the First American Cookbook, both offer receipts for spruce beer.
We all have our own special Christmas memories and customs. Many of the food traditions
have their roots in Europe, but many of our present- day practices became established in the 1961
Each family creates their own traditions, usually based on our own
century in the United States.
ethnic backgrounds. Enjoy them and pass them on to your children.
Happy Holidays to all.
09anet juthsie
�
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Title
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Geddy Garden News
Description
An account of the resource
The Geddy Garden News was a monthly newsletter produced by employee Janet Guthrie who worked for many years as a garden interpreter at the James Geddy House. The Library holds a partial run of this newsletter (issues 33-114 with some gaps) for the years 1996-2003. The newsletter ceased publication in 2003 upon Guthrie’s retirement.
Subjects covered most often in the newsletters are 18th century gardens, gardening publications, gardens of the Founding Fathers, plant uses, early and pre-Christian folklore, and seasonal customs. Much good and interesting information is found within these newsletters, but current users should be alert for some now archaic interpretive sources, Latin errors, and cultural generalizations, especially with Native peoples/nations of North America which are often treated as one culture instead of many.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Guthrie, Janet
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
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Title
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Geddy Garden News, no. 79, December, 2000
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Guthrie, Janet
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
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848ca0fa6592937e336e0e6d64fd5906
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Text
November 2000
Issue 78
JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER, JR. LIBRARY
COLONIAL WILLIAMSBURG FOUNDATIO EDDY GAR.DE1V NEWS
P. 0. Box 1776
Williamsburg, Virginia 23187
For man, autumn is a time ofharvest,
Ofgathering together,
For Nature, it is a time ofsowing,
Ofscattering abroad
Edwin Way Teale
When I visited my daughter recently in her new home in the country, she was concerned
about being unable to establish a garden; landscaping had become a major problem. She proceeded
to take me around the property to exhibit the cause of the problem. Deer tracts were noticeably
visible. I had some solutions to offer her. There are quite a few safe remedies available. By safe I
mean
treatments
that contain
no toxic
chemicals.
There are homemade concoctions of such things as garlic, hot peppers and vinegar that can
be sprayed about, but this requires frequent applications. There are also commercial sprays on the
market that are natural and somewhat effective. They produce unpleasant odors and tastes that
drive off deer. There are also mesh barriers that can be attached to trees or posts.
We finally agreed upon the use of a deer -proof garden flower mix. This mix contains seeds
of flowers that do not appeal to deer. Among these flowers are Foxglove, Sweet Alyssum, Lupines,
White Yarrow, Coreopsis, Gloriosa Daisy, and Blue Sage, just to name a few. There are at least a
dozen others, as well as some attractive ground covers like Lily of the Valley, Pachysandra and
Periwinkle that can be used. This was a solution that would also enhance the beauty of the
landscape. Some people today use electric fences to shock the deer, but that idea did not appeal to
my daughter at all.
We know that the 18t- century citizens often chose fences. Thomas Jefferson had a ten foot
high paled fence around his kitchen garden to protect it from rabbits and deer. Of course, in the
cities like Williamsburg, a fence was required within six months after you built your house on your
lot.
Deer meat was eaten by the Indians as well as the colonists. Indians roasted deer on spits.
Not only was it roasted, but it was used as a convenience food. After being dried in the sun, it was
packed in sacks made of hide. This was called Pemmican, from the Cree language which means fat
or grease. Venison was also cut into strips, dried, and then eaten when traveling, similar to what is
known today as jerky.
�Nicholas Cresswell' s journal of 1775 mentions that one of his company shot a deer in the
Ohio Valley and Landon Carter in October of 1770 wrote in his own sarcastic way that his son
managed to shoot at and miss from only twenty steps away two large bucks that were standing close
together.
He referred to the event as remarkable!
William Byrd in September 1709 wrote in his diary, " The whole company eat their venison
without any other sauce than a keen appetite."
At the Governor' s Palace in 1769, William Sparrow listed venison among the other foods in
Lord Botetourt' s palace kitchen in December and we can also find receipts for doe -venison in
Hannah Glasse' s Art of Cookery.
There is a custom that was begun here in Virginia in 1646 by the Mattaponi Tribe. The tribe
annually pays tribute to the governor of Virginia with the presentation of a deer, or turkey or fish at
i...anksgiving. This American celebration of Thanksgiving is over 350 years old. ^'
As I count my many blessings this year, I include among them the reuniting of the Historic
Trades Department, making us once again a family.
Happy Thanksgiving
Janet Guthrie
�
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Title
A name given to the resource
Geddy Garden News
Description
An account of the resource
The Geddy Garden News was a monthly newsletter produced by employee Janet Guthrie who worked for many years as a garden interpreter at the James Geddy House. The Library holds a partial run of this newsletter (issues 33-114 with some gaps) for the years 1996-2003. The newsletter ceased publication in 2003 upon Guthrie’s retirement.
Subjects covered most often in the newsletters are 18th century gardens, gardening publications, gardens of the Founding Fathers, plant uses, early and pre-Christian folklore, and seasonal customs. Much good and interesting information is found within these newsletters, but current users should be alert for some now archaic interpretive sources, Latin errors, and cultural generalizations, especially with Native peoples/nations of North America which are often treated as one culture instead of many.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Guthrie, Janet
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
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Title
A name given to the resource
Geddy Garden News, no. 78, November, 2000
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Guthrie, Janet
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
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e3cf57a1fc72a235d606e56c1b46f8d0
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JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER, JR. LIBRARY
COLONIAL- wituAmCDUIla FOUNDAT1C 4
P. 0. Box 1776
1Nilliamsburg, Virginia 23187
c9ssue # 77
eddy
Si
arden
MS
PctoGer 2000
0, it sets my heart a clicken' like
the ticken' of a clock,
When the frost is on the punkin'
And the fodder' s in the shock."
James Whitcomb
utumn is here again.
Riley
It is that magical season when the leaves burst
into color and treat us to the viewing of some marvelous sights. A
sugar Maple outside my window at the Geddy House offers me a
spectacular sight. I consider this annual event one of nature' s special gifts to
Nature also provides the decorations for the Halloween celebrations in
An anonymous 17th century poet said, " We have pumpkins at
October.
morning and pumpkins at noon, if it were not for pumpkins we should be
me.
undone."
Although the pumpkin is associated with Halloween and enjoyed as a
lantern today, it was not that way when the colonist came to North
Jack o'
America and found the Indians growing and eating pumpkins.
The word " pumpkin"
comes from the Latin word peponem.
pompion in old French, pompion or pumpion in English.
It became
Washington
called it pompion in 1828 and finally, today, we call it pumpkin.
Irving
The Sioux
word for pumpkin is Wagamoo.
When the Apache Indians grew pumpkins, they encouraged good crops
by holding ceremonies to ensure good harvests. They had young boys scatter
Juniper berries over the pumpkin patch in the belief that more pumpkins
would grow wherever the berries landed. Another tribe that grew pumpkins
were the Catabas, aka Esau or Issa, which means river. They lived along the
Santee and Wateree Rivers in North and South Carolina. They did a lot of
trading with the white settlers and it is believed that the Catabas received
from them in trade the knowledge of using baking soda to make dough rise.
They learned to make what is known today as Prince Albert Pumpkin Bread.
The Moravians in North Carolina were eating pumpkins for supper.
They wrote in 1754, " In the morning we have mush with milk or drippings, at
supper mush with drippings, or pumpkins, or squash."
The earliest mention of pumpkins I found was by John Parkinson in
Paradise in Sole.
He wrote of the use of pompions, " They are boyled in faire
�water
and
salt,
or in powdered
beefe brothe, or sometimes in milk, and so
eaten, or else buttered."
In colonial times, they also boiled pumpkins and made soup and it was
Mrs. Frances
common to slice and dry pumpkins.
Bland Tucker Coalter in
Virginia in 1801 had this receipt for Mrs. B. Pynpkin Fritters: " The pumpkin
boiled,
left from
dinner.
must
be well
eggs,
one half Pint to more of Milk (
Tablespoonfuls
of
brown
Sugar,
Take four Spoonfuls
or Cream if you wish)
Thicken
with
Pumpkin,
one
Flour
Wheat
or
two
more
about
the
Fry in boiling Lard two
or three Spoonfuls for each Fritter. Tried and found good."
thickness of batter for Waffles well beaten and light.
The first published pumpkin receipts in an American cook book was in
1796 in American Cookery by Amelia Simmons. We know that many of the
Virginia planters were growing pumpkins. George Washington grew them in
his kitchen garden at Mt. Vernon. Thomas Jefferson mentions planting white
pumpkins, solid pumpkins from South America, and Long pumpkins from
Malta.
I wonder what a Long pumpkin looks like. Jefferson grew some
pumpkins for animal fodder as well. In 1796 he wrote, "
pumpkins have fed 9 horses at Shadwell 5 weeks." He
pumpkins then is equivalent to 5 acres of corn."
less than an acre of
added, "
Landon Carter told us how he planter his pompions "
in May, 1766.
I do love this magical season.
An acre of
4 seeds in a hill"
I love the nip in the air, the beautiful
leaves falling about, stacks of firewood ready for burning in fireplaces, and
orange pumpkins just waiting to be chosen and transformed
into a scary or happy faced jack o' lantern. All of this is truly American in the
fields
of round,
fall of the year.
Other countries have some fall traditions of their own.
Because of the
abundance of potatoes in Ireland, one of their Halloween customs is to eat a
dish called Colcannon on Halloween.
It contains mashed potatoes,
boiled,
shredded cabbage, butter, parsley and onions, cooked in milk.
This year there is a shortage of Virginia pumpkins due to the weather
conditions of the summer.
Therefore,
I recommend that you hurry to your
garden or field or roadside stand and select your Halloween pumpkin, but if
you cannot find a presentable one, you can have Colcannon for dinner and
have an Irish Halloween this year.
c::
eappzy cReallaween,
2anet juthvie
�
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Title
A name given to the resource
Geddy Garden News
Description
An account of the resource
The Geddy Garden News was a monthly newsletter produced by employee Janet Guthrie who worked for many years as a garden interpreter at the James Geddy House. The Library holds a partial run of this newsletter (issues 33-114 with some gaps) for the years 1996-2003. The newsletter ceased publication in 2003 upon Guthrie’s retirement.
Subjects covered most often in the newsletters are 18th century gardens, gardening publications, gardens of the Founding Fathers, plant uses, early and pre-Christian folklore, and seasonal customs. Much good and interesting information is found within these newsletters, but current users should be alert for some now archaic interpretive sources, Latin errors, and cultural generalizations, especially with Native peoples/nations of North America which are often treated as one culture instead of many.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Guthrie, Janet
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
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Title
A name given to the resource
Geddy Garden News, no. 77, October, 2000
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Guthrie, Janet
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
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f9ff19d79f240f50073034dbccdd64b7
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Text
JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER, JR. LIBRARY
COLONIAL WILLIAMSBURG FOUNDATION
P. O. Box 1776
Williamsburg, Virginia 23187
jeddy javden
@J1ews = :
@September 2000
flssue # 76
While rain depends, the pensive cat gives o' er Her frolics, and pursues
her tail no more."
Jonathan
Swift
e cat is one of the animals that is credited with the ability to
orecast weather conditions. I suggest that you take notice of
your cat' s behavior because if you notice your cat is walking
with his tail straight up, you can expect an approaching wind, and if you
find he is scratching your furniture
more often than usual,
it is an
indication that there will be a change of some sort in the weather.
Since
I do not own a cat, I must rely on you to tell me if there is much truth to
any of these beliefs.
conditions
varied
weather
extremely
past summer,
throughout the country. Some states suffered extreme record -breaking
This
heat, accompanied by drought. That was the dangerous combination
that resulted in the devastating forest fires in Montana and the western
regions of our country.
It was just such a drought that was the partial cause of the
dreadful Great Fire of London, on September 2, 1666.
There had been
no rain for over a year when the fire began, and the city of London,
with all its wooden buildings, burned uncontrollably for three days and
A week later, in early
three
nights,
causing terrible destruction.
October, it rained heavily for ten days straight. If that rainfall could
have occurred a week sooner, it would have saved the city of London.
Here in Williamsburg this summer we, on the other hand, have
experienced the opposite.
We have had a rainy summer. Every time I
was prepared to plant in the garden it seemed to rain. I found it
annoying.
In reading Esther Burr' s diary of 1755, I found that she was
affected emotionally by the weather. She wrote on February 1, 1755, " I
feel very gloomy today, the weather is dark and black. I am so
�connected with it, that it never changes but I change two."
She became
depressed.
Another eighteenth century diary I' ve been reading is that of
Frances Baylor Hill of King and Queen County, VA. She repeatedly
was forced to change her plans due to rain. On a good day, she wrote of
some typical activities, " Sow' d a great many flower seed set a hen
walked about in the garden all most all day.
read &
wrote."
However,
Sew' d on Mama' s apron
when it rained we find entries like the
following,
Intend' d to go to church prevent' d by the rain." April 23rd.
The young Ladies from Riccahoc came over in the evening they were
prevent' d by the rain from dining with us." July 76
We had a very hard rain soon after dinner, Papa came in the hardest
of it but was in the carriage and did not get wet." July 15th on an outing
to Smithfield, " It rained very powerful in the evening which prevented
our going home." July 16th and again on July 17th she wrote, " had a
rainy evening."
On one occasion the family was forced to turn back, "
We all set
off to Uncle Temples but was oblig' d to turn back on account of the
it rain' d hard almost the whole day, and had some very severe
thunder and lightning."
rain,
So,
as the saying goes, into every life a little rain must fall.
seems Frances Baylor Hill had more than her share.
I finally was able to plant my fall lettuce yesterday.
09anet juthrie
It
�
Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
Geddy Garden News
Description
An account of the resource
The Geddy Garden News was a monthly newsletter produced by employee Janet Guthrie who worked for many years as a garden interpreter at the James Geddy House. The Library holds a partial run of this newsletter (issues 33-114 with some gaps) for the years 1996-2003. The newsletter ceased publication in 2003 upon Guthrie’s retirement.
Subjects covered most often in the newsletters are 18th century gardens, gardening publications, gardens of the Founding Fathers, plant uses, early and pre-Christian folklore, and seasonal customs. Much good and interesting information is found within these newsletters, but current users should be alert for some now archaic interpretive sources, Latin errors, and cultural generalizations, especially with Native peoples/nations of North America which are often treated as one culture instead of many.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Guthrie, Janet
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
Geddy Garden News, no. 76, September, 2000
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Guthrie, Janet
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
-
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a383aed87c17986aca946cc76858f077
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Text
JOHN D. Rnr"
r77"
r_
o
IR^ ARV
it?
COLONIAL' t"''
P.
Wiliamsburg,
eddy
jarden
l eivs
C&
9ssue # 75
0At7us1 2000
A housewife coming in from the garden with an apron full ofsucculent
variety is a pleasant sight.."
The Old Farmers
Almanac
ugust is the midpoint of summer, and I can feel the heart
August first is Lammas Day. It
celebrates the beginning of the harvest season and is
Our word cereal is
named for the Roman goddess of grain, Ceres.
f the summer beating.
derived from that word.
In Christian times, the first grains harvested
were offered to the church for use in the sacrament during the liturgy.
There were Lammas Day Festivals and faires in many countries and
some places still celebrate Lammas Day.
The Geddy garden is very productive this year and that success is
due in large to the richness of the soil.
This year my beds were raised
and the soil was improved with the addition of compost. The drainage
and acidity benefited from the attention paid to the beds and the soil.
As Karel Capek wrote in the Gardener' s Year, "
A real gardener is not a
man who cultivates flowers; he is a man who cultivates the soil ....
came into the Garden of Eden he would sniff excitedly and say: '
If he
Good
Lord, what humas! "'
I grew some parsnips in the garden this year, along with lots of
onions, squash, cucumbers, and sweet potatoes. Parsnips were enjoyed
by the colonists. I found an eighteenth -century receipt from a woman in
South Carolina named Rebecca Motte, who
heroine.
became a Revolutionary
When the British took over her plantation and called it Fort
Motte, she chose to have it burned to the ground to rid her house of the
British invaders!
She had the following receipt for mashed parsnips:
Boile six large parsnips in a cast iron kettle, drain and mash them with
a
wooden
spoon.
Remove the stringy fibers.
cream and two tablespoons
teaspoon of pepper.
hard and serve hot."
Add 4 tablespoons of
of butter, one teaspoon
Heat in a saucepan,
remove
of salt and half
from
heat and beat
Parsnips were also included as an ingredient in
the making of marmalade wine in colonial times.
�I was never partial to parsnips, but it was in Ireland that I found
a way to enjoy them. There they mixed parsnips with mashed carrots,
which resulted in a tasty dish.
Parsnips were among the 250 varieties of vegetables that Thomas
Jefferson grew in his 1, 000- foot- long vegetable garden at Monticello.
Jefferson
enjoyed
a vegetable
diet.
He
once
wrote, "
temperately, eating little animal food, and that ...
the vegetables, which constitute my principal diet."
in the month of August, on August 3rd,
I
have
lived
as a condiment
for
Incidentally, it was
1767, to be exact, that Thomas
for his homesite,
Jefferson first mentioned the name " Monticello"
he wrote in his garden book an entry about his
when
cherries in his fruit
garden.
I have enjoyed watching the hummingbirds hovering around the
trumpet vines on the fences.
Humming birds are fascinating to watch.
They remind me of nervous helicopters.
There have been several good garden helpers this summer.
been helped with weeding and watering by Caroline Hollis,
I have
Sara
Finklestein, Phyllis Putnam, and even Jennifer Poirier, in her delicate
condition!
The fig trees have been producing delicious figs again this
year and one day, Robert Watson became a helper by generously
offering to help me pick the figs from the higher branches.
Figs were a favorite fruit enjoyed by our founding fathers.
Jefferson boasted that his Marseilles fig was, " incomparably the finest
fig I' ve every seen," and another good farmer, George Mason, wrote a
letter to George Washington during the Revolutionary War, " May God
grant us a return to those halcyon Days; when every Man may set down
at his Ease under the Shade of his own Vine, &
his own fig -ree, &
t
the Sweets of domestic Life!"
anet juthrie
enjoy
�
Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
Geddy Garden News
Description
An account of the resource
The Geddy Garden News was a monthly newsletter produced by employee Janet Guthrie who worked for many years as a garden interpreter at the James Geddy House. The Library holds a partial run of this newsletter (issues 33-114 with some gaps) for the years 1996-2003. The newsletter ceased publication in 2003 upon Guthrie’s retirement.
Subjects covered most often in the newsletters are 18th century gardens, gardening publications, gardens of the Founding Fathers, plant uses, early and pre-Christian folklore, and seasonal customs. Much good and interesting information is found within these newsletters, but current users should be alert for some now archaic interpretive sources, Latin errors, and cultural generalizations, especially with Native peoples/nations of North America which are often treated as one culture instead of many.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Guthrie, Janet
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
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Title
A name given to the resource
Geddy Garden News, no. 75, August, 2000
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Guthrie, Janet
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
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dd224e58f6a87efea30674948e5f143f
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Text
JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER, JR. LIBRARY
COLONIAL WILLIAMSBURG FOUNDATION
P. 0. Box 1776
Williamsburg, Vir
jeddy jazden
c1ssue #
c2Veius
74
What a desolate place would a
world without flowers!
It would be a face without a smile,
a feast without a welcome."
Clara
Balfaur
Today is the first day of summer and the Geddy Garden seems to be shouting
out
with
that
news.
The edible plants in the Kitchen garden are showing off their beauty
their lush foliage.
To walk through the garden right now is like being in a
large salad bowl amidst a variety of salad ingredients. The vegetable garden has a
beauty all its own. The rich green leaves of Swiss Chard are a lovely contrast to the
pale shade of the Kale plants.
The sizes, shapes and textures of the diverse plants as
well as the beautiful shades of color blend together to celebrate summer.
This year the perennial border of the Geddy garden is alive with color and
the Bee Balm is attracting hoards of butterflies.
The border encloses and enhances
the garden and serves as an invitation to passersby to enter and enjoy the pleasures
the garden has to offer.
I am often questioned
about the "
tall"
flowers.
When
I receive
such
a
question I know immediately that it is a reference to the hollyhocks, a cheerful
addition to the yard this year.
It is
The Hollyhock is native to China and one of the oldest plants in civilization.
propigated by seed and produces large colorful flowers. It is a sun -loving plant
but it can manage to still do fairly well with some partial shade.
Gerard' s
Herball,
the
1597
Historie
of Plants,
shows
woodcuts
of the
Hollyhock. One was a double purple flower. John Rea, in 1665, recommended that
the Hollyhock be included in summer gardens in his plant catalogue. They can also
be found in the art and literature of the 17th century Persian gardens.
Probably the
earliest reference of the Hollyhock is found in a 1420 painting known as The Garden
of Paradise by an unknown Rhenish artist. It is shown among other flowers growing
They were also to be found in the beautiful Italian Renaissance
in the grass.
gardens.
The gardens in England displayed Hollyhocks and they were being grown in
the 17th century in the northern colonies of our country. John Josselyn mentioned
them in Two Voyages to New England 1638- 1663, and there are mentions of the
seeds for sale in a Boston newspaper.
�The respected Williamsburg resident, John Custis, who served as a member
of the Governor' s council for 22 years, was an avid gardener.
He was one of the
gentlemen who was very involved with exchange of plants and seeds with England.
He was described by his correspondent, Peter Collinson, along with John Bartram,
as one of the " Brothers
of the Spade."
In 1735 he thanked Peter Collinson for
sending him Hollyhock seeds. It became one of the most commonly cultivated plants
in 18th century gardens.
In 1767, Thomas Jefferson wrote that his Pinks and
Hollyhocks bloomed on June 10th and he again listed them in his Calendar of Bloom
of Flowers in 1782.
The other
name
for Hollyhock
is Althaea
Rosea.
Althaea comes from the
Greek meaning to cure, so Hollyhocks were used medicinally. It was believed to be
useful, when brewed, in voiding kidney stones and part of the root is used as an
ingredient in cough medicine, both in ancient times as well as the present.
Hollyhocks
come in a rainbow of beautiful colors, which includes a deep
The Geddy garden has a color
maroon flower, sometimes referred to as black.
range from pale yellow to deep rose. They have contributed summer beauty to the
Kitchen garden.
2anet jutirie
�
Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
Geddy Garden News
Description
An account of the resource
The Geddy Garden News was a monthly newsletter produced by employee Janet Guthrie who worked for many years as a garden interpreter at the James Geddy House. The Library holds a partial run of this newsletter (issues 33-114 with some gaps) for the years 1996-2003. The newsletter ceased publication in 2003 upon Guthrie’s retirement.
Subjects covered most often in the newsletters are 18th century gardens, gardening publications, gardens of the Founding Fathers, plant uses, early and pre-Christian folklore, and seasonal customs. Much good and interesting information is found within these newsletters, but current users should be alert for some now archaic interpretive sources, Latin errors, and cultural generalizations, especially with Native peoples/nations of North America which are often treated as one culture instead of many.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Guthrie, Janet
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
Geddy Garden News, no. 74, June, 2000
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Guthrie, Janet
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
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07c32ebbfd2bf85940e460f4eeaff004
PDF Text
Text
JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER,
JR. LIBRARY
COLONIAL WILLIAMSBURG FOUNDATION
P. 0. Box 1776
3187
Williamsburg, Virginia
lOr
jeddy jazden
c9ssue #
1ems
Ciprii-c97day 2000
73
There never can be too much rain before midsummer."
Old Proverb
After almost a month of very little rainfall we are finally enjoying some very
welcome
spring
showers.
We celebrated Mayday with the ancient Maypole tradition. The pole was
erected and festooned with colorful ribbons and surrounded by baskets of flowers.
The celebration took place in the Robert Carter backyard and the upper level of the
yard formed an amphitheater for interested spectators. John Needre provided
music for the occasion and visitors and employees joined in the Maypole dance.
Families with youngsters, school groups and senior citizens united, resulting in a
joyous welcome to springtime.
The Maypole has proven to be a very popular event
for our visitors.
The Geddy garden is thriving and is being carefully guarded by our
unnamed
interpreters
scarecrow.
on June 11`
She will receive her name at our picnic for our youth
h
This time of year, I enjoy one of nature' s finest gifts, the strawberry.
I don' t
look for the largest strawberries in the market, for they are often filled with tasteless
water and lack the flavor of smaller strawberries.
The desire to enjoy the sweet taste of strawberries
goes back in time.
Thomas Tusser wrote in this book, Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry in
1557,
Wife, into thy garden and set me a plot,
Such growing abroad, among thorns in the wood,
Well chosen and picked, prove excellent good."
Thomas Harlot wrote in 1587, after his voyage to Virginia, " Strawberries
there are as good and great as these which we have in our English gardens."
The Indians not only ate strawberries but also drank them in tea for a wide
variety of medicinal treatments.
Cherokee tribes drank strawberry tea as a remedy
for diarrhea, scurvy, nervous disorders, dysentery and even to remove tartar from
�Iroquois Indians made a tea of the root for chancre sores and to purify
the blood, and for colicky and teething babies. Some Indian tribes considered it a
their teeth.
medicine and they even powdered the leaves and used it as an antiseptic.
They unknowingly were also receiving ellagic acid, a cancer preventative found in
life"
strawberry leaves.
Gerard suggested boiling the leaves to make a poultice to reduce the heat in
The berries were to be eaten to quench thirst and he also suggested
distilling the water to make the face fair and smooth.
wounds.
Parkinson and Gerard both recommended
the distilled strawberry water to
revive the spirits and make the heart merry.
Parkinson
mentions
that
the berries "
are often brought to the table as a
reare service whereunto claret wine, creame or milke is added with sugar ...
a good
cooling and pleasant dish in the hot summer season."
In 1770, Landon Carter bemoaned the fact that a severely cold winter had
killed every one of his strawberry vines as well as his lettuce, parsley, broccoli and
artichokes.
1 have found the best way to freeze your strawberries is to slice them and mix
Use about one pound of brown sugar to 4 pounds of
strawberries after giving the strawberries a 10 minute rest, pack them in containers
and put them in your freezer. The brown sugar preserves the natural flavor and
them with brown sugar.
color and even the aroma more than white sugar.
I have just developed a great appetite for strawberries with a little whipped
cream, low calorie, of course.
Bon appetit!
Oanei juthvie
�
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Title
A name given to the resource
Geddy Garden News
Description
An account of the resource
The Geddy Garden News was a monthly newsletter produced by employee Janet Guthrie who worked for many years as a garden interpreter at the James Geddy House. The Library holds a partial run of this newsletter (issues 33-114 with some gaps) for the years 1996-2003. The newsletter ceased publication in 2003 upon Guthrie’s retirement.
Subjects covered most often in the newsletters are 18th century gardens, gardening publications, gardens of the Founding Fathers, plant uses, early and pre-Christian folklore, and seasonal customs. Much good and interesting information is found within these newsletters, but current users should be alert for some now archaic interpretive sources, Latin errors, and cultural generalizations, especially with Native peoples/nations of North America which are often treated as one culture instead of many.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Guthrie, Janet
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
Geddy Garden News, no. 73, April/May, 2000
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Guthrie, Janet
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246883c14be9c6dd74602d4a39850ad1
PDF Text
Text
JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER, JR. LIBRARY
COLONIAL WILLIAMSBURG FOUNDATION
P. 0. Box 1776
Williamsburg, Virginia 23187
Q)
jeddy jazdenlems"'
ssue72
#
2000 Tis
Rauh
&
fine to see the Old World, and
travel up and down Among
the famous palaces and
cities of renown, To
admire the crumbly castles and
the statues of the Kings But
now I think I' enough of
ve had
antiquated things, So
it's home again, and home
again, America for me!"
Henry
Van Dyke I
did enjoy every minute of my visit to Ireland and 1 was impressed with the beauty
of the country of my ancestors. I
was very surprised to see Palm trees growing
there but then was reminded that the gulf stream is responsible for that. I
ar ived in the Emerald Isle on my birthday, which fell on Ash Wednesday this
the Council of Nicaea, in A. D. 325, said Easter was to be celebrated
on the Sunday that followed the full moon after the vernal equinox, but since
1582 Pope Gregory XIII introduced the calendar we use today. The dates for Easter
and Ash Wednesdays vary.Ash Wednesday, being the first day of Lent, is a day
of fast and abstinence, which for me meant there was to be no big steak dinner to
celebrate my birthday. But just being in Ireland was celebration enough! These
year. Originally,
religious Lenten practices were followed in 18th- Century Virginia. In
the
agricultural
calendar
Fridays, and
days, days
the
liturgical
fact,
calendar. Wednesdays,
is
closely linked to
Saturdays after the first Sunday of Lent were called ember
of fast. The
word ember goes back to the 9th and 10th centuries and
refers to the burning off of the fields. The Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday before
Holy Thursday were known as Rogation days, which is another agricultural term
for planting. The emblem of Ireland is the Shamrock, which is symbolic of the Blessed
Trinity, and the Shamrock grows wild throughout Ireland.All
this interlocking between agriculture, or
very evident in Ireland.
nature, if
you will, and religion is
�many of the tens of thousands traveling on the great
Philadelphia Wagon Road, which was the most heavily traveled road in America,
were people from the city of Ulster in Northern Ireland, who were seeking freedom
In
the
from poverty.
1770s,
I found it was fun and interesting relating these puzzle pieces
together between America
and Ireland.
Upon my return, I enjoyed attending the Garden Symposium. There was an
informative garden walk with Wes Greene which focused on the art of tree pruning
in which he gave us instructions on the proper methods which will produce the best
results.
I also enjoyed the lecture on Helbores.
Helbore,
in Greek, means
kill, which is a clue to the fact that these plants are poisonous.
Christmas
Rose, H. Niger, and the Lenten Rose, H. Orientales.
There
These
bloomers and shade plants that prefer a humus -rich, limey soil.
food to
is the
are winter
Although
the
Hellebores appear to be beautiful and delicate when in bloom, they are deceivingly
tough and can withstand cold weather and storms. We, attending the symposium,
were each delighted to receive as gifts at the end of the symposium, small Lenten
Roses, which I have in my garden at home.
The Shad bush is blooming, and the blossoms of the Shad Bush herald the
spawning run of the Shadfish. Its berries attract song birds. Perhaps, Phillip
Fithian was near some Shad bushes on April 10, 1774, when he wrote in his diary,
This morning is extremely pleasant, full of flowers, and the branches full of lovely
singing birds."
2anei juthtie
�
Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
Geddy Garden News
Description
An account of the resource
The Geddy Garden News was a monthly newsletter produced by employee Janet Guthrie who worked for many years as a garden interpreter at the James Geddy House. The Library holds a partial run of this newsletter (issues 33-114 with some gaps) for the years 1996-2003. The newsletter ceased publication in 2003 upon Guthrie’s retirement.
Subjects covered most often in the newsletters are 18th century gardens, gardening publications, gardens of the Founding Fathers, plant uses, early and pre-Christian folklore, and seasonal customs. Much good and interesting information is found within these newsletters, but current users should be alert for some now archaic interpretive sources, Latin errors, and cultural generalizations, especially with Native peoples/nations of North America which are often treated as one culture instead of many.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Guthrie, Janet
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
Geddy Garden News, no. 72, March, 2000
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Guthrie, Janet
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
-
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89e3a5631f52703182c4a56e50f47136
PDF Text
Text
JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER, JR. LIBRARY
COLONIAL WILLIAMSBURG FOUNDATION
sEts
P. 0. Box 1776
C9eddy
Williamsburg, Virginia 2318
javden @JV
ems
0v'
ofissue # 71
c:::
e6ruary 2000
February brings the rain,
Melts the frozen lands again."
February
Our
Our temperatures this month are proof of that.
is fickle.
temperature today is a balmy 75° but in some shaded spots there are still small, dirty piles
The soil in my garden is still somewhat wet due to
This rule in gardening do not forget: Always sow dry and set
of snow left over from recent days.
February' s fickleness. "
wet."
February 6th is the feast of St. Dorothy, who is one of the three patron saints of
The other two are St.
gardening.
accuvea of witchcraft and tortured.
Phocus
and St.
Fiacre.
Dorothy
in 313 AD.
was
When taken before a judge he asked,_" How ! onge
wilte thou drawe us along with thy witchcraft? Eyther do sacryfyse and lyve or ellis
receyve the sentens of thy hide smytyne of." A lawyer named Theophilus mocked her and
asked her to produce the fruits of the Garden of Paradise. Legend has it that at that time
an angel appeared
and delivered
to her 3 apples and 3 roses.
Theophilus
became
a
Christian convert and eventually a martyr himself. Dorothy became associated with roses
and in ancient
times,
in England,
brides were crowned with dried roses and both the
bride and groom wore caplets of red and white roses. Rose petals were thrown at the
So in this month of
wedding couple instead of the rice that is often thrown today.
February, I dedicate this newsletter to St. Dorothy, a patron saint of gardening.
I trust
she will guide me as I begin planting my Geddy kitchen garden for this new millennium,
We find both beans and peas were grown very
early on in Palestine and used for food as vegetables and also dried. The green garden
and I will begin with the planting of peas.
peas that I' ll be planting however began to be mentioned after the Norman conquest when
green peas for Lent" were recorded. Then after 1536 edible podded peas were described
In Virginia Captain John Smith wrote, " We daily feasted with good bread,
in France.
Virginia pease,
pumpions,
putchamins ( persimmons),
wild beasts, so fat as we could eate them."
True Relation
of Wvmouths
fish,
fowle,
and diverse sorts of
Rosier in 1605 on Monhegan Island wrote in
Vovaee and Exploration, "
Wed. the 22 of May, wee sowed
pease and barley, which in sixteen days grew eight inches above ground."
We fmd the mention of peas in the colonies in letters indicating the important role
the pea was playing.
In 1637 Governor Winthrop of Massachusetts, in a letter to his wife,
advises her to protect herself in the cold weather and adds that she should feed the Ram,
lock him up and give him meals, the greene pease in the garden etc. are good for him."
Seventeenth
Century
Governor
William
Bradford
of
Plymouth
Plantation
mentioned green peas growing along with other vegetables and grains in the gardens in a
poem he wrote.
There are 17h Century receipts for pea soup, using pea puree in cook books for the
English Royalty.
for boiled chicken.
Peas were also suggested as the main ingredient for a sauce to be made
�We find them advertised in 1738 by Thomas Crease in the Virginia Gazette and
Thomas Jefferson considered the pea his favorite vegetable. In 1791 he wrote in a letter
Oh the 17`h of February I saw blackbirds and robin red breasts
and on the 7`h of this month I heard frogs for the first time this year. Have you noticed
to his daughter Maria, "
the first appearance of these things at Monticello?
I hope you have, and will continue to
note every appearance, animal and vegetable, which indicates the approach of spring, and
will communicate them to me. By these means we shall be able to compare the climates of
Philadelphia and Monticello. Tell me when you shall have peas, etc. up; when everything
comes to table.
When you shall have the first chickens hatched; when every kind of tree
I just love that
blossoms, or puts forth leaves; when each kind of flower blooms ...."
letter.
Jefferson competed with his neighboring farmers each spring to have the first peas
in the garden. The winner served peas to the others at a dinner and Jefferson was very
In his 1774 Garden Book he noted " the first dish of peas from the
often the winner.
earliest patch was on May 16, the second patch of DeRs comes to table on May 26t. June
5th a third and fourth patch of peas comes to table. June 13th a fifth patch of peas come
in.
July 13th - last dish of peas." He definitely paid close attention to his peas. Minded
his Peas and Qs.
Landon Carter' s diary in 1770 mentions planting Nottoway pea, a wild pea which
he claims " makes a prodigious fine soup." He also complains on Feb. 17`h that the frost
had left the ground too wet to plant his garden peas.
Mrs.
George Wythe in March of the same year wrote to Thomas Jefferson,
Wythe will send you some garden peas." So we find the garden peas were a noble and
highly regarded colonial vegetable.
We also fmd peas and pea pods were popular vegetables in needlework in the 16th
Several 17th century samplers exhibit pea pod designs on the raised or
and 17'h centuries.
stump work embroidery.
There is a connection made with love and pea pods as told to us in a Devonshire
proverb,
Wintertime for shoeing,
peascod time for wooing."
Shakespeare also used the peapod in As You Like It in a similar way.
The daisy is
used in determining whether one is loved or not. If the peas remained in the pod upon
picking the pod off the vine then it was considered to be a positive response. Peas and
peapods are included in a 17t century pattern book for embroiderers but seem to
disappear in needlework during the 18th century for some unknown reason. They make a
strong comeback during the Victorian era and even continue on in today' s machine
embroideries.
So peas can be grown, eaten and worn on your clothing.
vegetable.
2anet juthrie
A most versatile
�
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Title
A name given to the resource
Geddy Garden News
Description
An account of the resource
The Geddy Garden News was a monthly newsletter produced by employee Janet Guthrie who worked for many years as a garden interpreter at the James Geddy House. The Library holds a partial run of this newsletter (issues 33-114 with some gaps) for the years 1996-2003. The newsletter ceased publication in 2003 upon Guthrie’s retirement.
Subjects covered most often in the newsletters are 18th century gardens, gardening publications, gardens of the Founding Fathers, plant uses, early and pre-Christian folklore, and seasonal customs. Much good and interesting information is found within these newsletters, but current users should be alert for some now archaic interpretive sources, Latin errors, and cultural generalizations, especially with Native peoples/nations of North America which are often treated as one culture instead of many.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Guthrie, Janet
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An entity responsible for making the resource available
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
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Title
A name given to the resource
Geddy Garden News, no. 71, February, 2000
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Guthrie, Janet
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
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b9475d7a264fb89515bd46f4d2ab6e60
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JOHN D. ROCKE
COLONIAL WILLIA
ESBJR ROUNDATON
P. 0. Box 1776
Williamsburg, Virginia 23187
GEDDY GARDEN NEWS
Issue # 70
January 2000
IfSt Paul' s Day be fair and clear,
Then it betides a happy year."
Folksaying
We welcome the millennium and enjoy our first taste of winter temperatures
of this twenty- first century. January 25th is St. Paul' s Day.
Today we rely on modern technology, newspapers, radio and TV weather
forecasters to predict our weather conditions. In past centuries, however, there were
special days in the Church calendar that were linked to weather forecasting. Those
dates being set and consistent had a history of matching weather patterns so that the
folksayings are not based on superstition, but were often quite accurate and reliable.
Hence, weather lore became linked to holy days and saints' days. For example, the
Feast of St. Hillary, January 13``', has often been found to be the coldest day of the
year and it became known as such. Some connections can even be traced back to the
The theory of the red sky at night as the prediction of fair weather to come
Bible.
can be found in Matthew
XVI, 2- 3:
When it is evening, ye say, it will be fair weather, for the
sky is red. And in the morning, it will be foul weather
today, for the sky is red and lowring. "
January is considered to be one of the most unreliable months, weatherwise,
so there is another old proverb that is especially appropriate for January:
Winter weather and women' s thoughts often change."
In our recent training about Taking Possession of the Land, Kent Brinkley
told us about change over time.
He spoke of trees such as pines, beech, hickory and
oak in the woodlands being disturbed by road building. Boundary markers were
These cuts were
being made by early surveyors by making cuts in the trees.
commonly known as three chops. Did you ever wonder, as I did, about the origin of
the name of Three Chop Road in Richmond?
I find that the idea of marking land can also be traced back to the Bible in
Proverbs
22: 28, "
Cursed
be the man
was used in The Commination
who removes
his neighbor' s landmark."
Service in the 1662 Book of Common
Prayer.
this linkage to religion in so many aspects of the lives of the colonists.
This
We find
�During these cold winter months, the colonists took care of their property by
doing many necessary tasks, such as repairs of their buildings and fences and cutting
up firewood.
The gentry members took advantage of the cold, frosty days to also enjoy
recreational
activities.
George Washington was a great outdoorsman and it was often in January and
February that he would enjoy hunting and deer stalking. He loved fox hunting and
he loved riding his mount Magnolia. He had hunting horses named Blueskin, Ajax,
Valient and Chinkling. He also enjoyed seeing and wagering on horse races and
would travel to attend a good horse race.
and R time for colonists.
These cold winter months became the R
Repairs and recreation.
f
i4
,%
�
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Title
A name given to the resource
Geddy Garden News
Description
An account of the resource
The Geddy Garden News was a monthly newsletter produced by employee Janet Guthrie who worked for many years as a garden interpreter at the James Geddy House. The Library holds a partial run of this newsletter (issues 33-114 with some gaps) for the years 1996-2003. The newsletter ceased publication in 2003 upon Guthrie’s retirement.
Subjects covered most often in the newsletters are 18th century gardens, gardening publications, gardens of the Founding Fathers, plant uses, early and pre-Christian folklore, and seasonal customs. Much good and interesting information is found within these newsletters, but current users should be alert for some now archaic interpretive sources, Latin errors, and cultural generalizations, especially with Native peoples/nations of North America which are often treated as one culture instead of many.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Guthrie, Janet
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
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Title
A name given to the resource
Geddy Garden News, no. 70, January, 2000
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Guthrie, Janet
-
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83b484084489b90f7cf51aec48074b63
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Y GARDEN NEWS
COLONIAL WILLIAMSBURG F
P. 0. Box 1776
Williamsburg, Virginia " 1 R7
Issue # 69
December
1999
Heap on more wood!
The wind is chill;
But let it whistle as it will
We' ll keep our Christmas
Merry still."
Sir Walter Scott
As the Geddy garden slumbers we find ourselves in the midst of Christmastide.
enjoyed our annual festivities
We
of the season.
Jennifer and Noel Poirier once again hosted our junior interpreters' Christmas party.
We built a fire in the Geddy yard and brewed our Christmas wassail as we have in the past.
We then wassailed our way to the party, blessing the trees along the way.
appropriately as we went. Robert Herrick wrote,
We sang
Wassaile the trees, that they may beare
you many a Plum, and many a Peare:
For more or lesse fruits they
Will bring
As you doe give them Wassailing.
What sweeter music can
We bring
Than a Carol, for to sing
The Birth of this our
Heavenly King?
Awake the Voice! Awake the
String!"
We greeted the Poiriers at their door, playfully and joyfully singing " We wish you a
Merry Christmas," and we were cheerfully welcomed into their home.
Among the many carols we sang was the 18th century, "
Hark the Herald Angels
Charles Wesley had a difficult entry into the world. The
eighteenth child born in his family he had been born several weeks prematurely and failed to
Sing," by Charles Wesley.
open his eyes or cry for two months. He was never sure of the exact date of his birth but
knew it was just before Christmas. Isn' t it fitting that he is responsible for giving the world
one of the all- time favorite Christmas Carols?
Christmastide causes me to imagine the landscape of the Holy Land in ancient times.
The trees found there and then are mostly unfamiliar to us. One evergreen tree is the Carob
which is also known in the Bible as John' s Bread Tree. ( Matthew 3: 4) The fruit from the
Carob is eaten by both animals and people. Other evergreen trees found there are the
Aleppo Pine, and the Cypress. Olive trees and Date Palms grow wild in the desert and are
mentioned in Deuteronomy 8: 8. Also found in the desert is a member of the Mimosa
�family, the Acacia, or Wattle.
mentioned
in Exodus
This tree provides food for the desert animals and is
25: 10.
The large impressive and important Kermes Oak is abundant in the Holy Land but
probably the most beautiful of the ancient trees is the Almond tree which is mentioned
several times in the Bible and blooms in the spring with showy pink and white blossoms.
What a beautiful land this must be.
Doc and Margaret Hassel hosted the Geddy party at their home.
We enjoyed
delicious food and Christmas cheer and fellowship at an outdoor oyster roast.
Oysters were available and enjoyed in the 18th century in Virginia. They were known
to be served on the half shell at Mt. Vernon by the Washingtons. George Washington also
mentioned having a snack and eating cold cuts. These words sound so modern and familiar
but were actually written in the 18th century. Some other holiday foods to which we can
relate today are cranberries.
George Washington served spiced cranberries at Mt. Vernon
and early on William Byrd writes in his diary, " Said my prayers and ate some cranberry tart
for breakfast."
Many holiday recipes can be found in 18th century cookbooks.
Hannah Glasse offers
a recipe for Yorkshire Christmas Pie. In the Country Housewife and Lady' s Director ( 1732)
recipes for mince or Christmas pies, and Plum or Christmas pottage are offered. The latter
is like Plum pudding. There is even a Christmas cookie recipe in Amelia Simmons'
American Cookery.
Martha Washington wrote instructions on the way to store cherries.
her cookbook, "
She wrote in
To keep Cherries yt ( so that) you may have them for tarts at Christmas
without preserving."
Dining was definitely a favorite form of entertaining ther.. as it is today. But equally
as important in 18t' century holiday hospitality was drinking. After saying grace before a
Ladies at the table were often toasted individually, then the
gentlemen and then the country and so on.
meal,
the
toasts
began.
A traditional Christmas drink served then and also usually served at our Geddy
Christmas party is syllabub. Sometimes considered a ladies drink, it is made with white wine,
cream, milk, egg whites, sugar, nutmeg, and the juice and rinds of lemons. Other holiday
drinks enjoyed by the colonists lud colorful names such as flips, shrubs, and bounces.
Benjamin Franklin had a special recipe for orange flip, which began with a gallon of
rum! He also was the writer of a drinking song, which ended with the line, " For there can' t
be good living, where there is not good drinking."
aJyr /
f
eus yea,,
te
�
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Title
A name given to the resource
Geddy Garden News
Description
An account of the resource
The Geddy Garden News was a monthly newsletter produced by employee Janet Guthrie who worked for many years as a garden interpreter at the James Geddy House. The Library holds a partial run of this newsletter (issues 33-114 with some gaps) for the years 1996-2003. The newsletter ceased publication in 2003 upon Guthrie’s retirement.
Subjects covered most often in the newsletters are 18th century gardens, gardening publications, gardens of the Founding Fathers, plant uses, early and pre-Christian folklore, and seasonal customs. Much good and interesting information is found within these newsletters, but current users should be alert for some now archaic interpretive sources, Latin errors, and cultural generalizations, especially with Native peoples/nations of North America which are often treated as one culture instead of many.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Guthrie, Janet
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
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Title
A name given to the resource
Geddy Garden News, no. 69, December, 1999
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Guthrie, Janet
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
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15ee0b8a18e636153cd508f1f011421b
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JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER,
JR. LIBRARY
COLONIAL WILLIAMSBURG FOUNDATION
P. O. Box 1776
GDDY GARDEN NEWS
Williamsburg, Virginia 2.,.
6
November 1999
Issue # 68
The earth, gentle and indulgent, ever subservient to the wants
of man, spreads his walks with flowers, and his table with plenty,
returns with interest,
every good committed to her care."
Pliny the Elder
The after effects of hurricane Floyd are still being tallied throughout Virginia and
Farmers report that the peanut. corn, and soybean crops were
along the East Coast.
damaged and production was low and the quality of the cotton crop suffered as well.
experienced
our
first
frost
of the
season
on
November
temperatures have occasionally reached into the 70s.
3,
We
but since that day our
The foliage
with its vivid
hues
has
been signaling the approach of winter and I expect we will be welcoming coldest weather
any day now.
November is an interesting month because it offers so many important, special
occasion days.
Veterans Day, commemorates the sacrifices of military veterans in
In the past, it was called Armistice Day, celebrated on the anniversary of the
November
our country.
11,
armistice of World War I in 1918.
The name was changed to include the servicemen of all
branches of the military of our country. The same day, November 11, has for centuries been
observed as Martinmas or St. Martin' s Day. St. Martin of Tours is a patron saint of France.
He was the son of a military officer and he had himself enlisted in the military at age 15. He
is known as the patron saint of military chaplains. It is most significant that the two
celebrations are observed on the same day. We presented a program here, in Colonial
Williamsburg, on Veterans Day to include and honor our visitors who in the past have
served or are presently serving in any of our military forces.
November 1999 has been proclaimed by President Clinton as National American
Indian Heritage Month.
first environmentalists.
We recognize the many contributions of the American Indians, our
In Virginia there are 20, 000 Native Americans today. There are
eight tribes and two Indian Reservations
in the Commonwealth,
the Mattaponi
and the
Pamunkey. The Mattaponi Reservation was established in 1658 along the borders of the
Mattaponi River in King William County, Virginia.
Reservation.
Only 75 members still live on the
The Upper Mattaponi tribe of 100 members are non- reservated Indians located
in the Mechanicville area.
�The Pamunkey Indian Reservation serves as the home for approximately 100
members who still live on the 1, 200 acre reservation located in King William County.
The
Pamunkey tube was among the 34 tribes of the Powhatan Confederacy of the 17th century.
Another tribe of the Confederacy is the Nansemond Tribe of Chesapeake, Virginia.
population of 300.
It has a
Approximately 1, 000 members of the Chichahominy Tribe live in Charles City
County with 150 members in the Eastern Chicahominy Tribe in nearby New Kent County.
There
is the United
Rappahannak
Tribe which
owns
21
acres
of land
in Indian
Neck, King and Queen County, Virginia.
The eighth tribe is the Monacan Tribe which today numbers 700 members.
It is the
most western of the eight tribes, located in Bear Mt, in Amherst County and was not ever a
member of the Powhatan confederacy.
All of these tribes observe separate heritage festivals throughout the year.
Some of
the ceremonies are rituals that relate to the three crops known as the three sisters of Indian
The word squash derives from an Indian word,
bean, and squash.
lore, maize.
asquutasquash,
which
means
uncooked
or raw.
Some
of the Indian
tribes
observe
Fall
harvest festivals.
As I write this, members of the Mattaponi Tribe are in the woods hunting a deer to
present to our Virginia Governor. This Thanksgiving custom began in 1646, when the
Mattaponi Indians first presented a gift of game or fish to the Governor of the
Commonwealth and the custom has been carried on ever since, as a gesture of Thanksgiving
and good will.
The American Indian is of the soil, whether it be the
region offorest, plains, pueblos, or mesas. He fits into the
landscape, for the hand that fashiated the contbteit, also fashioned
the nOnl for his sunvu Jings. He once grew as naturally as the wild
sweaters.
He bekiigs just as the buffalo belonged."
Luther Standing Bear
Oglala Sioux Chief
Janet Guthrie
�
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Title
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Geddy Garden News
Description
An account of the resource
The Geddy Garden News was a monthly newsletter produced by employee Janet Guthrie who worked for many years as a garden interpreter at the James Geddy House. The Library holds a partial run of this newsletter (issues 33-114 with some gaps) for the years 1996-2003. The newsletter ceased publication in 2003 upon Guthrie’s retirement.
Subjects covered most often in the newsletters are 18th century gardens, gardening publications, gardens of the Founding Fathers, plant uses, early and pre-Christian folklore, and seasonal customs. Much good and interesting information is found within these newsletters, but current users should be alert for some now archaic interpretive sources, Latin errors, and cultural generalizations, especially with Native peoples/nations of North America which are often treated as one culture instead of many.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Guthrie, Janet
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
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Title
A name given to the resource
Geddy Garden News, no. 68, November, 1999
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Guthrie, Janet
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
-
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4fee61108921d3ceb0a7f3e6a89c4349
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JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER, JR. LIBRARY
COLONIAL WILLIAMSBURG FOUNDATION
P. 0. Box 1776
Williamsburg, #Virginia 23187
Issue
67
October
1999
GEDDY GARDEN NEWS
Gardening gives me fun and health and knowledge
It gives me laughter and colour.
It gives me pictures of almost incredible beauty."
John F. Kenyou
Autumn is the twilight of the year. The harvest is almost over. We have
enjoyed our figs, a luxury we are fortunate to have in our Geddy orchard. In
ancient Rome the fig was considered a gift of the god Bacchus. The Bible tells us of
the significance of the fig in the lives of the Hebrews. It is in fact the first tree
mentioned in the Bible. On the wall of a 12th dynasty Egyptian grave there can be
found a fig -harvesting scene. Fig like plants were growing in Italy and France long
before the Stone Age. Fossil remains revealed this to us. In America the figs were
introduced by the Spaniards. They were in St. Augustine, Florida in the 16th
century. In Jamestown in 1629 Captain John Smith wrote, " Mistress
Pearce
harvested neere a hundred bushels of excellent figges."
Many Northern visitors are surprised to find our fig trees uncovered during
the winter but our fig trees can withstand temperatures as low as 10 degrees
Fahrenheit without suffering serious damage. When the temperature dips to 5
degrees Fahrenheit below they will suffer but will usually recover with new shoots
sprouting from the roots. We have experienced that several times on our site. The
well- known cookie, the Fig Newton did not come about until the late 19th century
and is named for the town of Newton in Massachusetts.
This is the season for soil preparation fertilization and the building of garden
beds. These tasks, along with weeding and watering take up most of my time in
October. I found some interesting quotations from an 18th century letter of Rosalie
Stier Calvert of Virginia.
She wrote, " Experience
continues to demonstrate
how
plaster ( of Paris) fertilizes the soil. We still use ten tons of it annually and a great
quantity of manure, too. My husband buys almost all ( the manure) available in
Bladensburg, as well as their old ashes for almost nothing..."
I have had mixed feelings this past week about the National League
championship battle. I am an Atlanta Braves fan but I recently gained new respect
for the New York Mets. My interest in the Mets came about from learning of the
hobby of the ball club. They grow a vegetable garden at Shea Stadium. Two of the
ball players, Dennis Cook and John Franco and Chris Murphy a grounds
crewmember at Shea are responsible for the garden. Shea was built on a landfill so
a lot of fertilizer was needed and the NYC mounted policemen provided horse
manure. Before the establishment of the garden a rat problem existed in the
bullpen but since the ball players have started gardening the rat problem has
diminished.
�The garden which is isolated behind the right field wall in the bull pen
produces broccoli, sun flowers, both jalapeno and habanero peppers, pumpkins,
and tomatoes which are covered with netting to protect them from getting hit by
homerun balls. The team members weed and water the garden during batting
practice. Although I was happy with the outcome of the recent post season playoff I
still felt a little sad for the gardening Mets. Wait until next year...
Janet Guthrie
�
Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
Geddy Garden News
Description
An account of the resource
The Geddy Garden News was a monthly newsletter produced by employee Janet Guthrie who worked for many years as a garden interpreter at the James Geddy House. The Library holds a partial run of this newsletter (issues 33-114 with some gaps) for the years 1996-2003. The newsletter ceased publication in 2003 upon Guthrie’s retirement.
Subjects covered most often in the newsletters are 18th century gardens, gardening publications, gardens of the Founding Fathers, plant uses, early and pre-Christian folklore, and seasonal customs. Much good and interesting information is found within these newsletters, but current users should be alert for some now archaic interpretive sources, Latin errors, and cultural generalizations, especially with Native peoples/nations of North America which are often treated as one culture instead of many.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Guthrie, Janet
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
Geddy Garden News, no. 67, October, 1999
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Guthrie, Janet
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Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
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JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER, JR. LIBRARY
COLONIAL WILLIAMSBURG FOUNDATION
P. 0. Box 1776
Williamsburg, Virginia 23187
September
Issue # 66
GEDDY GARDEN
1999
NEWS
Season of mists and mellow fruitness,
Close bosom -friend of the maturing sun;
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With fruit and vines that round the thatch eves run."
John Keats, ' To Autumn',
1819
We survived the hurricane Floyd. Luckily the Geddy property did not
have damage. Our scarecrow withstood the storm and merely lost her hat. She seemed to
be more of a guardian angel than a scarecrow.
Colonial Williamsburg, however suffered the loss of many trees in the
hurricane, especially near the Cascades. When we lose our trees we lose not only
aesthetic beauty but we also lose the practical functions that trees offer. Their placement
can alter the effects of wind and screen out objectionable views and lighting in residential
communities. They can control intrusive noise by serving as sound barriers and by
proper placement they can aid in our comfort by providing warmth in winter and coolness
and shade in summer.
We received approximately 18 inches of rain in our Tidewater area as an
aftermath of Floyd, which is above average, but the most severely damaged city in
Virginia was Franklin. There was also great harm done in the state of North Carolina. So
we cannot really complain.
At a recent seminar in Toronto, Ontario I had the opportunity to attend a
lecture given by Ken Parker, a Seneca Indian. As the only nursery that is owned and
operated by a Native American in North America his lecture focused on the history of
native American plants and their reestablishment and Indian culture.
His nursery is located above Buffalo, N. Y. in zone five. With the
deepening concern we all share about the environment it is important to remember that
the Native Americans were our very first environmentalists.
There is a trend being established .in gardening to contribute to responsible
environmental caretaking. A result of the trend is an aesthetic style called " new
naturalism."
The featured plants of this style are the ornamental grasses of the American
prairie.
Prairie is a French work for meadow and the American prairie extends into
Canada.
It is interesting to learn how the Indians of that territory were using some
of the plants. Tribes such as the Mohawk, Iroquois and Senicas burned sweet grass for
spiritual cleansing and to communicate with the Great Spirit. Tobacco was also used in
such ceremonies.
�There were medicinal uses for many of their plants. The Tall Coreopsis
was made into a tea as a remedy for what we call arthritis. Seeds from sunflowers were
used for oil and gum. Wild bergamot leaves were used to soothe insect bites and were
also made into tea. Tea was made from the flower of the American Highbush Cranberry.
Indians ate both the flowers and leaves of Spiderwort in salad form and the pods of the
Prickly Pear were eaten and the yellow flowers were made into a jam like dish. Boneset,
like the name implies was used to set bones but also as a cough remedy. Another cold
remedy used by the Indians came from rose hips. A tea was made from Fireweed and the
flowers of the Fireweed plant was made into honey.
One of the more interesting uses of a plant was of the Silhium laciniatum.
Because the leaves of this plant align north to south, the plant was used by the Indians as
a compass and became known as the compass plant.
By planting some of these native plants we can restore natural resources as
well as create habitats of wild life and insects. As an added bonus we will be beautifying
the land especially with the showy plumes of the Indian grasses.
Janiet Guthrie
�
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Title
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Geddy Garden News
Description
An account of the resource
The Geddy Garden News was a monthly newsletter produced by employee Janet Guthrie who worked for many years as a garden interpreter at the James Geddy House. The Library holds a partial run of this newsletter (issues 33-114 with some gaps) for the years 1996-2003. The newsletter ceased publication in 2003 upon Guthrie’s retirement.
Subjects covered most often in the newsletters are 18th century gardens, gardening publications, gardens of the Founding Fathers, plant uses, early and pre-Christian folklore, and seasonal customs. Much good and interesting information is found within these newsletters, but current users should be alert for some now archaic interpretive sources, Latin errors, and cultural generalizations, especially with Native peoples/nations of North America which are often treated as one culture instead of many.
Creator
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Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Guthrie, Janet
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Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
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Title
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Geddy Garden News, no. 66, September, 1999
Creator
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Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Guthrie, Janet
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JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER, JR. LIBRARY
COLONIAL WILLIAMSBURG FOUNDATION
P. 0. Box 1776
Williamsburg, Virginia 23187
August 1999
Issue # 65
GEDDY GARDEN NEWS
If the 24th of August be fair and clear, Then hope for a prosperous autumn that
year."
Old Folks Saying
August 24th is the feast day of Saint Bartholomew, who was one of the
twelve Apostles and died a martyr for preaching the Gospel in barbarous countries.
The extraordinary heat of this summer has contributed to a bumper crop of
figs. Everyone has been enjoying them. Some visitors have sampled them for the very
first time and that is always special when a new experience can be introduced in my
garden.
Figs were available in Virginia in the 18th century. They were not
however among the favorite fruits Fithian mentions in his diary. He and the ladies went
through the garden and gathered some figs. He wrote, " the ladies seem fond of them, I
We know that Thomas Jefferson grew them in his garden as early
cannot endure them."
as 1769. By the 19th century the popularity of the fig increased. Many northern visitors
describe covering their fig trees to protect them from the cold in winter. That is not
necessary here.
In my search for women garden writers I came across Margaret Morris.
She was a Quaker widow in Burlington, N.J. in the 18th century who kept a kitchen
garden journal which she called her gardening memorandum. She was growing her
garden in an effort to aid the poor and sick and elderly in her Quaker community. She
grew few flowers; mostly food for charitable donations filled her garden. Much of it
seems to have been donated to the Asylum, which today is known as Friends Hospital in
Northeastern Philadelphia.
Her gardening methods combined old and new techniques. The old
method of planting by the phases of the moon. She was also experimenting with some
ideas in planting potatoes by cutting them in pieces and drawing conclusions from the
results.
Garden journals or notes, or as in Margaret Morris' s words,
Memorandums, are wonderful windows into the past. Like most diaries the most
mundane practices or activities are omitted in the writings. It was taken for granted that
certain things were common knowledge and therefore did not need to be written down.
Another female contributor to our garden information of the past is Lady
Jean Skipwith. Laura Viancour has done a great deal of research on Lady Skipwith.
Although her garden journal is not accessible to the public because it remains in the
possession of a family member, we do have copious garden notes written by her. She
�kept detailed records of her garden at Prestwould Plantation in Mecklenburg Country,
Virginia.
She was born in Virginia but lived in Britain from the age of 12 to 38. She
married a baronet in 1788 after she had returned to Virginia to live. Her garden notes
show us a remarkable woman with a love and devotion to gardening. Her house remains
today. She wrote that she had fig trees near the beehives and it is thought that the figs in
the recreated garden there today might possibly be off shoots of her original fig trees.
Some of her notes and records were used during the restoration of Colonial
Williamsburg. Her stepdaughter and niece became the wife of St. George Tucker. Lelia
Skipwith Carter, a widow, married St. George Tucker in 1791.
She like her Aunt Lady
Jean had a love of gardening, as did her new husband, St. George Tucker. He referred to
his wife in a letter to his children in 1810 as the " Matron of the Green."
Sometimes we find garden writing in poetry and essays. In 1802 Dorothy
Wordsworth, sister of William Wordsworth wrote a beautiful description of the first
sighting of daffodils.
Some children' s books were written about plants and flowers in the
eighteenth century and they combined moral lessons with pictures of flowers. The
Practical Flower Garden: with Moral Reflections. for the Amusement of Children printed
in London in 1778 is one such book. Although there is not a great deal of written garden
information of the period it is found in diverse places.
We are still in desperate need of rain for our gardens and reservoirs.
There is an old rhyme that tells us that cows are good weather indicators.
When a cow tries to scratch its ear, It means a shower is very near.
When it clumps its side with its tail, look out for thunder, lightning and hail.
Let' s hope we see some ear scratching cows soon.
Janet Guthrie
�
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Title
A name given to the resource
Geddy Garden News
Description
An account of the resource
The Geddy Garden News was a monthly newsletter produced by employee Janet Guthrie who worked for many years as a garden interpreter at the James Geddy House. The Library holds a partial run of this newsletter (issues 33-114 with some gaps) for the years 1996-2003. The newsletter ceased publication in 2003 upon Guthrie’s retirement.
Subjects covered most often in the newsletters are 18th century gardens, gardening publications, gardens of the Founding Fathers, plant uses, early and pre-Christian folklore, and seasonal customs. Much good and interesting information is found within these newsletters, but current users should be alert for some now archaic interpretive sources, Latin errors, and cultural generalizations, especially with Native peoples/nations of North America which are often treated as one culture instead of many.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Guthrie, Janet
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
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Title
A name given to the resource
Geddy Garden News, no. 65, August, 1999
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Guthrie, Janet
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
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e707d19da8a29cd9e1dfdebd9e7ef916
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JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER, JR. LIBRARY
COLONIAL WILLIAMSBURG FOUNDATION
P. 0. Box 1776
Williamsburg, Virginia 23187
Issue # 64
July 1999
GEDDY
GARDEN
NEWS
Now every field is clothed with grass, and every tree with leaves; now the woods
put forth their blossoms, and the year assumes its gay attire."
Virgil ( 70- 19 B. C.)
Summer is here and we have experienced record breaking high
temperatures already. After a long drought we also had a strong rain storm that caused
the loss of several large limbs from one of our fig trees, but the rain was needed and
appreciated.
The annual Jr. Interpreters picnic took place last week and we all enjoyed
ourselves. I awarded Danielle Banks the prize for naming our new scarecrow. The
winning name was Lazy Daisy.
I' m not sure how well Lazy Daisy is doing her job. I' ve seen quite a few
crows in the garden this year. I recently learned that crows can be taught to repeat
phrases. The regular crow sound we hear from them is their way of marking their
territory but if that sound turns low and guttural the crow is warning other crows of the
nearby danger of hawks or owls. Crows have a bad name and always have from very
early times. Discord and strife was symbolized in hieroglyphic drawings of crows and in
folklore the presence of a crow forewarns death.
Crows are also associated with war and thought to incite armies. The
crow is a thief and a scavenger. He eats everything from corn to frogs and toads. He
robs eggs from bird nests and eats small snakes. The good news is that he also eats
beetles and cutworms and some of the other garden pests. The crow is definitely not
wanted in our garden and therefore we will continue to do our best to eliminate him.
The sweet potatoes in the garden are growing well. They are considered
number one on the list of vegetables containing the beneficial nutrients of vitamin A,
vitamin C, foliate, iron, copper, calcium and fiber. However if one overeats sweet
potatoes he can run the risk of becoming jaundiced from the pigment carotene. Sweet
potatoes should be eaten quickly because they spoil and they should not be refrigerated
but stored for a short time in a cool place.
I have melons growing in the garden. The pocket melon is doing well. It
was one of the three melons that Miller wrote was worth cultivating. It is grown for its
fragrance. I' m also growing some cantaloupe, which is another of the three melons
mentioned by Miller. I' m careful not to grow them in the same bed nor near gourds or
cucumbers because in his treatise on gardening John Randolph warned that " the farina of
one will impregnate
the other, spoil the relish of the fruit, and make them degenerate."
�Probably the most frequently questioned vegetable in my garden this year
was the infrequently seen kohlrabi. It was introduced to China from Europe via the Silk
Road in the Middle Ages. It was eaten in the colonies. It is believed to have developed
from a single mustard ancestor, a wild cabbage. The bulb is the edible part of the plant.
It can be sliced and eaten raw or added to a salad but it is usually steamed. I had never
tried it so I decided to sample it. I found it agreeable. It was similar in taste to a turnip or
rutabaga, but without the bitter taste. It has some nutritional value but is not as beneficial
as broccoli, kale or brussel sprouts. It is high in vitamin C, potassium and bioflavonoids.
It is also high in antioxidants that may reduce the risk of cancer.
The garden has required a lot of weeding this year but that is what
gardening is all about. Women in the 18t century were called " women weeders."
There
is no doubt that gardening is laborious. Rudyard Kipling wrote, " and such gardens are
not made by singing; " Oh how beautiful! And sitting in the Shade."
Janet Guthrie
A
i4
KOHLRABI
�
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Title
A name given to the resource
Geddy Garden News
Description
An account of the resource
The Geddy Garden News was a monthly newsletter produced by employee Janet Guthrie who worked for many years as a garden interpreter at the James Geddy House. The Library holds a partial run of this newsletter (issues 33-114 with some gaps) for the years 1996-2003. The newsletter ceased publication in 2003 upon Guthrie’s retirement.
Subjects covered most often in the newsletters are 18th century gardens, gardening publications, gardens of the Founding Fathers, plant uses, early and pre-Christian folklore, and seasonal customs. Much good and interesting information is found within these newsletters, but current users should be alert for some now archaic interpretive sources, Latin errors, and cultural generalizations, especially with Native peoples/nations of North America which are often treated as one culture instead of many.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Guthrie, Janet
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
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Title
A name given to the resource
Geddy Garden News, no. 64, July, 1999
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Guthrie, Janet
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
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0a8cc7f8b212c6006b08b1e56b185c50
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Issue # 63
June 1999
GEDDY GARDEN NEWS
1
A dripping June keeps all things in tune.
Old Folks Saying
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We have survived a long, dry spell but thankfully the spell has been
broken and our garden is quenching its thirst. The ground had become very hard and dry
and some streams and wells in the area had dried up but although our well had become
low, it had not become dry. We rejoice in the rain.
June 15th is St. Vitus Day, which is known not only for a spastic dance of
the sick but according to weather lore the day plays a role in weather forecasting. The
saying goes, "
If St. Vitus Day be rainy weather, it will rain for thirty days together."
I' m
in the process of testing that theory right now.
Another bit of weather lore says, " Red sky at night, shepherd' s delight"
and I find that proverb was taken from the Bible. " He answered and said unto them,
when it is evening ye say, it will be fair weather: for the sky is red. And in the morning?
It will be foul weather today; for the sky is red and lowering. 0 ye hypocrite' s, ye can
discern the face of the sky, but can ye discern the signs of the times?" Mathew XVI , 2- 3
The plants in my garden that showed the quickest response to the rain are
They have reseeded themselves in a slightly
new location from where I planted them last year. They have almost doubled in height
from the two -foot flowers of last year. They obviously are draught tolerant and they
seem to be challenging our new scarecrow to see who is the tallest in the garden. Since
Black- Eyed- Susan' s are long blooming we will be enjoying them for quite some time.
the Black- Eye- Susan' s ( Rudbeckia Fulgida.)
�Another plant that is starting to benefit from the change in the weather is
the sweet potato. They have really been put to the test this year. First they had to survive
the hungry rabbits that live in our boxwood border and then the scorching heat. Having
endured all that, they now seem to be doing well. I' m relieved because the sweet potato/
is one of the most important vegetables in my garden. The colonists appreciated and
enjoyed it. We should all eat more sweet potatoes if only for their nutritional value. By
switching from the baked white potato to the sweet potato you can eliminate the
temptation of adding all those harmful, fat toppings to your diet. The sweet potato is high
in vitamins A and C, iron and calcium and high in beta -carotene. Do not confuse it with
the yam, which has a white colored flesh, not orange and is much lower in nutritional
value.
Our fruit trees are coming along nicely in the orchard! The apples and figs
appear to be unharmed by the lack of rain and the cherries have already ripened. Of
course the birds ate them all.
Cherry trees bring to my mind George Washington. The association of
Washington and cherry trees began centuries ago by an Episcopalian minister named
Mason Locke Weems. Weems was born in 1759 and was a very interesting, eccentric
and controversial preacher. He seems to have been ahead of his time. He was often
harsh in describing sins, which probably would not have the same shock value today as it
did then. He often preached at the Pohick Church where Washington had been a
vestryman. He was inspired by Washington' s character and wrote a popular biography
about the first president upon his death. He included in this book the legend of George
Washington chopping down the cherry tree. This little story was the creative imagination
of the minister at work in an effort to exemplify Washington' s honesty and it has endured
throughout
time.
The legend of Washington claiming " I cannot tell a lie" about chopping
down his father' s cherry tree caught the imagination of Americans and Mason Weems
rose to fame. His book was published in 52 editions in many languages.
So although George Washington may never have really spoken those
words he will forever be associated with honesty and truth. We can thank Mason Weems
for having placed that little hatchet in George' s hands.
Janet Guthrie
�
Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
Geddy Garden News
Description
An account of the resource
The Geddy Garden News was a monthly newsletter produced by employee Janet Guthrie who worked for many years as a garden interpreter at the James Geddy House. The Library holds a partial run of this newsletter (issues 33-114 with some gaps) for the years 1996-2003. The newsletter ceased publication in 2003 upon Guthrie’s retirement.
Subjects covered most often in the newsletters are 18th century gardens, gardening publications, gardens of the Founding Fathers, plant uses, early and pre-Christian folklore, and seasonal customs. Much good and interesting information is found within these newsletters, but current users should be alert for some now archaic interpretive sources, Latin errors, and cultural generalizations, especially with Native peoples/nations of North America which are often treated as one culture instead of many.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Guthrie, Janet
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
Geddy Garden News, no. 63, June, 1999
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Guthrie, Janet
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
-
https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/45914/archive/files/6065be9e003b46021380beaeaea48c5b.pdf?Expires=1712793600&Signature=h80P9RjCpnEaxGEqY3cIUpBqGo42RWYp5huoboXab1ZqL2PqFT3VNN7eEBWC6-KOGbiuCdBrSfCNkK%7EIz9qUMYs3Ak6yEwaBwU6jMkjQkPIBs27vLXJVHF7ZUYRDYKLurAZr0EjMNLmAafjCnZ3lyvYCqJcGDCL-75cd98Zvrfl6BOCk2vBMgFzY6r3GIqxSzflNrXbpeAM3U50SotTie3D1Crp4icEptv2YD-kP-y-WTJ%7EH%7E0NP9uanRVnfmBLTK-Aaqe2CW4VUfMQiiuyaVaNANGFJ5C4ndN6WCldDFkm21P3qZudQUlWUYv6T8U9mniBtC8XUOsaKXF8J6zkKIQ__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM
0ca219ef036f763467d6a275058e8743
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JOHN D. ROCKEfELLER, JR. LIBRARY
COLONIAL WILLIAMSBURG FOUNDATION
P. O. Box 1776
Williamsburg, Virginia 23187
Issue # 62
May 1999
GEDDY GARDEN NEWS
Spring, the sweet Spring, is the year' s pleasant king;
Then blooms each thing, then maids dance in a ring,
Cold doth not sting, the pretty birds do sing,
Jug -jug, pu- we, to- witta- woo!
Thomas Nash,
16th Century English author
For the past several months I have been researching the history of the
celebration and customs of May Day in preparation for the 300th anniversary of the
establishment of the city of Williamsburg. The decision had been made to create a May
pole and to invite the citizens to take part in the Maypole
dance.
This
assignment
was
appropriate for me because of the relationship of May Day with spring flowers.
Very quickly I learned that May Day celebrations represented very
different things to various people.
Originally it was a pagan ritual dating from prehistoric times. It had many
names.
The Celts called it Beltane, Teutons called it Walpurgis, and the Romans named
it Floralia, for Flora, the goddess of flowers and springtime.
Some believe the Druids
were celebrating tree worship and in Egypt and India the May Day celebrations were like
spring festivals. These celebrations were a combination of mythology and folklore.
May Day was a major festival in pre -Christian Europe that celebrated the
A
important seasonal transition in the year. It was an expression of the death of winter.
key symbol of the day was fresh spring flowers, which served to generate feelings of
hope and joy in the communities.
Trees, which became the Maypoles, were carried from the woods.
The
branches were chopped off and the tree trunks were wrapped in violets and ribbons were
attached to the top of the Maypoles after the trees were carried to towns accompanied by
the music of horns and flutes.
In the earliest days May Day used to be a period of great sexual license
and a fertility rite. Men and young maidens went into the forests on the eve of May Day
to gather birch boughs, flowers and garlands for the Maypole and did not return from the
forest until the next day. This was called goinz aMaving.
Because of these sexual overtones the Church of England tried to suppress
the
Maypole
celebrations.
The Maypoles
were deemed devilish
instruments
and
heathenish and the constables and churchwardens tried to remove the poles in England
�and
It was, however, the Puritans who reacted in horror to the frivolous,
Wales.
unrestrained May't ve antics and made Maypoles illegal in 1644.
However with the reign of the Stuarts the Maypoles returned to England.
Villages competed in trying to produce the tallest poles and London set their poles
permanently in the ground. A famously large one was purchased by Sir Isaac Newton to
be used to support his 124- foot telescope.
in 1717.
The last Maypole in the strand in London was
Today there is still a section of the city of old Warwickshire which is named
Maypole, where the old wooden Maypole was replaced in 1850 with an official one
which stands today, set in concrete in front of the Maypole Public House.
Traditional dramas were often enacted on May Day in many countries.
Shakespeare' s comedy, A Midsummer Nights Dream, takes place not in Midsummer but
on May Day. Poets like John Milton and Alfred Lord Tennyson wrote poems about May
Day.
When May Day returned it was without the elements
of sexual license.
It
took on a much more moral tone in the 19th century with the emphasis placed on the
innocence of children, the beauty of nature and the hopefulness of the coming of spring.
During the French Revolution the Maypole became known to the French
people as the tree of Liberty, symbolic of freedom.
May Day is the only major festival of pre -Christian Europe that was not
adapted by the Christian church and there was never any significant church service
The secular nature of May Day probably accounts for its being the
choice of the Russian Communists in 1920 as the day to display their military strength
connected with it.
with parading soldiers and weapons.
This year May Day 1999 in Brixton, London, a group called the
International Cannabis Coalition met and chose the day to seek and end to the prohibition
to the herb Cannabis, which is the hemp plant.
So as you can see May Day has been used
by many people with diverse agendas.
We chose to simply recreate the Maypole dance with the emphasis on
innocence and a welcome to springtime in support of the future of our city of
Williamsburg.
Maypole.
Our carpenters contributed their time and skills to the making of our
Because baskets of flowers were a part of the custom of the celebration, I
encircled the Maypole with flower baskets.
Those of us who were assigned to present the Maypole dance to this
community rehearsed our dance. Phyllis Putnam, Pat Gibbs, Julie Sweet, myself, and our
two junior interpreter peer teachers, Sara Finklestein and Caroline Hollis, practiced our
of the
dance.
It was immediately obvious to us all that Caroline was to be the director
�performance.
control.
She knew exactly what she was doing and had the ability to maintain
She taught the crowds of adults and children the Maypole dance for the entire
afternoon and exhibited the same energy and enthusiasm at the end of the day as she
shared with her very first group of the day. We all agree that Caroline Hollis is
Williamsburg' s Queen of the May!!
We do not know for sure whether there were actually Maypoles in
Virginia in the past 300 years, but neither do we know that
there were not any. We do
know that the people here were inclined to follow many of the customs of their culture
and I believe there were probably some Maypoles erected in some towns in early
Virginia.
I was pleasantly surprised to have so many people of all ages, both men
and women, relate their experiences of having danced around a Maypole at some time in
their lives.
Our Maypole united us of Colonial Williamsburg with our neighbors, the
residents in the city of Williamsburg and visitors in a very special,
carefree way.
day of good will.
Janet Guthrie
It was a
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Geddy Garden News
Description
An account of the resource
The Geddy Garden News was a monthly newsletter produced by employee Janet Guthrie who worked for many years as a garden interpreter at the James Geddy House. The Library holds a partial run of this newsletter (issues 33-114 with some gaps) for the years 1996-2003. The newsletter ceased publication in 2003 upon Guthrie’s retirement.
Subjects covered most often in the newsletters are 18th century gardens, gardening publications, gardens of the Founding Fathers, plant uses, early and pre-Christian folklore, and seasonal customs. Much good and interesting information is found within these newsletters, but current users should be alert for some now archaic interpretive sources, Latin errors, and cultural generalizations, especially with Native peoples/nations of North America which are often treated as one culture instead of many.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Guthrie, Janet
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Geddy Garden News, no. 62, May, 1999
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Guthrie, Janet
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation