Ethnobotany

Taking Lessons from Native Americans

I have given up on gardening by the calendar. I used to prune my roses as near to Valentine’s Day as the weather permitted. I also used to sow peas on St. Patrick’s Day and put the gardening tools away at the end of October until April or May. I got those same tools back out this past March 1st and started gardening as soon as I could comfortably get outside. After the strange winter we just had, I don’t think I can count on any of those calendar days to garden by.

The week of nice weather we generally get in mid-February lasted almost all month. Instead of pruning roses, I needed to be watering my garden because we had such low rainfall this winter. So I have decided I am going to try to use more ancient ways of calculating when to do my gardening tasks.

Early Native American tribes were more attuned to the ways of the earth than Modern Man will ever be. Many of those old ways are lost now, subjected to the contemporary ways of Science and, in this case, meteorology. Some of the Native American methods have been passed down from generation to generation; others, I imagine, have been lost. I have read that Indians used to plant their cool weather crops when the leaves on the newly sprouted maple trees were the size of a squirrel’s ear. Now that’s what I call reading the signs of nature! I could only aspire to be that connected to Mother Earth.

I usually cut back my sword ferns around the middle of March. Since I am not going to rely on the calendar, I will have to rely on my visual observations: I know that it will be time to cut back my sword ferns when I start to see the “knuckles” of their new fiddles appear. If I wait too long, it won’t be as easy to cut back the browned fronds as the tender new ones will be unfolding. If I cut back too early, I run the risk of a late frost damaging the new growth. So I will have to be attentive to that.

I have already pruned my roses, if a bit later than usual. Gone are the days when I would venture out into the rain and cold just because it was mid-February. Life is too short to be miserable in the garden, so I waited for a nice, sunny day the first weekend in March and pruned the canes back to about 12 inches. I did cut out all the dead growth at that time, too. I also pruned my hardy fuchsia almost to the ground. They have started new growth already, so I know they will be fine.

The time to plant my cold weather crop seeds outside will be determined on the soil temperatures as well as the air temps. I don’t do a lot of veggies, but I do like to plant some lettuce seeds in the spring. Most seed packets these days will tell you the temperature needs of those seeds, so be sure to follow the instructions. I have found a sunny spot on the side of my potting shed and have put up two window boxes for my lettuce. (Don’t tell the slugs, as so far they haven’t found that particular area yet.) The red- leaved lettuces we like to eat are pretty enough to tuck in among the annuals and perennials in these boxes, too. So they are mixed in with small Heuchera and black mondo grass. Perhaps that’s what’s fooling the slugs as they don’t seem to like either of those perennials.

Of course, chores like weeding have no schedules, calendar-wise or intuition-wise. It just needs to be done and the sooner the better. Giving weeds the chance to take hold at any time is a mistake that I make almost every year. So I am trying to get better of taking the time to pull the weeds as I walk past them. Its only two seconds, and it always makes me feel better. They don’t seem to get so out-of-control if I tend to them daily. Finding time to do that is the trick, but I have stationed weeding buckets (or sometimes a nicer looking empty flowerpot if it’s where I see it all the time) around my garden to toss the weeds into as I see them. Then, when they are all full, I dump them and start over.

I have no qualms about pruning out dead branches from trees or shrubs at any time of the year. But I am mindful that taking off any living branch will stimulate growth. That’s fine if the plant is hardy enough to survive the possibility of frost on new growth, but not many are. In case of doubt, I will wait until warmer weather.

Warmer weather…isn’t that a nice thought? But I return to the old adage that if March comes in like a lamb (as it did this year), it will go out like a lion. I think I will count on that instead of the weather forecasts. There’s a fifty-fifty chance of it being right.