One of the first books ever written about gardening in America was recently released in paperback, after being out of print for 150 years. The American Gardener was written by William Cobbett, an Englishman and the most powerful political writer of his day, who fled to America in 1817 to escape certain imprisonment over his anti-government writings. He settled for a few years on Long Island, and was shocked to discover that few Americans grew their own fruits and vegetables. So he took it upon himself to convert American farmers to gardeners.
Cobbett has firm ideas about the merits and attributes of the vegetable garden. He sets out a plan for an enclosed garden 100 yards by 50 yards, which should provide all the fresh produce a family can eat. He is enamored of hot beds, warmed by manure, to start seedlings and cold-tolerant plants. He boasts of how early he eats cabbage in spring, and how he has so much he can give it to all his friends and neighbors.
Neatness was an essential component of a successful garden, in Cobbett’s opinion. “Poverty may apologize for a dirty dress or an unshaven face; men may be negligent of their persons; but the sentence of the whole nation is that he who is a sloven in his garden is a sloven indeed. The inside of a laborer’s house, his habits, his qualities as a workman, and almost his morality, may be judged of from the appearance of his garden. If that be neglected he is, nine times out of ten, a sluggard or a drunkard or both.”
Cobbett’s book is amusing, but also practical. Like so many old gardening books, it contains small bits of wisdom and perspectives that help us rethink our own modern practices. I was most struck by how much Cobbett emphasizes fences and hedges to protect the garden. In England, he notes, “the kitchen-gardens of gentlemen are enclosed with walls from ten to sixteen feet high” to allow the ripening of tree fruits. In America, though, he prefers hedges or fences to break the wind and cast some shade. He gives detailed instructions on how to plant a hedge that will protect crops from weather, foraging poultry, and mischievous boys.
He also provides instructions for a broom corn fence. Erect posts every 10 feet. The posts should be 3 inches square and stand 10 feet high. Lay a bed of bricks or smooth stones along the ground from post to post. Nail three rows of lath to the posts, the first one 18 inches from the ground, the second at 6 feet from the ground and the third within 6 inches of the top of the posts. Do the same on the other side of the posts. Then fill up the space between the laths with long broom corn stalks, placing the bottoms on the bricks or stones. “When the whole is nicely filled, strain a line from top of post to top of post, and according to that line, cut off the tops of the broomcorn stalks; and while the fence will look very handsome, it will be a shelter much more effectual than pales or a wall.”
Cobbett advises that such protection will give crops a 10-day head start in spring, and allow certain crops such as peas to continue to produce long into summer when planted along the south fence to take advantage of the shade it casts.
His advice about windbreaks strikes me as something that has been neglected in American gardening. Everyone envies the English their gardens, but rarely do we take the trouble to emulate their walls, fences and hedgerows.
The American Gardener is one of eight titles that are being reprinted as the Modern Library Gardening series, edited by Michael Pollan. During this last month of indoor work, I recommend you curl up with one of these classics and see what can still be gleaned from our gardening heritage.