Heirloom garden tour on display
By SUZANNE R. STONE
Staff writer
BEECH ISLAND -- Local gardeners got a chance to see herbs and vegetables grown the old-fashioned way Saturday at Redcliffe Plantation State Historic Site's heirloom garden tour.
A crowd gathered at the heirloom garden for a vegetable "scavenger hunt," filling in the blanks on a series of questions about the produce grown there before park interpreter Elizabeth Laney called everyone over to a set of chairs set up under a shade tree for a presentation.
"I only joined the staff at Redcliffe a year ago, but this garden has been going on for seven years. The Aiken Master Gardeners and the history here at Redcliffe have shown me how to tend it. I won't say I've been neglecting my other duties, but let's just say I spend more time in the garden than a gardener should," Laney said.
Heirloom plant varieties' defining qualities are the ability to reproduce from their own seeds, a pedigree going back 50 years or more. At Redcliffe the garden focuses on late 19th-century and early 20th-century varieties common in the plantation's heyday and a story to go with their history, such as the Jenny Lind muskmelon (named for the famed opera singer). The garden is a joint project of the Aiken Master Gardeners and the S.C. Parks, Recreation and Tourism department and is one of five reproduction heirloom gardens on state historic sites.
"We're lucky that James Henry Hammond kept so many notes about his agricultural experiments. We have lists of specific varieties, notes on his orchards, and he experimented with vineyards, which failed in the end," Laney said of the plantation's founder. "It was the hallmark of the country gentleman, the planter gentleman, to experiment with agriculture. He did these things because they were what other men of his class were doing. It wasn't always just rows of cotton and corn."
Laney and fellow park interpreter Joy Raintree cut up and handed out samples of lemon cucumbers, moon and stars watermelon and cups of an herbal cooler made with fresh rosemary from the garden. Master Gardener Cathy Sabol spoke about the Clemson Extension master gardening course and took questions from the crowd.
"Why is it home gardens always seem to grow everything so much bigger than you'd see in the supermarket?" one man asked.
"It could be something in your soil," Sabol replied. "Also, supermarket vegetables are very standardized as opposed to home-grown."
"We give better care and attention to our gardens," Master Gardener Joyce Timmerman added.
The Redcliffe staff gave out packages of seed packets and brochures on heirloom garden care, South Carolina Historic Sites and the Golden Harvest Food Bank, which receives most of the produce from the garden. Laney led an optional tour to Jenks Farmer's crinum lily gardens, a quarter-mile from the state park, after the presentation.
For more information about the Aiken Master Gardener program, call the Clemson Extension office at 649-6297. For more information about Redcliffe Plantation and its heirloom garden, call the park office at (803) 827-1473, or visit the park's new garden blog at growinghistory.blogspot.com.
Contact Suzanne Stone at
sstone@aikenstandard.com.
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