Because most folks had no horticultural expertise, and this was way before hoses or pesticides, their plants had to be very, very easy to grow in just plain dirt with little or no water, and generally pest free. Plus, they had to be easy to save from year to year by seed, plant division, or rooted cuttings, making them even easier to share with others.
While European settlers cherished and tended familiar plants from “back home” we incorporated New World squash, corn, beans, pumpkins, oil sunflowers, and peppers. And when we found many cool-climate mainstays suffer in our South’s hot, dry summers, we quickly adopted African staples including okra, peanuts, melons, and cowpeas.
There were also hardy fruits like figs, pecans, persimmon, elderberry, blueberries, apples and pears. Everyone also grew culinary rosemary, parsley, chives, garlic, and mints, and utility herbs including yarrow, iris, feverfew, soapwort (for washing clothes and hair), and other part-ornamental, part-medicinal plants.
There is lots more on all this, easily found online and seen up close in various interpretive gardens like found at Colonial Williamsburg and the authentic raised beds in the Herb and Heritage Garden at the Ag Museum in Jackson. But fact is, many of us still tend small, productive kitchen gardens filled with time-tested staples from the past, almost exactly the way it was done in 1776.
From survival in early days to modern community gardens, plants have been a common denominator that helps knit today’s diverse communities. Regardless of how we managed to make it to 2026, it’s good to reflect on how our gardens can at least temporarily bridge differences.
And to me, especially in these polarized times, this makes sharing through gardening especially patriotic.
Felder Rushing is a Mississippi author, columnist, and host of the “Gestalt Gardener” on MPB Think Radio. Visit his blog at felderrushing.blog. Email gardening questions to rushingfelder@yahoo.com.
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