From the Garden: A new apprentice and a sheltering table

I am happy to announce that Emily Nelson has joined us as Garden Apprentice. She has traveled from the far western territory known to the natives as Idaho where she completed an academic course in the Natural Sciences and now resides, with her family, in the city of Williamsburg.We were first introduced to Emily through the kind offices of the Wood’s family who have provided an internship for aspiring garden historians at Colonial Williamsburg, and we were so impressed with her aptitude and congenial personality that we have now offered her a full time apprenticeship. She is displayed here with an unusually large parsnip grown in the garden this year which in larger than any seen in these parts before.

This week we constructed a table to shelter the Broad Beans following the advice of Mr. Thomas Tusser, author of 500 Pointes of Good Husbandrie first published in England in the year 1573. We have adapted his instruction for sheltering strawberries as a way to preserve the Broad Beans (known to the Italians as Fava Beans) through the winter months:

“If frost should continue, take this for a law

The strawberries look to be covered with straw

Layed over trim, on crotches and boughs

And after uncovered as weather allows.”

As this is a cool season vegetable the seeds are sown in mid-November and generally appear above ground in the first weeks of December. Our object is to have them no larger than three inches tall before severe weather arrives for it is at this size they seem best prepared to withstand the rigors of mid-winter.

A covering of straw, laid on at night and removed for daytime, is generally sufficient to keep the ground from freezing. In early April the covering will be taken away and we may then expect a bountiful harvest in May.