Profile in Victory: Susan Tomlinson (Part 2)

Today we're picking up where we left off yesterday, interviewing Susan Tomlinson about her prairie homestead garden concept.

RW&G: What are the essential elements of a prairie homesteader's garden? You mentioned heirloom veggies, flowers...but what about medicinals and the sentimental components (ex. antique roses)?

Susan: Hmmm, I guess I’m still learning all that. As I said [yesterday], I’m a rank beginner (Powdery mildew? Blossom end rot? Damping off? What’s up with all that?) at growing a vegetable garden, so I’d like to learn how to grow tomatoes and peppers successfully before I start worrying about medicinals. Good lord, I’d probably accidentally kill myself if I started messing with medicinals at this stage of my non-ornamental gardening career. But medicinals probably do have a place in a homesteader’s garden—maybe even more so than some heirloom vegetables.

I’d also like to stress that I’m not a purist in anything I do—I simply lack the attention span to be so. My overall intention might be to seek out those plants that would be found in a homesteader’s kitchen garden, but if a compelling, environmentally appropriate plant comes down the pike that wouldn’t have been found there, I’ve got no qualms at all about sticking it in the ground and giving it a home. If you think about it, that’s what the homesteader would have done, too.

Having said all that, I have got a rough planting blueprint in my head, and it is based in part on a couple of articles I read in Texas Gardener magazine about gardens planted by German settlers in central Texas. Those resourceful gardeners like neatness and order, but they also liked to have ornamentals growing in the vegetable plot. You know, no matter how practical and thrifty someone might be, we all respond to beauty.

So in planning my prairie homesteader’s garden, I decided that I’d concentrate on heirlooms, a few native prairie flowers (such as the homesteader might find and adopt for her own garden), and some traditional Texas favorites like lavender, bearded irises and antique roses. And, since my house was built in 1942 in what was then the edge of town (and is now the middle), I might pay homage to those early “settlers” of my home as well by looking for plants from that era to round things out. As you well know, those post-Depression wartime years were also years of thrift, so I think they would fit in well with the spirit of things.

RW&G: Did you use any particular historical sources to come up with a list of plants? If so, which ones?

Susan:  I was intrigued by a couple of articles in Texas Gardener magazine about some German immigrant gardens in central Texas. I’m also planning to check out our local archive, the Southwest Collection Special Collections Library—it’s a mouthful, but it’s a great resource for oral and written histories of the men and women who lived here in the early part of the last century.

I also teach in a university program that focuses on natural history and the humanities, and as a consequence of that, I know a lot about what should naturally be growing here. That will certainly inform some of my decision making.

The garden is still new, but I expect it to grow and evolve in the coming years as I learn more, both about the art of growing vegetables, and what a homesteader’s garden must have looked like.

RW&G: Grasses, obviously, play a central role in the Plains...how have you incorporated grasses into your garden space? Are there ecological/nutritional advantages to using them (like the way peas and other green manures add nitrogen)?

Susan: The primary ecological advantage, of course, is that you don’t have to water them once they are established. And sown heavily, they make an excellent green much to keep the weeds at bay.

Most importantly to me, however, they root me aesthetically in this landscape. They are my prairie compass.

RW&G : Finally, can you tell me a little bit about your book and how it might be useful to a home gardener?

Susan: My book is “How to Keep a Naturalist’s Journal,” and it is full of some gentle instruction, based on my years of teaching courses in the subject, on making field sketches and notes, and learning to identify wildflowers and birds. Although it is aimed at the adult beginning naturalist, gardeners would certainly find it full of instruction that would be helpful for keeping a garden journal. At this writing, it is scheduled to be released by Stackpole Books in the fall of 2009.

Thanks, Susan. And, dear readers, please don't forget to spread the word about Susan's great blog, The Bicycle Garden.