Organic Gardening in the Early 20th Century

My father was considered to be slightly warped because of his gardening practices! He never got beyond the 8th grade before having to quit school to care for his terminally ill mother, but his further education came primarily by reading, and his wisdom increased immensely! I have his copy of Scott’s Florist Manual dated 1906. He also worked for the local greenhouse and truck garden grower for a short spell after his return from WWI. His small backyard garden was a model of productivity, half vegetable and half flowers. The key to this was his compost pile, but it was more of a pit than a pile! All the household garbage and yard waste went into this four by six foot hole, about two feet deep when empty. The bio-mass was covered with a thin layer of dirt at regular intervals. Emptied of its rich supply of black gold each spring, the accumulation process began again and reached an above ground level heap by the following year. No fertilizer for the veggies led to the sweetest tasting Marglobe (his favorite) tomatoes I can remember. “What, no fertilizer?” the neighbors asked. “This fellow is somewhat nuts,” they thought. Dad also used manure, but he preferred the horse over cow variety. This choice further confirmed his eccentric state in the opinion of his peers. Even his father-in-law, who disliked tomatoes but grew wonderful sweet corn with plenty of 10-10-1.

Carleton Finch is a retired high school mathematics teacher and coordinator for the Leominster, Massachusetts School Department whose avocations include woodworking and gardening. Descended from the First Families of Boston, Massachusetts and Stamford, Connecticut, and influenced by both his father and uncle, Carleton’s abiding love of the environment and his fellow neighbors has made him a New England fixture and Founding Member of Habitat for Humanity in North Central Massachusetts.

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