Article from the Sacramento Bee: Today's gardeners borrow from yesterday

[XemaSab]

Old-fashioned ideas are often the best. Gardeners are discovering that practices and attitudes valued by generations past can let us live lightly upon the earth as well as supply us with an abundance of fresh produce.

Bits of advice that were dismissed as silly fun, like planting vegetables when the oak leaves are the size of a squirrel's ear, turned out to have an ounce of truth.

"Farmer Fred" Hoffman (www.farmerfred.com) and I recently spoke about tips that are just as good now as they were then. We gleaned our information from old books and conversations with gardeners.

http://www.sacbee.com/165/story/1176389.html

[RedLetterRev]

1. I was brought up with a lot of those "old sayin's"

and there's a lot of truth in them. Great article and I've bookmarked it and sent it along to another "ole timey" gardener who lives two counties away from me, equally rural.

Just a side note: my granny was an Appalachian wise-woman whose mother was another Appalachian wise-woman. What they knew about native plants I'd love to recapture. I tried to learn when I was little, but I'm still saddened about how much knowledge was lost. There are a still very few folks around who remember some of the lore. I'd give anything to capture it and set it in a knowledge base. Any thoughts in that direction? You've got a good start in this post.

[pengillian101]

2. The Foxfire Book

"Just a side note: my granny was an Appalachian wise-woman whose mother was another Appalachian wise-woman. What they knew about native plants I'd love to recapture. I tried to learn when I was little, but I'm still saddened about how much knowledge was lost."

Don't be saddened - folks already wrote it all down in 1972, complete with interviews and pics. It is a great book! (And further series of the book followed.)

It is your family history.

"The Foxfire Book"