Garden Footsteps
        where plants have stories to tell













Spirit Mound, S.D
 
Green Footprints of the soil
Jonathan Hoffman


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On August 25, 1804, Lewis and Clark with several of their men and Lewis's dog Seaman, walked nine miles to Spirit Mound. Their green footsteps crossed a lush prairie. 


This Prairie has a garden story to tell us about Lewis & Clark.


This South Dakota State Park is a great example of a restored tall grass prairie.


It was also a hot August day that my brother Rol & I walked in the garden footsteps of Lewis & Clark at Spirit Mound. 

 
Spirit Mound Lewis
Rol at Spirit Mound
 
 
  
Jonathan Hoffman Ecclesiastes 3
The Garden Path of Life
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Welcome to Garden Footsteps


Where Gardening and History tell their story

A Web site where gardening and history come together to tell their story. From farmers markets, roadside landscapes, botanical gardens, victory gardens and home landscapes, plants have stories to tell us. 


Lewis & Clarks Green Footsteps Blog

For example, plants found along the Lewis and Clark Trail have their own story to tell us about that epic event in American history. Visit the Lewis & Clark Green Footsteps Blog to read Jonathan's journal as he tells the stories of plants that grow along the trail today. 


Plants Have a heritage; Plants have a Pedigree 

Plants have the capacity to teach us history and geography. Every plant, whether cultivated in our own garden or viewed along the wayside, has a history or a past. Learning about a  plant's heritage or its pedigree opens a new and exciting dimension to gardening and travel. It allows the gardener to bring history into their horticultural experiences. It gives the landscape a purpose.

Plants Have Stories to Tell
Plants of the Bible
Flax
Salvia officinalis
Sage
Garden Footsteps
Arrowhead
Garden Footsteps
Osage Orange
         

Flax  
Brought to America from Europe by the first settlers. It was an essential garden herb. Seed was used to sooth the eyes and to assist in removing foreign irritants that lodged in them. The plant provided linen and linseed oil for our founding nation.

Linum lewisii (Linum perenne var. lewisii) is native to North America; it is a cousin to the flax seed that immigrated from Europe. It is a North American native plant. On July 18, 1805, Lewis & Clark describes it in their journals.

Sage      Salvia officinalis

Sage was originally used as a healing herb. Its garden footsteps can tell us a story about George Washington as he laid upon his death bed. His physician,  Dr. Craig,  ordered sage tea as a gargle to sooth hie sore throat. Unfortunately the President was bleed three times over several days.


Sage has been a grown in the American herb garden since the time of the first European settlers brought it to colonies. 
Broadleaf Arrowhead (Sagittaria latifolia)  

Arrowhead is found at the waters edge throughout the United States. It's fleshy roots (tubers) were a life sustaining food for the Lewis & Clark Expedition. Called Wapato by Native American' its green footsteps tell us stories about saving the Lewis & Clark expedition from starvation.


On October 22, 1805, Clark wrote in his Journal "Captain Lewis ...examined a root of which the natives had been digging great quantities in the bottom of the river."
Osage Orange (Maclura pomifera)

A tree with a story to tell about native American This tree is native to the Arkansas area. Its garden footsteps has a deep heritage with the plains Indians. It was considered sacred by them for its strength in making bows. Lewis & Clarks green footsteps tell the story of how important these plant would become. 


A letter dated March 26, 1805, from Meriwether Lewis was sent to President Jefferson describing this tree. Up to the time of barbed wire in the late 1800s Osage was the (live) fence row material of choice by Mid Western farmers.

For all things there is a season

a time to plant, a time to harvest

a time to give thanks, a time to rest 

Ecclesiastes 3


For all things there is a season

a time to plant, a time to harvest

a time to give thanks, a time to rest 

Ecclesiastes 3
Garden FootSteps Jonathan Hoffman
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