Gardening

Roll up your sleeves as you explore Laura Ingalls Wilder’s pioneer garden and learn about heirloom gardening trends still popular today.

Plants that Laura Knew and Grew

Plants that Laura Knew and Grew

My garden is as crowded as my bookshelves, and Laura Ingalls Wilder is a good part of the reason why. I sit down to read, come across a plant, and then want to grow it. Here’s how it happens.Start, let's say, with On the Banks of Plum Creek. By Chapter 2, the family is ready to move into Mr. Hanson’s dugout on their new farm. Jack the...

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Sweet Potatoes and Pioneers

Sweet Potatoes and Pioneers

Johnny fussed in the bedroom, and Laura quickly pinned her braids, tied on her apron, and said, 'Let me fix the potatoes while you dress him. —These Happy Golden YearsWhen you think of Little House on the Prairie, you may think of the covered wagon journey, Jack the brindle Bulldog's loss and return, log cabin construction or fever ‘n’...

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Edible Landscaping Tips Inspired by Little House on the Prairie

Edible Landscaping Tips Inspired by Little House on the Prairie

The colors in the sky at sunset, the delicate tints of the early spring foliage, the brilliant autumn leaves, the softly colored grasses and lovely flowers - what painter ever equaled their beauties with paint and brush? —Laura Ingalls WilderI grew up watching “Little House on the Prairie” each day while my mom prepared lunch,...

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Growing Heirloom Corn Varieties

Growing Heirloom Corn Varieties

Every morning Pa went cheerfully whistling to the field… Now he carried a sack of corn fastened to his belt, and as he plowed, he threw grains of corn into the furrow beside the plow’s point. The plow turned over a strip of sod on top of the seed corn. But corn would fight its way up through the matted roots, and there would be a...

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Pioneer Kitchen Gardens: How the Pioneers Planned and Planted

Pioneer Kitchen Gardens: How the Pioneers Planned and Planted

For many of us, gardening is a hobby or even a passion. But there are many people leading perfectly satisfying lives without ever having a garden. It hasn’t always been this way. Gardening is depicted as a normal facet of life in the “Little House on the Prairie” television show and book series, because each settler needed a garden in...

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Growing Historical Lettuce Varieties

Growing Historical Lettuce Varieties

The garden was growing now. In tiny rows of different greens, the radishes, lettuce, onions, were up. The first crumpled leaves of peas were pushing upward. The young tomatoes stood on thin stems, spreading out their first lacy foliage. —Little Town on the PrairieAlong with the Little House on the Prairie books, Laura Ingalls Wilder...

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