Thomas Tusser: Peas, Beans, and the Poetry of Husbandry
This botanical history post was featured on The Daily Gardener podcast:
May 3, 1580
On this day, dear readers, we bid farewell to a most curious figure in the annals of horticultural history: Thomas Tusser, English poet and farmer extraordinaire.
Though he has shuffled off this mortal coil, his words continue to bloom in the gardens of our imagination.
In 1573, our dear Thomas penned his magnum opus, Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry.
Oh, what a treasure trove of gardening wisdom and domestic advice! Let us delve into the verdant world of 16th-century horticulture, as seen through Tusser's poetic eye.
Picture, if you will, the industrious housewife of yore, guided by Tusser's sage counsel.
As the new year dawns, she finds herself not idling by the fire, but braving the winter chill to tend her plot:
In January, the housewife should be busy planting peas and beans and setting young rose roots.
Can you imagine, dear gardeners, the sight of tender pea shoots and nascent roses defying the frosty ground?
Such is the optimism of the gardener's spirit!
But wait, the labors of our good housewife have only just begun.
As spring unfurls its green banner, Tusser exhorts her to greater efforts:
During March and April, she will work 'from morning to night, sowing and setting her garden or plot,' to produce the crops of parsnip, beans, and melons which will 'winnest the heart of a laboring man for her later in the year.
Oh, the romance of it all! Who among us hasn't dreamed of winning a heart through the bounty of our garden?
Though I daresay, dear readers, that in our modern times, the way to a person's heart is just as likely to be through a well-tended herb garden or a lovingly cultivated rose bush.
But Tusser's housewife is not content with mere vegetables. No, she must venture into the wild to secure the sweetest of nature's bounty:
Her strawberry plants will be obtained from the best roots which she has gathered from the woods, and these are to be set in a plot in the garden.
Imagine the scene: our intrepid housewife, basket in hand, foraging in the dappled shade of the forest for the most promising strawberry roots.
One can almost taste the sun-warmed berries that will grace her table come summer.
And with a touch of wry humor that transcends the centuries, Tusser adds:
Berries from these plants will be harvested later the same year, perhaps a useful back-up if the parsnips have failed to win the man of her dreams.
Ah, Thomas! Who knew that beneath that farmer's exterior beat the heart of a true romantic?
Though, between you and me, dear readers, I'd wager that a woman capable of such horticultural feats would have no need of a back-up plan!
So today, as we tend our own gardens, let us raise a watering can in memory of Thomas Tusser.
May his practical poetry continue to inspire gardeners for centuries to come, and may we all find joy in the simple acts of sowing, tending, and harvesting - whether to win hearts or simply to nourish our own.
