A Polish Country Cottage Garden to celebrate National Gardening Day

A Polish country cottage garden was a mix of decorative and useful herbs, vegetables, flowers and shrubs such as roses, raspberry, gooseberry, or currant bushes. It served as a flower garden and as an herb and kitchen garden, useful in a way that brought edible food, as one Polish garden writer stated, " directly into the pot."  There was no specific garden plan.  Flowers and herbs were usually grown in clumps near the fence or in beds beneath the windows of the house according to the preferences of the housewife.  Vegetables were occasionally mixed in.  The walkways were made of tamped soil and wide enough for a person to walk through.  If a bit of decoration was wanted, large rocks were gathered, painted white and fashioned in a circle.  Inside, a special flower or herb was planted.

The housewife grew flowers to brighten the outside of the house, to adorn the altars at church on Sundays and holy days, and to decorate the roadside shrines that were located within the village boundaries.  The unmarried girls of the house tended lilies, rosemary and rue for bridal wreathes as well as lavender to place between the linens in her marriage chest.  For cooking and to spice the daily fare, some culinary herbs were planted.  There was marjoram for sausage, dill for pickling cucumbers, and parsley, sage and fennel for enhancing soups and stews.  Many Polish housewives made their own herb vinegars from water and sliced apples that were allowed to ferment for a few months.  The mixture was strained, crushed herbs added, sealed in bottles and stored in a cool pantry or larder.  Herb butters were also made and packed down into crocks to use in the middle of winter or to give as a Christmas gift. (Photo :Foxglove)
Interspersed among the flowers were vegetables such as cucumbers, radishes, water cress, horseradish and lettuce.  Sometimes there were beets, carrots, garlic or onions depending on the needs and tastes of the owner.  It was Queen Bona Sforza who introduced various green vegetables to Poland including beans, cabbage, cauliflower, onion, celery, parsnip, cumin, coriander, caraway, hemp, asparagus, artichoke, tomato and nasturtium.  Spinach also traveled to Poland from Italy, brought by monks who followed Bona in her marriage to Zygmunt.  From nearby Germany came horseradish and pumpkin, which also made its appearance in Polish cottage gardens.

Excerpted from: Polish Herbs, Flowers and Folk Medicine. Revised edition. Hippocrene Books.2020
 

---