Newark, DE 19711 - University of Delaware Library Institutional ...

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Horticulture Department has killed the grass behind several museum
buildings.
c. Garden
Gardens were spatially separated from yards and outbuild-
ings by fences of various styles - split picket, hewn picket, and
solid board. Even though some re-created family gardens in Salem
today are enclosed by split rail fencing, this was not a common
practice of the Moravians. Picket and board fences provided
effective barriers to wildlife, neighbors, and children which
rail fences could not.
Family gardens in Salem were utilitarian and provided
householders with vegetables, fruits, herbs, and flowers. The
garden area was divided into 4-6 rectilinear beds separated by
walkways of sod, tanbark, packed dirt, or fine gravel. All
garden beds were cultivated with the frequent exception of one
which was often left in grass for use as a green to bleach linens.
Reflecting the medieval influence again, the garden
plots were often raised above the existing ground level for
better drainage and fertility. They were sometimes bordered with
saplings or branches to contain the soil. The milled boards
used to edge many of the re-created gardens in Salem today would
not have been available to the Moravians until later in the 19th
century, but they are concessions made by the Horticulture Depart-
ment to save on maintenace.
is recommended.
The continued use of board edging
Because Salem was built on a ridge line, the land gently
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