Last updated: September 16, 2024
Place
Gardens and Porches
Christy Hoover
Quick Facts
Location:
Natchez, LA
Amenities
1 listed
Historical/Interpretive Information/Exhibits
Although almost bare of plantings now, former Quarters residents recall gardens, bushes, and flowering fruit trees that provided food, color, and shade. The area around each cabin was space tenants could treat as their own.
They planted flowers, corn, sweet potatoes, okra, tomatoes and other vegetables. Gardens reduced the need to buy from the Plantation Store. Pigs and chickens, an important food source, were kept in yards or nearby pens.
Residents spent more time outside than inside and porches provided outdoor living space. The porch was a place to catch a cool breeze and some shade, to socialize, sew, prepare vegetables, and to watch over children at play.
Residents occasionally shared in childcare. Everyone watched out for the children as porches and the areas in front of the cabins became an informal playground.
"We had a big garden... Peas, okra, tomatoes, pumpkins... [c]ucumbers, I made pickles out of them." Lizzie Johnson, Oral History Interview, 1996.
They planted flowers, corn, sweet potatoes, okra, tomatoes and other vegetables. Gardens reduced the need to buy from the Plantation Store. Pigs and chickens, an important food source, were kept in yards or nearby pens.
Residents spent more time outside than inside and porches provided outdoor living space. The porch was a place to catch a cool breeze and some shade, to socialize, sew, prepare vegetables, and to watch over children at play.
Residents occasionally shared in childcare. Everyone watched out for the children as porches and the areas in front of the cabins became an informal playground.
"We had a big garden... Peas, okra, tomatoes, pumpkins... [c]ucumbers, I made pickles out of them." Lizzie Johnson, Oral History Interview, 1996.