Landscape Construction at the Felts Log Cabin

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Landscape Construction at the Felts Log Cabin

• Elizabeth Alewine and Dr. Martin Stone
• Western Kentucky University
• Department of Agriculture
• 9 November 2007

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Early History

• Constructed in northeast Logan County between
  1800-1820 by Archibald Felts.
• 1810 census recorded 15 people living in the
  cabin, 6 under the age of 10!
• In 1819, Felts was in the top third income
  bracket of taxpayerssize of house and real glass
  windows.

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Logan County
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Early History

• Alterations were made in the early 1900s
  clapboard siding, a tin roof, and kitchen ell
• Original descendants of Felts occupied the cabin
  until 1968

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Historic Architectural Features
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The Felts Cabin at WKU

• Cabin was donated to the Kentucky Library and
  Museum in 1980 by Sam Houston Watkins
• Rotten logs and mud chinking were replaced
• Kitchen ell, tin roof, and siding were removed
• Currently being used as a permanent, on-site,
  interpretative exhibit for early frontier life in
  KY

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WKU Campus
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Importance of the Landscape Design

• Intended to complement the current exhibit.
• It is not a replica of the Felts farm.
• Design consists of a kitchen garden, a sample
  field, and a native plant garden.

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Importance of the Landscape Design

• Includes plants common to farms in the early 19th
  century.
• Historically accurate vegetable species were
  selected.
• In some cases, plants that were introduced after
  1810 were includedassociation with the Shakers
  at South Union (Stowells Evergreen corn, Long
  Scarlet radish, and Late Flat Dutch cabbage)
  or aesthetic appeal (Painted Lady pole bean).

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Methods and Materials

• Journals and inventories of the Shaker community
  at South Union provide the basis for many design
  elements (crops, outdoor demonstrations).
• Shaker vegetable broadside from 1867 with 1841
  bill of sale as starting point for vegetable
  garden.
• Cookbooks dating from the 1820s-1840s to
  determine vegetables and herbs.
• Farmers almanacs for dye plants, crops.
• Online resources for dye plants not mentioned in
  other resources, commercially available heirloom
  seeds.

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Design, Field Crops

• Pumpkin
• Broom corn
• Flowering tobacco
• Stowells Evergreen corn (1848)
• Painted Lady pole bean (1827)

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Design, Kitchen Garden

• Pole bean
• Lazy Wife (early 1800s)
• Bush bean
• Old Dutch Half Runner (1825)
• Contender (1949)
• Beet
• Early Wonder (pre-1811)
• Early Blood Turnip (1800s)
• Cabbage
• Late Flat Dutch (1860s)
• Perfection Savoy (unknown)
• Carrot
• Danvers Half Long (1871)

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Design, Kitchen Garden

• Collard greens
• Georgia Southern (pre-1800s)
• Cucumber
• West Indian Gherkin (1793)
• Gourds
• Dipper, bird house, etc.
• Mustard greens
• Southern Giant Curled (unknown)
• Onion
• White Lisbon (unknown)
• Red Whethersfield (1834)
• Radish
• Long Scarlet (pre-1870s)
• Turnip greens
• Seven Top (pre-1800s)

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Design, Kitchen Garden

• Herbs
• Thyme, Sage, Rosemary, Basil, Mint, Parsley
• Dye plants
• False blue indigo (blue)
• Goldenrod (yellow/wheat)
• Blackberry (red to purple)
• Bloodroot (orange to red-orange)
• Virginia creeper (peach)

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Design, Native Garden

• Spicebush
• Virginsbower
• Woodland plox
• Wild columbine
• Partridgeberry
• Allegheny spurge
• Ostrich fern
• Cinnamon fern
• Leatherwood fern
• Maidenhair fern
• Christmas fern
• Celandine poppy
• Mayapple
• Solomons seal
• Jacobs ladder
• Birds foot violet
• Trillium
• Foamflower
• Ginger

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Design, Native Garden

• Bloodroot
• Bluebells
• Rattlesnake orchid
• Hepatica
• Shooting star
• Prickly pear
• Cardinal flower
• Switchgrass
• Bee balm
• Spiderwort
• Obedient plant
• Echinacea
• Black-eyed susan
• Mountain laurel
• Catawba rhododendron
• Cumberland azalea
• Strawberrybush
• Oakleaf hydrangea
• Smooth hydrangea

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Concerns

• Some vegetable cultivars are no longer
  availablesubstitutions made (i.e. Contender
  bean sub. for Early Valentine).
• Balancing historical accuracy and
  aestheticspaths through the garden, more orderly
  appearance in the garden, visually interesting
  plants (Flowering Tobacco).
• Erosion!!! (keep grass-free areas to a minimum,
  use mulch, outdoor demonstrations/paths, chicory
  and culvers root as a vegetative filter).

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Why is Erosion a Concern?

• Historical accuracy in the design
• No grass!
• Nature of the physical landscape

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The Landscape
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Solutions

• Grass-free areas are kept to a minimum.
• Mulch is used to cover bare soil around the
  cabin.
• Paths around the cabin are 3 wide.
• Large exhibits representing outdoor living were
  included (i.e. laundry, firewood) as suggestions.
  
• Chicory and culvers root intended as vegetative
  filter.

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Landscape Construction

• Will begin Spring 2008
• Prairie species installation will be an ongoing
  project for the next 2-3 years

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References

• Rutledge, Sarah. The Carolina Housewife. (A
  facsimile of the 1847 edition with an
  introduction and a preliminary check list of SC
  cookbooks published before 1935 by Anna Wells
  Rutledge.) Columbia, SC University of South
  Carolina Press, 1979.
• Smith, Andrew F., ed. The Oxford Encyclopedia of
  Food and Drink in America. New York Oxford
  University Press, 2004.
• The Green River Almanac, for the year 1824.
  Bowling Green, KY John C. Andrews and Co., 1824.
• The Kentucky Farmers Almanac. 1814.
• The Victory Seed Company, Open-Pollinated and
  Heirloom Seeds. Preserving the Future, One Seed
  at a Time. lthttp//www.victoryseeds.com/gt
• Western Kentucky University, Kentucky Library and
  Museum, Archives and Manuscripts. Catalogue of
  Shaker Garden Seeds. Grown at South Union, Ky.
  Crop of 1867.
• Western Kentucky University, Kentucky Library and
  Museum, Archives and Manuscripts. Shaker
  Letters and Receipts, 1834-1870.
• Western Kentucky University, Kentucky Library and
  Museum, Archives and Manuscripts. Miscellaneous
  Receipts, 1800-1916.