A 12 K Garden
Plant List
A 12 K garden can be about casual or as ambitious as anyone cares to make it. Perhaps it entails growing nothing new or special, but merely taking a moment to appreciate the story the existing plants have to tell — the tundra poppy from the nursery, the butterfly weed that has been part of the perennial flower garden for years, the hickory or pecan tree in the back yard, the knotweed growing in the crack of the sidewalk. Or perhaps it is merely planting a wild sunflower or morning glory or prairie dock somewhere in the garden.

Or perhaps the 12 K garden takes the form of a fairly complete living timeline made of of the various plants. See www.illinoisprairie.info/12Knotes.htm for more information about such an exhibit or, for that matter, for more of the story these plants have to tell.

Plant 1000 years ago Comments
Tundra plants  12  Icelandic poppies (Papaver  nudicale) from the nursery or garden center.  These are probably not native to this area, but are representative of tundra poppies in that they are similar to the arctic poppies (Papaver radicatum) that grew here..  The commercially available Yezo Dwarf Willow (Salix yezoalpina) is a good choice to represent tundra willows since it is similar to the native arctic willow (Salix arctica).
Spruce and then fir forests  10 Small spruce and fir seedlings
Deciduous trees and prairie plants  8  Hickory or oak tree seedlings.  Prairie grasses and forbes:  see the note below. 

Gathering nuts became a very important part of the people's culture.
'Ovifera' or egg gourd.* 
(Cucurbita pepo var. ovifera)		 7 I have seed. 

Cultivation of this plant about 7,000 years ago made this area one of the Cradles of Agriculture on the globe. It was unique because it was a naturally perserved food source; the seeds in the small egg-sized gourds would be perserved for years on the prairie.
Sumpweed * 
AKA Marsh Elder, 
Iva 
(Iva Annua)		 4 Native only in the southwestern quadrant of the state, but cultivated well outside its native area.  If you can't get it locally, I have seed. 

Cultivated about 4,000 years ago.
Sunflower* 
(Helianthus tuberosus)		  4 Wild, not the commercial ornamental. 

Cultivated and domesticated (and changed significantly) about 4,000 years ago.
Maygrass* 
(Phalaris caroliniana)		  3 Not native north of Cape Girardeau, but cultivated in this area.  It is really not very appropriate for most prairie demonstration plots because the seed is gone and the plant is pretty well withered by middle or late summer, when these plots come into their own. 
Knotweed* 
  Polygonum 		  3.0  If you know of any erect knotweed (P. erectum), please let me know.  Otherwise, just use the common knotweed (P. aviculare) that grows up in the cracks of sidewalks.  It is less archaelogically significant, but a good compromise.
Goosefoot* 
  Chenopodium		  3.0 I have C. berlandieri seed, which is the goosefoot often used in archaeological demonstrations of this type because it was one of the most widely cultivated.  Be careful with this one; it is very closely related to the very invasive pest, lamb's quarter.  It may be prudent to forgo this plant if you think growing it is going to cause problems with environmentalists, farmers or gardeners.
Little Barley* 
(Hordeum pusillum) 		  2.0 Find it in driveways of farm lots in early spring.  Like Maygrass, there is not much left of this plant by middle or late summer, when these plots are usually featured.
Corn* 
(Zea mays)		 1 Try growing the three sisters: 1) hills of corn about 4' apart (four kernals of Tom Thumb popcorn per hill  is a good choice) with 2) climbing pole beans to climb up the corn and 3) gourds or squash to provide ground cover
* These plants were cultivated at the times indicated..

 
Horsetail 
  Equisetum arvense		 This is a very interesting plant to include someplace in the plot, although it is much older than 12,000 years.  Indeed, before there were trees or land animals on earth, there was horsetail. It has long since been turned to coal.
Switch grass 
Panicum virgatum		 An interesting counterpoint to Horsetail. Used for thatch in antiquity. A great source of ethanol – better than corn.
Prairie plants and forbes:  This topic offers a good opportunity to enlist the support and expertise of others in your community such the local prairie restoration or conservation groups or Pheasants Forever.  It may also make your demonstration plot more attractive to the public to the extent is includes popular, well known prairie wildflowers. The challenge, of course, is to include a good sampling of prairie grasses and flowers without letting the archaeobotanically significant plants get lost in the shuffle.

In this regard, large grasses such as Big Bluestem and Indian Grass are particularly problematic.  They are the quintessential prairie grasses, but are so hardy and invasive they tend to crowd out everything else.  Three or four clumps of Bluestem and/or Indian Grass should be manageable, however.  Just keep an eye on them, and don't let them wander.  Once the large grasses are well established (after a couple of years or so) they can be innoculated with a parasitic plant species to curb their dominance. This happens naturally in the wild but not usually in restored prairies unless it is purposefully done.

Fiber/cordage plants and foraged food plants to be included in the plot.  These plants became important as the people became more involved in selecting, searching out, processing and storing certain plants for food, cordage and building materials. It is, of course, impossible to put a date on when this began, but about 8,000 years ago is a reasonable ballpark figure. The cultivated plants listed above were probably foraged for some time before they began being cultivated.

These plants should be findable locally.  See your local prairie group for help with location and identification. Fiber/cordage plants to be included are:

  • Indian Hemp or Dogbane. (Apocynum cannabinum)
  • Rattlesnake Master. (Eryngium yuccifolium)
  • Common Milkweed.  (Asclepias syriaca)
  • Butterfly Milkweed. (Asclepias tuberosa)
    • Foraged food plants are:
  • Pokeweed. (Phytolacca americana)  All parts of this plant are poisonous, but the leaves can be eaten after being boiled repeatedly and the water discarded after each boiling.  Nevertheless, no part of this plant should be eaten.  Nor should it be grown where children might be able to eat the berries. Having said that, the plant appears to have been eaten --and/or smoked, used medicinally or as a dye -- since archaic times.  A magnificent and interesting plant.
  • Jerusalem artichoke. (Helianthus tuberosus)  Foraged for the edible tubers.  In no way related to Jerusalem or artichokes.
  • Wild Sweet Potato (Ipomoea pandurata) This morning glory was a minor foraged food source in the form of its large tuber root, which also gave the plant the name of man-of-the-earth.
  • Indian potato or groundnut (Apios americana) A minor foraged food.
    • Some final comments.  In practice, a 12 K plot is almost always a product of many compromises.  Placement and choice of plants often boils down to issues of spacing and sun/shade and local interest as much as details of archaeobotanical significance.

    Go easy on the fertilizer.  Fertilizing these plants may cause them to over-develop in uncharacteristic ways.  For example, fertilizing the ovifera gourd may produce fruit that, instead of being egg sized, is more the size of cantelope -- not a particularly good illustration of the gourds being grown in antiquity.

    A personal preference--go easy on the herbicide.  There is probably something to be said for a plot that retains a more or less natural look.  Obviously, it is counterproductive to let things become so scruffy that the various plants are lost in the clutter or do not effectively illustrate what we are trying to show.  But some effectiveness may also be lost if plot takes on the appearance of a Round-Up demonstration or a promotion for the use of decorative mulch.

    And finally, I would like very much to answer any questions you might have and to hear about your experiences growing a 12,000 year garden.  Email me at the address given below.

    DOCUMENT INFORMATION
    This document: http://www.illinoisprairie.info/12klist.htm
    Prairie Nations homepage: http://www.illinoisprairie.info
    Author: Jim Fay, Ph.D.
    Last Update: 4/4/09
    Contact information:  jimfay@prairieinet.net