Discover Pioneer Gardening Traditions in Springfield

One may easily miss the unassuming garden surrounded by a picket fence while strolling through the 83 acres at Snyder Park Gardens & Arboretum in Springfield, but these small plots offer insight into our shared history. A painted sign with the message “Thou Shalt Not Steal, As We Are Seed Savers” warns visitors as they pass through the gate of the Early Ohio Settlers Garden, an area within the arboretum that shows what the backyard gardens of Ohio’s pioneers looked like. 

“It’s all done by hand, so [the volunteers] won’t use any modern technology,” says Pam Bennett, professor at Ohio State University and director of the Master Gardener volunteer program. “When they’re planting, everything is pretty much identical to what would have been done on Ohio prairies when settlers were coming in.”

The garden was first planted in 2008 at its former site at the Clark County Extension Office on Gateway Boulevard, before moving to its current location in 2014, where it is tended to by a group of volunteers from the Master Gardener program at Ohio State University.

The garden plots, which are separated into quadrants, have their own purposes. A medicinal herb plot holds plants like tansy, a flower that when dried and steeped can help reduce fever and headache. 

Another corner of the garden has vegetables that would have been common in the early 19th century, like cow peas, calabash tomatoes and squash varieties. Crops like early wonder beets were especially favored because they could be jarred and stored for winter. 

The dyer garden showcases plants settlers used to dye their garments, while the flower garden produces varieties that are attractive to both humans and pollinators.

On the first Saturday of August, Snyder Park holds an annual Garden Jubilee, where volunteers dressed in period clothing are on hand to demonstrate historic cooking and pickling processes, in addition to hosting hands-on programs during which participants can learn how to use various plants to color fabrics.

“The garden itself has a lot of meat behind it,” Bennett says, “because there’s education, there’s information and there’s connecting it back in history.”  

1900 Park St., Springfield 45504, 937/398-7600, clark.osu.edu

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