Ancient Roman gardens and agricultural tools

I spoke before of the Labyrinth through time antique reenactment project planned for 2017 at Camp Virtus near Cluj-Napoca. Though a bit delayed by the Romanian authorities who take their time actually signing the contract and delivering the funds, the first research activities are fully under way. The members of the Virtus Antiqua NGO are doing their homework by documenting several types of ancient artifacts and features, preparing for the reenactment activities with volunteers.

The first topics are the Roman garden and Roman agricultural tools - read about them in Romanian on the project's website HERE and HERE and see the Pinterest albums on these topics:

- Reconstructions of Roman gardens

- Roman agricultural tools  

Stay tuned for more news on the project!

 

Pinterest album Roman gardens

Pinterest album Roman tools

 

Sheep and the Roman garden

Camp Virtus, the reenactment park in the making near Cluj (Romania), faces a tricky problem: sheep. Their presence was first noted when all the ivy planted along the fence has been completely eaten by the next morning. Traces of wool have then showed that the young shepherds do everything in their power (ruin the barbed wire fence and the gate) to get the sheep inside the camp. This proves very difficult for the planner Roman Garden, which now has to be fully enclosed with a wattle fence. While this enclosure is being made, through copious work and sweating, the Roman plants grow in exile, on my balcony: mustard (just producing hairy pods), sage, coriander (with a rather unpleasant taste), laurel, and ivy. Just hope they will adorn the actual garden, soon!

the garden

mustard pods

sage

mustard

coriander

 

Gardening project

One might be surprised of what art has to do with a gardening project. And yet, I have devised such a combination, relating to the idea of a Roman aromatic garden. The "Roman garden" product is a small bottle, painted by hand with vegetal depictions, containing a mix of seeds from plants that the Romans would have grown to use in the kitchen, for cooking or spicing wine, or just for their nice scent. It has coriander, dill, mustard, parsley, mint, sage, basil, savory, caraway, and rosemary seeds, to be planted and cared for in an authentic Roman garden. The project is educational for kids, useful for reenactors, and fun for all those who love herbs and cooking.

the Roman garden project

hand-painted bottle with aromatic plant seeds

contents ca. 25 g, enough for a rather large herb garden