Hitching Posts
At our home in the historic section of West Granby, CT, the old granite hitching posts standing in the rail fence line are immediately obvious. The remaining granite sentinels with their broken rusty metal loop tie hooks remind me of the mid nineteenth century mill origins of this part of West Granby. I love the look of an old hitching post with yellow and orange daylilies blooming alongside. Not so obvious are the granite pieces of former hitching posts that previous gardeners had used for borders along the nearby wall. I found them buried under the grass when I planted my first daylilies. I also noted that more such granite pieces had been used to form garden tiers in an area that is now young woodland with nativized daylilies. Apparently succeeding residents did not tend that area and let the saplings grow in the enlarging shade of the sycamore tree.
Rusty Metal Hoop
This spring I was again reminded of the long history of this spot by a rusty metal item that came to the surface as I was planting perennials. I am seeking to diversify my daylily garden with an emphasis on natives. I found a spot in the middle of the front of the fence row and started digging for my new meadowrue. My shovel hit something hard about three inches down and it wasn’t a stone. I kept digging and unearthed an old metal hoop. Was it a rusty metal rim from an old wooden wagon tire? Or was it a barrel stave left over from a long-departed flower barrel? Had a gardener long before me had used it as an edge for a bed of annuals, but the grasses had overtaken it and it was forgotten? Whichever, I felt justified in choosing that spot as I knew in the garden history of this land, some previous gardener had also found it a good choice.
Cut nail from early settlers
Then just a week ago I found a late perennial sale. Among my purchases was a decorative onion which I hoped would help deter voles. With my sturdy trowel, I dug a hole near a plant which they had almost destroyed this past winter. It was also near the cellar entrance. I soon ran into metal pieces, which turned out to be a collection of nails. Most were ordinary, but one which was a little deeper in the soil was a cut-nail. According to websites I’ve visited, this nail likely is mid-nineteenth century vintage. Is it somehow from the original house, the one reflected on the civil war era map for this lot? (See my house history posts for discussion of why this current home is likely the third house on this site.) Or is it just a fallen nail from someone splitting fire-kindling they had trucked in to feed the stove which was inside the cellar door in the second house. Either way, I had unearthed another connection with the history of our home.