Roman Technology: Growing Tiberius' Cucumbers

Three years ago, my Roman Technology class started a small container garden to plant herbs for our food unit. I wanted the students to be able to flavor the biscuits we always make (based on a recipe in Cato the Elder), but more importantly, I wanted to get them outside! We only had a couple of raised wooden planters so there wasn't much space for 75 students to take ownership of their plots as I had envisioned it. We had moderate success growing basil and then later some carrots. Despite growing up in a rural community surrounded by classmates who helped on their families' large farms, being a member of 4-H, and watching my father grow a huge vegetable garden every year, I had never absorbed an interest in gardening.

But a few years ago, my father built me a waist-high wooden container garden. I experimented with growing sage, lavender, carrots, and Brussels sprouts - things I loved. That interest spread to incorporate a composting practice and then vermicomposting. I wrote about our classroom worms last year and how I just fell in love with them. As I taught hands-on history last year, a class focused on getting students outside, I made gardening a large part of that practice. We got more planters. My students greatly enjoyed watching their lettuce and cucumbers grow! We ate what we grew and even made pickles. We also grew potatoes which were super fun to harvest.

As I planned for this year's Roman Technology class, I wondered how I would connect the ancient Romans to gardening. Then, I saw Epic Gardening's Kevin talk about the emperor Tiberius's obsession with cucumbers in this video and thought..."Wait, WHAT??!! I gotta research this one!" And I did.

Pliny the Elder in his Historia Naturalis, Book XIX, Chapter 23, Section 64, says that Tiberius loved to eat cucumbers every day, but because it got too chilly to grow them, his gardeners developed specularia, or gardening beds on wheels that were covered with a type of see-through stone allowing sunlight in. They moved these early greenhouses inside and outside as needed to keep the cucumbers happy. Supposedly, this is the first example of a greenhouse in history. Although horticultural historians think that these cucumbers were probably a type of melon (and not the cucumber as we know it today), I knew my students would enjoy learning about these interesting connections to ancient Roman gardening.

Thanks to my dad, Thad Roy, who donated his time and carpentry expertise, we now have almost 20 raised garden beds that we can move around as we need to (our own specularia although they aren't covered). We started the school year by setting them in a sunny spot, filling them with soil, and planting our cucumber seeds. Fortunately, living in the sunny, oppressively hot South is really helpful for growing cucumbers in August! We are four weeks into school, and our plants are thriving. All 70 Roman Technology students have planted seeds and are actively watering and tending their gardens. Although we started the year with an exciting unit about archaeology including hands-on lessons about numismatics, pottery, and physical anthropology, an overwhelming number of the students reported that they liked gardening better than all of it!

This past week, we went outside before 8 AM (our class starts early at 7:20), and it was so pleasant to see the students excitedly staking their cucumber plants as they looked for male and female flowers and the snails that have been causing damage to some of our leaves. We worked with purpose in the 78 degree morning air, enjoying being outside. I've been upping my gardening game on the sidelines too. Last May, I attended the absolutely FANTASTIC school garden training by the LSU Ag Center. For only $80, I experienced 4 full days of hands-on activities, taste-testing, and plant science instruction that I could use in my classroom. 

I would like to thank the anonymous donors who funded some of our soil, seeds, and other gardening items through my Amazon Wishlist. I truly appreciate you! I'd also like to shout out my neighborhood Brothers Ace Hardware store where the manager, Mr. Craig, is a school gardening enthusiast. He sells us anything we need at cost and is a true community partner. I encourage other teachers to ASK about discounts and assistance. Many companies want to help local schools but don't know how. Sometimes, a teacher asking for help is all that's needed to get that community partner relationship started.