When it comes to Traditional Waffle Gardening, a lot of times when we are planting, we as Zunis like to talk to the seeds. We would tell them to ¨come out right away and "grow nice and tall¨,  because they are like human beings. One of the taboos about gardening is said that when you are growing corn you are not to peek inside the corn when they are not ready.

There are certain families and community members that will sing to their corn as they are laying them down. This includes the stalks and taking them out of the ground. There certain teachings in our culture that teach us self- sufficiency while waffle gardening. 

In waffle gardening, we use a variety of soil types. One of the soils is from the river bed and it's important because it brings down all nutrients from animals and plants from the different water ways. The other types of soil are Forest Soil, Slit, and Manure. These varieties are used to help the plants in our garden grow and receive the proper nutrients. 

According to research and our survey data, we have found that a majority of the Zuni community gets their water for their gardens from Pescado and through the collection of rain water. In appreciation to ZYEP and their Food Sovereignty Program, they have provided many water barrels to the Zuni community to collect the rain water. 

The traditional seeds to grow in a Zuni waffle garden are radishes, squash, carrots, onions, chili, tomatillas, and cilantro. In order to maintain and care for plants, you have to love them just like your kids. It is also said that when you plant your seeds,  you're creating life.  

In an interview with Curtis Quam, our group asked him "How is traditional waffle gardening different from modern gardening?"

His answer was, "My Hotda (Maternal Grandmother) would tell me "Let's go make houses", so as a kid, my thoughts were thinking about actual houses." Curtis asked his Hotda, "I thought we were making houses?" His Hotda answered, "We are but for the plants.". Curtis also mentioned that his nana (grandpa) would say, "lets go hunting?" He then said, "as a little boy, you are always interested to go hunting." Instead of going hunting, his nana would take him to the corn fields.  In the interview, he explained that the elders had their own saying to get the youth in the garden and this was his grandparents' way of getting him to go to the garden.

Curtis talked about growing corn and continues his interview with stating that, "on windy days pollen can travel a quarter mile.  So, if you are growing different types of corn, like cornmeal, for example,  it is a white corn, and there is blue corn too, but if you plant them close  together then it becomes a mix, also known as a hybrid.  When it becomes a hybrid, then you will have different colors, and those will always stay in the corn's DNA. So, I believe that it's natural, but when they spread apart, it gets us to think. For youth to understand this, they might have corn fields out there [Old Zuni Villages] to lessen the corn pollination transfer. It's interesting for me and why it's important for youth to see how special these varieties are. Yellow, blue, red, white, multi-colored; all these different varieties also can yield different varieties of corn by cross pollination which are all different and extinct." 

Finally we asked Curtis Quam, "why is traditional gardening important to our culture, especially the youth?" He answered, "gardening in general is important for the youth and the culture because this is how we learn more about our world. Everything that is talked and prayed about is for a good start in our gardening techniques and helping the crops grow.".