stylistic:tone, information:highlighting, information:filtering, structural:expansion
Pre-colonized North and Central America

There are a number of traditional horticultural practices that we know of today: such as the Indigenous peoples of pre-colonized North America using biochar to enhance soil productivity by smoldering plant waste - European settlers called this soil Terra Preta de Indio. In North America, Indigenous people grew maize, squash, and sunflower - among other crops. Mesoamerican cultures focused on the cultivating of crops on a small scale, such as the milpa or maize field, around their dwellings or in specialized plots which were visited occasionally during migrations from one area to the next. In Central America, the Maya involved augmentation of the forest with useful trees such as papaya, avocado, cacao, ceiba and sapodilla. In the fields, multiple crops such as beans, squash, pumpkins and chili peppers were grown. The first horticulturists in many cultures, were mainly or exclusively women.