The "Victory Garden"

Do you remember the Bugs Bunny cartoons where they showed the "victory gardens" during WWII? Things were tough then, just getting over the great depression, a war was going on, people had rations for many different items- including sugar, flour, butter, etc. They had to make their money and their food stretch! Hmmmmmm sound familiar? I wonder how many people are going to make a garden this year? Where to put it? How to do it? Lots of questions.

I know last year I TRIED to do a garden (saw the writing on the wall) and tried green beans and tomatoes, well, I needed to keep it watered! LOL I found space for them along a fence. It was a good sunny spot, not a used area, so it was a good place for both, I could tie up the plants as needed. I think I will use that area again this year for those items.

I will also use the under used area of the clothes line for the garden. This is a large area, more than sunny, I would say 15X6 at least. I will probably leave up the poles to use as something to tie things to as well. Yes, I will miss my line, but I will probably buy a retractable clothes line to go from the house to the shed (15+ ft) and that will work well.

How to prepare the soil? Well, there are many additives you could use......just watch any show (especially Martha Stewart) or google growing a garden! But the main thing is having turned soil that you can actually work with. You don't need to go out and buy a tiller, and you don't have to kill yourself with a spade. Go to a local store and RENT a tiller. Seriously. Call around to find the best price, ask a friend to come over and do it for you and you will give them and their family dinner that day, get creative! Hey! I bet you could even find one on freecycle. it may need some work, but worth a look. After it is tilled up, you can put in your additives......how about some leaves from the winter (think gutters), grilling out yet? How about the ash from the charcoal? newspapers shredded up make good additives as well, worms love it! :) Just till it in good with the tiller and it will make a good base for whatever you will be planting! Make sure if you are preparing a grassy area that you take the grass clods out so that you have less weeding as the season goes on! I see me paying neighborhood kids this year to weed my garden! LOL

What to grow? Well, that depends on your family! Make this a family affair. Take your kids to the garden center, walmart, any place that has seeds or baby plants (depending on what you want to grow, some are better started as plants , as in tomatoes, peppers). My kids go CRAZY every year! They would grow EVERYTHING if they could! Their favorite choices: Watermelon, pumpkins, cucumbers, all sorts of lettuces, green beans, broccoli, strawberries, zuccini(for bread), they don't like tomatoes, but they love to grow them for the spaghetti sauce and pizza sauce! LOL Same with peppers. they also LOVE growing spices- dill, chives, rosemary, thyme, etc. Yeah, I have great kids! :)

Now, once you have all your seeds and plants, decide where you will plant them, and maybe you can grow some in containers in your house, or on your patio! Spices LOVE to be container plants- and are better in there because if you don't, they will spread like wild fire! Tomatoes and peppers can be grown in containers as well. I have not had much success with it, but again, I haven't been trying hard. this year is the year of trying hard! :) make some window boxes out of the plants! get creative!

Remember you will be watering every day (if you live in warmer climates like me in TN, maybe twice a day!), and soon you and your children will be enjoying watching many things growing! Decide what is a plant and what is not, pull the weeds so they don't choke out the plants and you will soon have a great harvest!

Lettuces can be planted early and if you keep harvesting them, they will continue to grow throughout the season! I love fresh lettuce! Greenbeans are so awesome fresh as well! One of the ways my parents made a greenbean lover out of me is we had a garden when I was a kid and we started eating them raw as we were picking them one day....they have a different flavor (sweet) and from that day on my sis and I LOVED them!

A garden is a great way to get picky eaters more interested in eating better! Give them the opportunity to pick out the foods, and then help to grow them, and they will be more excited about trying them! Watch your budget drop when you aren't buying all those veggies every week! (I still buy 5+ lbs of apples every week, and 3+ lbs oranges too! LOL but every bit helps!)