What is it that I truly need? Probably some patience.

I have to wonder; will spring actually ever get here to stay? I mean, it's after Mother's Day, and in my neck of the woods, that means that all of my garden should have been in the ground within the last week or so. Sadly, that is not the case. In fact, it's far from it. Patience, it would seem, is not a virtue I possess, though.

So, depending on the zone you live in (and they even vary more now by an a or b behind the number) will determine when you are to be putting your plants and seeds in the ground. But, with the weather patterns being so unpredictable over the last few years, it's a real gamble on when to put those precious babies into the earth to be nurtured and fed.

Let's discuss zones. I shared a link last week, where you could look up your growing zone by your zip code. According to my zip code, I'm a zone 5a...this year. I've been zone 5b in previous years, so, I just tend to go by the general rule of thumb and plant in the ground on Mother's Day. However, this year, Mother's Day was NOT warm. Nor, is the forecast saying it will be much above the freezing point overnight, for another few days.

But, who wouldn't be confused with all of the zone and plant hardiness maps, right? I mean, hey, it's so lovely to see all of those pretty colors; adding vibrancy and life to the otherwise dreary and, let's face it, not so interesting charts. But, what does it all mean? How in the world do they come up with this stuff? Well, in a few words; time, science and research. Lots and lots of tracking over time, science and research. And, patience. 

What do the first and last frost dates mean, and what do we do with those dates? Generally, the first frost date is an estimation of the date that you can expect the first frost to occur in the fall, based on years of tracking and recording. The last frost date is the opposite; when you can expect the last frost to occur in the spring, before planting out your precious, tender seedlings and putting seeds or bulbs into the ground for growth. You will need patience to accomplish this task, though. You'll have to wait on Mother Nature to give you permission. 

I would absolutely advise someone to do a general search through your preferred search engine, if you're looking for the best time to put a particular plant or seed into the ground. But, as a general rule of thumb, you should be able to put most everything into the ground right around that last frost date in the spring. Oh, but I didn't wait. I was a bit overly anxious and I put 42 Cherokee Purple Tomato seedlings into the ground during a warmup at the end of April, this year. I may have 3 or 4 that have "kind of" survived-ish. I guess that's what I get for being impatient.

Patience is the first lesson one should learn in gardening. Everything else, well, that can come with research and experience. Patience is the priority. Why can't I seem to practice that? Is it really that hard to just wait? Well, yes, for me it is. I am trying to build a business with my garden. I'm expanding my garden to 6,000 square feet this year. That's 0.137741 of an acre. It's a huge undertaking. The permaculture food forest will cover 1/4 acre at 10,890 square feet, so imagine that just over half of that, is a separate garden.

So many people do not truly know how big or small that is. My house is only 934 square feet of living space. My garden is over 6 times the size of my house; that is massive! Is this going to get the better of me? I truly don't know. So, I have to try very hard to organize myself, and quickly. I thought I had done a good job of planning it all out and being organized, but as I sit here typing this blog, I find myself feeling a bit ill-prepared and unready.

But, again, I got impatient. I started things way too early, put things out to harden off too early, put things into the ground too early. I don't know if all that I have waiting now, is going to be successful and grow, all because I was impatient, followed by perhaps a bit of laziness, truthfully. Oh, how I need to learn patience. 

What have I learned through it all? That I truly need to keep learning and growing, and that first lesson needs to be patience. So, I send you all peace and energy, and hopefully a bit of insight, so that you can learn from my follies, on why and how you need to practice some patience when it comes to gardening.

Many Blessings

Live from the Earth. Play in the dirt.

Victory Gardening. Do You Really Know What It Is?

With all of the current affairs going on, there has been a lot of talk about an old style of gardening, called 'Victory Gardening',and bringing it back. But, do you really know what a 'Victory Garden', 'War Garden' or 'Food Garden For Defense' is? I'll bet you don't really know the history behind it. Read on and we'll explore it together.

The 1940's was an amazing era. Patriotism was high, love for your fellow neighbor was abound, women were really allowed to show what they were made of; working hard in the factory and running the home simultaneously, while their men were off fighting an evil tyrant and power. 'Rosie the Riveter' became the face of the women's workforce; an inspiration for women to work the factories, making munitions and supplies for our 'Boys at War'. Support of our troops and our armed forces was of the utmost importance. But, the reality of food scarcity was at the forefront. Our resources and our resolve were being tested in a much different way. 

Food is a necessity. It is vital to life, as is clean water and air. Even in the 1940's, we were still only mostly gardening to keep our families fed, but not like before. We just made it through WWI, the 'Roaring Twenties' that turned into the Great Depression and the 'Dirty Thirties' (so called because of the 'Dust Bowl' and poor agricultural practices that ensued during the depression). Then, December 7, 1941, our lives changed dramatically and we entered into WWII with the bombing of Pearl Harbor. We were starting the food fight all over again.

We were told to garden and grow enough food to feed the family at home and help ease the burden of commercial food production, so we could feed our troops. There were war-time posters of what to grow and how to grow it; called the 'Victory Garden'. But, did you know, that's not where the term actually started? Nope. Victory Gardens were coined as such, but this is not where they actually began.

In 1914, during WWI, Victory Gardens were then called War Gardens or Liberty Gardens, and it was due to an order from President Woodrow Wilson, asking Americans to plant vegetable gardens to ward off food shortages; all because of an idea by George Washington Carver; an African-American son of a slave owner from Diamond, Missouri.

Carver is credited with saving the south from financial ruins with his ideas for crop rotation of peanuts and cotton. He was a college-educated botanist, with a Masters of Science in Botany from Iowa State University, where he was the first man of color to hold such a tenure. He then moved on to teach at the Tuskegee Institute. His work as a professor and scientist has led to the idea of Victory Gardens, sustainable agriculture and farm-to-table eating, as we now know it.

Now that you know some history, what exactly is a Victory Garden? What methods of gardening do you use? What do you even plant? Well, that, you see, is where it can now be left up to you to decide. Frankly, we just need to adapt our Victory Garden to fit our current situation and family need. We are in the middle of a world-wide pandemic and an undeniable crack in our food chain supply.  

How do we adapt this type of garden, to feed our families and not rely so much on the food system we presently have? Well, what do you and your family like to eat? What do you like to grow or want to grow? What kind of gardening experience do you have? These are just some of the questions that only you can answer. General ideas, however, are that you need to grow things to eat fresh, things to can and things to freeze. You're going to be doing a lot of preserving of your produce, whether it be vegetables, fruits or nuts, or even meats, so it's probably a good idea to learn how to do those types of food preservation while you're growing your present crops. 

The very first thing you must do, though, is plant a seed, a bulb, a root; care for it as it grows. When you harvest that labor of love and process it, preserve it and then prepare it in a meal, you'll be full with the feeling of accomplishment, as well as pride that you were able to produce food for your family. 

I have included pictures of what a war-time Victory Garden poster looked like. What you will need to do, is get the general idea from the picture, adapt it to the needs of your family and what you're trying to produce in the end, and plant. A Victory Garden is the original idea in growing your food for self-sufficiency. There are no set rules. It's an idea and a guideline, perhaps. You should grow what you want to eat and preserve (make sure it's suitable to grow in your zone) and just start growing. You can research methods of gardening/growing your own food. You can find your growing/plant hardiness zone through this website 
https://planthardiness.ars.usda.gov/PHZMWeb/Default.aspx 

You should absolutely do more research on Victory Gardens. There is no price one could ever put on knowledge. You have access to it at your fingertips; use your time for more than just watching a show...unless it's about informative subjects. 

Blessings and Happy Growing!

Live from the Earth. Play in the dirt.