A Return to the Victory Garden

The flowers are budding, the birds are chirping, the bees are buzzing, and butterflies are even migrating back into central Arizona.

All seems right with the world in our Southwest gardens.

Quite a contrast to my news feed about this quarantine.

The current reality in the middle of April 2020 from the medical specialists working on our little problem, is that we should plan for 12 months with these new social rules.

That means:

• 6 ft distancing among others and washing hands after any interaction with the outside.
• Wipe down any general contact points like doorknobs, with disinfectant wipes.
• Forget about getting tested unless you’re a first responder or admitted into the hospital.
• And returning to more self sufficiency within your home environment – including the yard.

Here’s a video from a leading Virologist at NIH reinforcing the timetable for a public vaccine.

Not scary, just medically driven reality from a laboratory perspective.

So, even though humankind is sheltering away from the outdoors, Mother Nature is moving along on schedule. Let’s join in with her in our own yards.

I’ve been proposing the return of the WWII Victory Garden

Start it up with these 5 steps

Yikes – what’s the right size ? The short answer is 4 ft X 4 ft per person in a sunny spot.

In what ? Raised beds, or containers, or flat rows – even plant towers.

Let the kids see where the food comes from. Gardening is not as easy as simply planting a seed or transplanting and watching the plant grow. But learning that is a huge life lesson.

1. Start building for some new organic edibles

Raised beds

This is the most common choice in urban house lots. A variety of materials can be used to construct the raised beds, but do not use outdated materials that might leach chemicals into the soil such as old railroad ties.

Soil in raised beds will heat up more quickly in the spring and stay warm longer into the fall. Vegetables in raised beds will require more frequent irrigation than those in an in-ground garden. But you can also put them right onto the paved driveway in gravel. Just make the depth beyond the likely root length of your edibles. Carrots are a good basis for that.

Container gardens

Lots of vegetables can be grown in containers that only need to be deep enough to support their root systems.

Containers may range from as small as a 12-inch flowerpot for herbs to half a whisky barrel for lettuce, carrots and onions.

For example, enough lettuce for salads can be grown in a 12-inch pot on the back deck. Add a few radishes and baby carrots, also grown in 12-inch containers, for spice and sweetness, and you have a good start on some delicious salads.

The bigger the container, the easier it is to be successful. The internet is full of creative DIY container choices. Your kids can probably find these in a heartbeat.

In-ground gardens

Larger ground areas allow for row gardening in flat beds.

While a row garden sometimes requires powered equipment to set up, planting in this style of a bed does makes better use of your time starting a large garden, since you’re not creating a wooden structure & adding soil – just adding manure.  Growing green beans, zucchini, squash, and melons usually requires a big patch like this.

You’ll need a planting plan

Things to consider include:

And keep a garden journal

Part of garden planning is going over what worked and what didn’t. Basic things to record in your journal would include:

2. Tear out some lawn for your garden patch

Choose a convenient site in full sun. You’ll need easy access to water and fertile, well-drained soil away from trees and large shrubs that will compete with the garden. Unused slopes work well if planted perpendicular to the slope to reduce erosion. Less mowing is just a bonus.

Most vegetables need at least eight hours of direct sunlight.

Plants that we grow for their leaves—including greens such as lettuce, kale, chard, and spinach, need eight hours of sun or more.

Plants that we grow for their storage roots like radishes, turnips, and beets can be grown in as little as six hours of sunlight but do much better with eight hours or more.

Other plants that we grow for their fruit, including tomatoes, squash, and cucumbers, need at least eight and do better with 10 hours of sunlight.

One of the most important aspects of gardening is the water, which makes up 90 percent of a plant’s weight. Water is heavy and difficult to move, so locate the garden near a potable water supply, making it easy to water the garden properly. Dragging a hose a hundred feet or carrying buckets of water across the yard every few days makes the garden more work.

On average, vegetables need 1 inch / wk, and you only need to add what isn’t rain.

Water the soil, not the plant. Many diseases are spread by splashing water on the leaves.

Overwatering can also lead to insect and disease problems.

Overwatering can wash nutrients away, reducing food uptake in the plants.

Read more about soil solarization and tearing out lawns in this Post

3. Ordering materials online for home delivery

Things to think about ordering

Learn more about watering choices in this post

Vegetables are grouped by seasonality

Cool-season annuals. Plant these crops in early spring and early fall. They are cold-hardy and thrive in the spring and fall when temperatures are below 70°F: broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, collards, kale, lettuce, onions, peas, potatoes, radishes, spinach, and turnips.

Warm-season annuals. Plant these crops after the last spring frost when soils have warmed up. They are frost sensitive and thrive in the summer when temperatures are above 70°F: beans, cucumbers, peppers, pumpkins, southern peas, squash, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, and watermelons.

Try a 40-pack of seeds from your local hardware store or Home Depot.

Small organic plant to buy as starts from the store

Try Strawberry plants, among others. Just remember the netting – or the birds will enjoy your harvest . . .

Growing from kitchen cooking leftovers

These are some of the vegetables that can be started from the root portion of your kitchen stock. Just save the roots and put them in a glass of water on a sunny windowsill. Some seeds sprout with a towel too. Many containers get reused doing this as well. YouTube can help you with these projects.

Here’s an example of a video with many simple and fun ideas from the YouTube channel from Blossom:

Any questions? Of course! Most of these hacks do work, some don’t. To try more YouTube Videos:

Search > ‘vegetable garden hacks’ or ‘how-to vegetable garden’

4. Ideas for getting the kiddos back outside into nature

Hands-on projects from the Bloggers at Garden Design Magazine:

Garden Recess: Bring those young wild things outside for a break!

Source: Garden Design Magazine Online

5. Gear up for a year’s worth of being a home gardener

DIY easy projects to compliment a working garden

And in the long term, this may add to your home in the eyes of prospective buyers. It added $$ for me.

Expanding the garden season by replanting these:

6. Plans for next year:

Sources: Wikipedia, Amazon Gardening, Home Depot Gardening,