Recent events surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic have led to food shortages all over the country. Many people are realizing that growing their own food is a more reliable solution to feeding their family. The last time America saw a movement like this was during World War I and World War II when the government was rationing food in order to save resources for the war effort. These home gardens were then labeled as “Victory Gardens” and the movement was incredibly successful. It is estimated that victory gardens produced 40% of the nation’s fresh vegetables. So if you would like to learn how to start your own victory garden, read some of the tips below!
Choose Your Crops
Consider which vegetables your family eats most. If nobody in the household eats eggplant, skip it. Do you make a lot of tomato sauce? Plant a few extra tomato plants. And remember it’s okay to start small. You can always expand year after year if your needs grow.
Also consider your climate zone and what grows best in your area. If you need a place to start visit https://planthardiness.ars.usda.gov/ to find out your climate zone before researching which vegetables grow best in your area. I live in zone 6 and have had years of success growing tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, squash, peppers, pumpkins, eggplant, lettuce, kale, green beans, spinach, and many different types of herbs.
Choose Your Location
Vegetable plants thrive in full sunlight, meaning 6-8 hours a day. Make sure there are no large trees or structures shading your garden or else your plants will struggle to grow.
Next, narrow down which location is easily accessible and close to a water source. If you have to drag a hose 30 feet across your yard, then chances are you will not water nearly as often as you should and your plants will suffer. We built our garden directly outside our back door. This location reminds us to tend to the garden every morning when we open the door to let our dogs out.
Design Your Garden
In my opinion, this is the part where all the hard decisions are made. Is your ground soil the right soil to create sunken beds? Would you prefer the more aesthetically pleasing appearance of raised beds? Do you have excessive patio space that you would like to dedicate to container plants? Will you need garden fencing to protect those precious veggies from wildlife? There are countless ways to design a garden and there are pros and cons to each.
Sunken beds are designed to collect and store water while raised beds promote drainage. If your ground soil is very dense and clay heavy, then a raised bed is probably best for you as too much water storage will cause roots to rot. Raised beds make maintenance much easier as you will not have to bend down to weed your garden and harvest your veggies, but raised beds do require more material (and money) to construct. If you don’t have any yard space for either sunken beds are raised beds don’t worry! Almost anything can grow in a container on a sunny porch.
We are lucky and have very sandy soil in our backyard so drainage in our sunken beds is not a problem. We did have to put a minor investment into garden fencing as we have a family of woodchucks that love stealing our food. We also decided to have a few container corn stalks as we did not have enough room in the sunken beds to dedicate to rows of corn. A large container can fit 4 corn stalks and with the correct soil they will grow just as well.
Testing And Building Soil
There are a few things you can test your soil for before planting – drainage, pH, and organic matter (earthworm test). I will admit that I sometimes neglect the testing stage and use the trial and error method, however, testing your soil will improve your success rate.
The Farmer’s Almanac states that healthy soil should be 20 percent clay, 40 percent silt, and 40 percent sand for ideal drainage. To test drainage dig a 12 inch hole in your garden and fill it with water. Let drain. Wait another 8-12 hours and fill it with water again. All the water should be drained in 2-3 hours if you have good drainage. If you have poor drainage then you need to add sand, compost, and peat moss to promote better drainage. If your soil is draining too quickly then you need to add clay, aged manure, or peat moss to help retain moisture.
Most vegetables thrive in soil with a pH of 6-7. You can purchase a garden pH test kit like this one. If your soil is too acidic you can use ground limestone to treat the sour soil. Garden lime or agricultural lime is usually available at your local feed or garden store. If you find alkaline soil you can treat the sweet soil with ground sulfur.
Organic matter is imperative when building a garden as it will slowly release nutrients into your soil as it breaks down. Dig another hole in damp soil (Yes, there is a lot of digging involved here) about 6 inches deep. If you find 3-5 earthworms then you have decently healthy soil with a stable ecosystem. If you don’t find many earthworms then you should be adding compost. We add compost to our garden every year to promote soil health.
Maintenance
You’re almost there! You’ve ensured you have healthy soil and have planted all your veggies. Now it’s time to nurture them and help them grow in the following months. Watering, weeding, and harvesting are the most important steps to remember.
A rule of thumb about watering is that plants should receive 1 inch of water per week – both from rain and from you. We always water first thing every morning before the sunlight is at its strongest so that we don’t burn the leaves of our plants (Tiny water droplets on the leaves can act as mini magnifying glasses and intensify the sun’s rays).
Weeding is the most dreaded chore in our household by far. But it must be done regularly. Weeds will compete with your veggies for water and soil nutrients. Weeding should be done at least weekly, if not every couple days. Don’t waste your weeds either – put them in your compost pile to help build more soil in the future.
It’s finally time! Your tomatoes are turning that delectable lush red color and your zucchini is finally ripe enough to harvest! Enjoy the fruits of your labor. Always remember to thoroughly check your plants for ripened veggies. Large leaves will try to hide those squash from your vision.
Always remember, if you fail – there is always next year. Try again. Gardening is a skill that can always be improved with practice.
