Victory Garden

One day, I hope to have a large enough area to plant a Victory Garden.

For those of you that don't know what a Victory Garden is, this is what Wikipedia says about it:

"Victory gardens, also called war gardens or food gardens for defense, were vegetable, fruit and herb gardens planted at private residences in the United States, Canada, and United Kingdom during World War I and World War II to reduce the pressure on the public food supply brought on by the war effort. In addition to indirectly aiding the war effort these gardens were also considered a civil "morale booster" — in that gardeners could feel empowered by their contribution of labour and rewarded by the produce grown. Making victory gardens became a part of daily life on the home front."

Here is what I hope to do once we move:

• Find a spot in your yard that gets 6-8 hours of sunlight that is away from trees and shrubs.
• Till up a 4x8 section of dirt.
• Build a 4x8 box out of non-treated 2x6 boards and sink them into the tilled soil.
• Fill the box with 1/3 Compost, 1/3 Peat Moss and 1/3 Vermiculite.
• Grid it out in one foot squares. You can use string, wood strips, just something to keep you in the lines.
• Plant your garden. You will be amazed at how much food you can grow in a small area.
• Water using the runoff from your roof, unless you have an old tar or asbestos shingle roof. It will help prevent “storm water runoff” from going into our sewers, is chlorine free and will waste less water the Municipality treats for us to drink. The EPA estimates that 30-60 percent of urban fresh water is used to water lawns.

It has been really fun this summer to be home in order to water and keep up with the garden. The kids have had fun watching things grow and every night we have been picking blackberries on our nightly walk. I love this time of year!

One thing that I have learned with growing cucumbers is my grandmother's recipe for vinegar cucumbers:
1 cup water
1/4 cup vinegar
salt and pepper
a pinch of sugar

Matt's grandmother Nana also used this recipe. We both LOVE them. Now this is the only way our kids will eat cucumbers!