Growing a Victory Garden

[S.A. Boggs]

How many here enjoy this "sport" of warm weather? Saturday is hoped to be a warm and sunny day here in Southern Ohio, I have several loads of wood chips to spread in the garden for planting as well as putting in more potatoes this year. Won't have to buy tomato plants as I will have an ample supply of heritage volunteer plants coming up. Using this system of gardening is very little work and more produce then we can use, so sharing @ church again this year.
Sam

[JB White]

I consider it a victory when my lawn is green.

[pcox]

I'v got some onions and English peas in, but the way it's raining here in Missouri, I've decided to build an ark instead of gardening.

[leftyo]

maybe when the snow goes away!

[RED]

Ahhh so you want to get into gardening...It can be a enjoyable pass time but is rarely a profitable one. If you don't even count your time spent in cultivation and care, the undocumented costs usually exceeds any profit. Then there is the ups and downs in market prices.

I remember one year there was a shortage in tomatoes and they were selling for $.50/lb... (that would equal $3.00/lb. today). The next year my step brother and I worked our buns off and with just primitive shovels and hoes we planted, fertilized, weeded, staked and cared for 65 tomato plants. As they matured, we had bushels of big, ripe, beautiful, organic grown, and delicious tomatoes... and so did everybody else. At the grocery store they sold for $.10/lb. We literally could not give ours away, let alone sell them. We watched hundreds of lbs. of those tomatoes rot on the vines. The old supply and demand economics... Yep, it works every time, despite the doubters rhetoric

[S.A. Boggs]

With God's system there is very little cultivation, no need for fertilization except some Epsom salts occasionally. I had no insect damage that I could see last year and no watering. The tomatoes were my major problem with keeping them from falling over due to the weight of the fruit! Last year I spent maybe an hour each week doing maintance, nothing more. I am doing the same system this year as I have more mulch to use.
Sam

[Major Tom]

We don't plant our small garden till Mother's Day in May because of the freaky weather here in Iowa. We plant just enough for our own use. Everybody grows tomatoes and you can't give them away.

[JOHN COOK]

With God's system there is very little cultivation, no need for fertilization except some Epsom salts occasionally.

Just curious. What do you refer to when you say GOD's system? I agree with RED, it may be relaxing and a little fun to watch things grow,but it aint't worth it. I grew radishes last year, tomatoes, and a few other item and harvested nothing . (weather got me) I found out I could go to Walmart and buy trimmed and washed radishes in a bag for .88 cents. Go to the Farmers Market about 30 minutes from home and buy any produce I wanted. No gardening for me.........

john

[S.A. Boggs]

With God's system there is very little cultivation, no need for fertilization except some Epsom salts occasionally.

Just curious. What do you refer to when you say GOD's system? I agree with RED, it may be relaxing and a little fun to watch things grow,but it aint't worth it. I grew radishes last year, tomatoes, and a few other item and harvested nothing . (weather got me) I found out I could go to Walmart and buy trimmed and washed radishes in a bag for .88 cents. Go to the Farmers Market about 30 minutes from home and buy any produce I wanted. No gardening for me.........

john

Two years ago when I was sick I couldn't sleep so I turned on YouTube. The first thing that came up was a segment by the name of Paul who lives in the Pacific North West. He was following how to garden by how God goes about growing in the forest and other areas. It is really simple, I had requested from our local tree trimmers a load of mulch and I just left it in a pile as I was too ill to do anything. Last year when I was feeling better and stronger I went down and spread it on top of some clay soil that was hard as a rock and non productive. Put in strawberries, peppers, and tomatoes. In no time at all things started to grow and I mean grow. I staked the tomatoes and had a heck of a time from the weight of the fruit pulling on the stakes, the cherry tomatoes grew huge it was astounding. Everything else grew in abundance, the thick mulch held in the moisture so I didn't have to water. For the first time in my life I didn't have to use anything to repeal insects as I saw none. I raised Romaine lettuce, our favorite, and had a nice salad every day. I won't have to replant tomatoes as we grew heritage and left many on the ground, so I should get volunteer plants this year. Gardening was so easy and I grew so much that I had plenty to give away at church and to our neighbor. The flavor was exceptional, nothing that I had ever tasted before. Last fall I got several more loads of mulch that I am going to trailer to another area and put in more plants to produce more fruit to give to the less fortunate in my AO. I did very little weeding and only using a rake to easily pull up any weeds. My soil is starting to improve as well as the mulch degrades in stages.
Sam

[JOHN COOK]

Sam, that is very interesting. Hope you have good luck this year. I just might try a small spot and try it.

john

[PWC]

Well, this is the flip side of living in AZ. While you guys are shoveling snow off your driveway in the winter, I'm shoveling sunshine off my driveway.

Now, it's your turn to rub my nose in it.....I've tried to grow gardens here in PHX, but we get next to no rainfall in the summer growing season, and watering is $$ in the desert. Can grow tomatoes in containers; but just about anything else but oranges and grapefruit on trees with deep roots, is impossible. One year I planted grapevines; great... had a lot of bunches hanging, just about ready to harvest; went out when I got home from work and had bunches of ....rasins.

[free1954]

Ahhh so you want to get into gardening...It can be a enjoyable pass time but is rarely a profitable one. If you don't even count your time spent in cultivation and care, the undocumented costs usually exceeds any profit. Then there is the ups and downs in market prices.

I remember one year there was a shortage in tomatoes and they were selling for $.50/lb... (that would equal $3.00/lb. today). The next year my step brother and I worked our buns off and with just primitive shovels and hoes we planted, fertilized, weeded, staked and cared for 65 tomato plants. As they matured, we had bushels of big, ripe, beautiful, organic grown, and delicious tomatoes... and so did everybody else. At the grocery store they sold for $.10/lb. We literally could not give ours away, let alone sell them. We watched hundreds of lbs. of those tomatoes rot on the vines. The old supply and demand economics... Yep, it works every time, despite the doubters rhetoric

spoilsport.
there's nothing economical about home gardening, but also nothing like the taste of a fresh tomato right from the vine.

[S.A. Boggs]

Too much of our food is chemical "inspired" and has a bland flavor that it needs "dressing" up. Since no chemicals [other then espion salts] are used we have full flavor. I need no chemical fertilizer, bug control or anything else artificial only time. It takes about 6-12 months for the wood chips to start to degrade with the inside the pile useful first and the rest spread on top or just level the whole pile and wait. Anything from the kitchen such as eggs shells are crumpled up in a blender and spread on top or turned over into the mix. During the winter time the ashes from the stove are spread onto the garden as well to add to the mix. Anything organic is used to feed us in the garden, no need to go to the store. Kinda nice to go down the hill and pick dinner or a snack and no have to worry about what was used to make it. Being non-hybrid the seeds bear true each year so it is self replicating to our benefit.
Sam

[Merc]

We plant our garden on Memorial Day at our summer home in Crawford County that’s about 45 miles south of Lake Erie. The growing season there starts about two weeks later than it does in Pittsburgh that’s about 100 miles south. Light frosts in late May are common.

I remember the original victory garden my father and uncle planted in the 1940s. Those were the days before chemical fertilizers became so common. The soil was rich and black and the yields, as I remember, were excellent. The land is now a parking lot for a shopping center.

[jon_norstog]

Well, this is the flip side of living in AZ. .....I've tried to grow gardens here in PHX, but we get next to no rainfall in the summer growing season, and watering is $$ in the desert. Can grow tomatoes in containers; but just about anything else but oranges and grapefruit on trees with deep roots, is impossible. ...

East side of Phoenix like out MacDowell and Van Buren, around the Grand Canal, it was originally developed as irrigated farmettes. Most of them have been subdivided, but there are plenty that have not. They don't use city water, it's irrigation district and it is cheap. Only thing is, they let you know when your water is due and you gotta open up your gate - even if it's 3 in the morning.

jn