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2020 Garden Update

It is amazing how home and suburban gardening has taken on new life this
year.   With the poor harvest last year, the closing down of the border which will
prevent pickers from supporting our farmers and the meat processing plants
shutting down, it feels like our food supply is under attack.   However, there are
several things we can do in order to support ourselves and our country during
this time of crisis.     
I have seen several advertisements supporting having a victory garden on
major networks like CBS, NBC and ABC, but what is a victory garden?  Victory
Gardens were food gardens for defense during World War I and II in the United
States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and Germany.     These gardens
produced  vegetables, fruit and herbs to be consumed by the local population
in order to support the food chain because a lot of the food available prior to
the wars were no longer available.   These gardens could be found in private
residences and public parks.          


I have been gardening for years in pots and a small garden adjacent to my
suburban home.    This year, we have expanded our planting numbers and
have diversified our types of plants.   In addition, we carefully selected which
plants we were planting as to produce more variety and specific foods for our
family.     


We started about 8 weeks ago with seeds and cared for our seedlings at each
step of the way.    Watering.    Replanting.    Staking.    Hardening the stems.    
This was all in the preparation for outside planting which we planned to plant
around Mother’s Day.       
The plant placement planning is completed and the supports built.     Now is
the time to plant outside and tend to our garden.  Unfortunately my area has
had a lot of late hard frost evenings, so I need to wait a little longer.    Hopefully
this weekend we will plant outside. 
 


However, this is not the end of the work.   It will take weeding, watering, and
regular checking for ripe produce in order to have a productive garden.   Then
once the produce is ready to be picked, we will need to preserve it for the rest
of the year.   Now I have not been able to dry, pickle, can or freeze enough
food for the entire year, but I do contribute to our pantry.   Nevertheless, this
helps us to maintain our food budget for the year.     


I would encourage everyone to plant a few vegetables in pots or the ground in
order to help reconnect with food and help the food supply chain.   Since every
little bit helps, it doesn’t matter how much you are able to grow.  

Share with everyone what you are planting this year in the comments below. 

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