All I have heard the last while is “food shortages and supply shortages. We may not have much control over supply issues but we sure have some control over food shortages….
Back in the day when “victory garden” terminology came out it was because our country was in a world War and food shortages were in the forefront. Everyone was encouraged to grow one to help curb the food shortages for their family and to also help soldiers.
Victory gardens, also called war gardens or food gardens for defense, were vegetable, fruit, and herb gardens planted at private residences and public parks in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and Germany during World War I and World War II.
What to Grow in a Victory Garden? Traditional victory gardens included foods high in nutrition, such as beans, beets, cabbage, carrots, kale, lettuce, peas, tomatoes, turnips, squash, and Swiss chard.
Planting Victory Gardens helped make sure that there was enough food for our soldiers fighting around the world. Because canned vegetables were rationed, Victory Gardens also helped people stretch their ration coupons (the amount of certain foods they were allowed to buy at the store)
For a small family (two to four people) they recommended a garden that was 15’x25′ with 15′ rows (15 rows total). If you had more space and were feeding more people, they recommended a victory garden that was 25’x50′ and had 25′ rows (27 rows total)
Benefits of Victory Gardens, you can save money, eat healthier food, food security, food tastes better, less trips to the grocery store, better health, stress relief, new life skills, environmentally friendly.
Saving money and less trips to the grocery store are sort of hand in hand. By growing vegetables, fruits and herbs you end up buying less items at the grocery store as well as you then don’t need to visit the grocery store as often. With the cost of inflation that is increasing the price on all foods whatever one can do to cut down the overall cost is hugely beneficial. You will and can eat fresh from the garden but you can also learn the skill of canning and home preservation.
For home canning, pressure canning, home preservation and storage these are ways to make sure that you can save all that hard work growing the food. Because ….. its not just about eating fresh from the gardens but preserving the food from the garden for when you can’t grow outside.
Eating fresh from your garden means you are not eating pesticide and synthetic fertilizers…… unless you are adding them ….. you end up eating healthier and feeling better. Being out in the garden reduces your stress levels and you get the added benefit of exercise… all benefits of growing your own.
Fresh veggies and fruits from your garden taste some much better because your food is not forced to ripen by chemicals in transport to your local grocery store. You get the added benefit of getting a little bit of minerals and dirt from your garden which is so beneficial to your health.
I have found that since I have been canning and home preserving my foods has saved what is actually going into the garbage so it is definitely more environmentally friendly. I keep jars from the store wash them out and use them for food storage like herbs and dried veggies. My mint and camomile and rose heads for homemade teas… not much goes to waste. Of course my canning jars are reused year after year and really the only extra effort is in washing up all the jars and containers.
All our kitchen scrapes minus cooked foods including bones etc…. go into our compost pile out back. That process makes the gardens grow ever so well and cut down on the use of fertilizers needed for growing.
For those who have never gardened or haven’t in a long while….. its a new life skill that you get to learn that brings an incredible sense of accomplishment.
Good luck with growing and look for our next post and how to start seedlings for your garden with out breaking the bank…
Happy gardening and God Bless you.
Muddy Boots, Old Houses and The Farm 