Ripley Victory Garden Week 1

Although I have been working in my garden for the past month I am going to label this update as Week 1.

Let’s start this series of posts with what a victory garden really is.

Copied verbatim from Wikipedia: 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^[1][2] during World War I and World War II. In wartime, governments encouraged people to plant victory gardens not only to supplement their rations but also to boost morale.^[3] They were used along with Rationing Stamps and Cards to reduce pressure on the public food supply. Besides indirectly aiding the war effort, these gardens were also considered a civil “morale booster” in that gardeners could feel empowered by their contribution of labor and rewarded by the produce grown. This made victory gardens a part of daily life on the home front.

In 2021 we are not in the middle of a World War but I certainly consider what we have gone through the past 15 months a war nonetheless. With food supplies interrupted and many essential items becoming scarce I think we all learned a lesson that we can’t always count on someone else to grow all of our food for us.

Thankfully I learned at a young age how to grow my own food and how to cook and bake. Many in the last year realized “oh shit, I have no idea how to do anything.” Yikes right?

I am calling my garden a victory garden because that’s exactly what it is, a victory for not feeling completely helpless and it feeds my family and others that need it. This just pushes me to be even more sustainable and self sufficient.

In March I called my local plow guy and asked him to come over early to get a new part of my garden I wanted tilled done for me. Of course he groaned it was too early to till but I told him “peas Don, gotta get my peas in!”

In the new ground tilled I planned on getting my tomatoes planted in it. I have always wanted a single row of tomatoes so it would be easier to pick from on all sides. I also had Scott help me add a new pallet fence.

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One side of the fence I planted approximately 150 onions and the other side so far is 18 tomatoes.

We are slowly replacing the old pallets in the fence with new pallets. Inside that fence there are 10 raised beds 8’x4′. They are also getting old so we are working on those as well.

So far I have 5 of the raised beds planted. Eggplant, shallots, red and green cabbage, jalapenos, a permanent bed of strawberries and one of red raspberries.

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In the large stand alone garden I have planted, Lunchbox mini peppers, rainbow sweet peppers, and green bell peppers, two kinds of potatoes, peas, zucchini and yellow squash.

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I have also planted basil, parsley, celery and sweet pea for color to climb up my garden arch.

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I have so much more to get done but it’s a great start!

I’ll update weekly as the season gets on. Are you growing a victory garden this year? I would love to hear from you!

See you next week -MM