Ripley Victory Garden 2023-Week 2

Week 2 was spent reading, planning, and planting seeds indoors.

Garden stuff done this week:

• Planted 13 different varieties of veggies/herbs indoors

• Purchased two books specifically to learn succession gardening techniques.
• Uncovered the rhubarb outside
• Planted a bin with sprouting potatoes

I started plum tomatoes, regular tomatoes, purple and green basil, purple and green sprouting broccoli, purple and orange cauliflower, jalapenos, Lunchbox peppers, bell peppers and eggplant. I used the black bottomed/clear lidded takeout containers I had on hand. They were brand new but I didn’t like them for freezing meals in so I thought I would use them for starting my plants.

The two books I bought were “Grow More Food” by Colin McCrate and Brad Halm and “Plant Grow Harvest Repeat: Grow a Bounty of Vegetables, Fruits, and Flowers by Mastering the Art of Succession Planting”, by Meg McAndrews Cowden, who I follow on Instagram.

I am only a few pages into Grow More Food and I am already learning lots of new things. They have a great chart that tells you size of garden, what to expect to harvest from that size of a garden, and how many hours a week it will take to maintain that size of a garden. My garden is currently 1573 sq ft which will be large enough to feed 6 to 10 people all season and still have enough to distribute small quantities of especially productive crops. If I plan it right, I should be able to grow substantial storage crops and have plenty to preserve for the winter. It says to expect to spend 6-8 hours a week keeping up with just the garden not including preservation time. In past years I have not made my garden a priority like I would like and I hope to change that this season.

The rhubarb I planted last year from a friend’s divided plants have already started popping up this season! Anyone have any interesting rhubarb recipes they want to share?

I planted a bin of potatoes yesterday and stuck it outside. I had some potatoes stored from last year that sprouted so I am experimenting to see if I can get them to grow. What do I have to lose right? I’ll keep you updated.

I already have more to share but will save it for next update!

Please feel free to share recipes that use rhubarb :)-MM