The Modern Victory Garden

The garden is a major component of our annual food supply.   I try to manage it accordingly so that we get as much variety as possible, optimize fresh harvests for daily eating, and provide surpluses that can be put by for later use when the fresh harvests are limited.  The amount and types of crops (and when I plant them) are all designed to meet those objectives.   Of course, it never works perfectly because nature will not tolerate that much happiness and success, but by and large we manage to eat well from the garden’s bounty on a regular and consistent basis.   

Growing really fresh, nutrient dense, organically grown food to eat is definitely the priority for me - but there is more to it than just that.   The act of regularly tending to the garden is important as well.   Our modern day lives, with its wealth of labor saving appliances and electronic amusements, generally encourages a much more sedentary lifestyle than our ancestors experienced.   While I don’t yearn to go wash clothes with a rock by the river, I do appreciate that a little manual labor - particularly that which produces something tangible for the efforts – is a good thing for the human animal.   Physical effort, spending time outside getting fresh air and sunshine, and living for a least a few moments each day away from constant bombardment of information and noise our modern world subjects us to- would be reward enough for food production gardening even if we did not also get some really tasty vegetables and fruits out of the deal as well.                      

That sense of “living in the moment” is made even greater when my husband or daughter join me in the garden as well.   While the management of the garden is definitely my domain, I often recruit help from my family or am the lucky beneficiary of them just pitching in.   Tonight was a classic example of this.   I needed to water some seedbeds to keep them moist because the weather (at long last!) is forecasted to really warm up for the next few days.   I also wanted to get the chickens out this evening to let them graze and forage for a while.   It takes quite a bit of effort to keep an eye on six plucky little chickens AND try to do anything else in the garden at the same time.   My husband knows this all too well, and soon joined me in the garden so we could talk and enjoy the fine evening together and so he could help with the chicken wrangling duties.   He has quickly become quite knowledgeable about our flock and their management and has been a great partner to have in this latest undertaking on our homestead.   He kept them all out of trouble and totally entertained for quite some time by grubbing about in and around the compost piles for worms and bugs.                                    

We both benefit greatly from time spent in the garden like this.   It is productive in that we contribute to the garden’s production capabilities (and in this case our chickens too!), but it also strengthens our relationship by spending quality time together working on a task we both benefit from.    Kitchen gardens provide so much more than just good food for our table.           

Laura

kitsapfreedomgardener

The garden is determined to grow despite the overly wet and cool conditions we have been experiencing for many weeks now.   One of the good things that come from significant amounts of rainfall is that the soil becomes saturated, making weeding and thinning plants a snap.   On Monday, I took advantage of that and did some needed thinning on one of the carrot patches and on the mesclun mix planting.   Both are very small seed items and I had gotten a bit heavy handed in the amount I planted per hole.   The germination was great and there was a definite need to thin them down.   Managed to get both quickly and easily done thanks to the wet soil conditions.                                                                 

This is the time of year where I spend a little more time walking through the garden in the morning before work, enjoying the flush of new spring growth and staying on top of things like quickly pulling weeds that dare to appear!   I find spending small amounts of time in the garden almost every day, keeps the workload more manageable.   It also helps me to see things that need attention or which are ready for harvesting – in a timely manner.   It’s a nice way to start the day too.   A stroll through the garden, drinking my morning coffee, definitely puts one in a positive frame of mind to start the day.         

In the evening after work, I also do a walk through of the garden area but the focus is usually more on harvesting items for the evening meal.   However, if the evening is particularly fine or if the workday has been particularly taxing, I take my time and savor the excuse to be outside.   Tonight as I was harvesting some lettuces for dinner, I took a few pictures of the pea patch blossoms.   The flowers are busting out all over the bed.   I think pea vines and pea blooms are really quite enchanting to look at.                           

There are now several small tomato fruits set on the super early Siletz tomato plants in the greenhouse.   The plants are flowering like crazy and I find another little fruit (or two) each day.   These plants obviously responded well to all the extra care and attention they received this winter and early spring.            

I hope you are getting some daily time in your garden as well.   It’s good for the garden, but good for the gardener too.                                 

Laura

kitsapfreedomgardener

"While I could quite easily just buy vegetables elsewhere, the point is I choose not to."                                   

Each of us has our reasons and goals for growing a food production garden.   At a minimum it can provide a tasty supplement of some fresh and organic food to augment mostly purchased items from other sources.   At the other end of the spectrum, some aspire to provide completely for their own subsistence - using their property to provide vegetables, fruits, as well as dairy, eggs, and even meat or fish.   Amazingly enough, many people have achieved good success with this loftier goal of providing entirely for themselves even on modest parcels of property in urban and suburban settings.   A classic example of this is the Dervaes family in Pasadena California.   While I am always inspired by stories of people like the Dervaes who take this to the ultimate edge of self sufficiency – I know for me personally that it is more than I am able (or willing) to do given my other obligations and property limitations.   Similarly, I know there are many people who look at what I do with my garden and consider it “too much” for what they are willing or able to fit into their lives.   There is a wide range of possibilities of how far to take your food production gardening efforts and no matter what end of the spectrum we choose to take it – it is all good!   What matters most is that we each make the determination of the role we want our Modern Victory Gardens to have in our lives and then pursue that goal with vigor!                    

For me, the objectives are pretty straightforward.   I work to produce 100% of my family’s vegetable needs; a significant portion of our fruit needs; and supplement everything else where possible (such as herbs, dried beans, etc).   Recently, I have added to my goals the production of 100% of our eggs as well.   Because I want my garden to produce all of our vegetable needs and more, I tend to view my Modern Victory Garden as a micro farm.   I want to maximize food production from the foot print of property available to me.   This means that I tend to plant intensively spaced; put in larger plantings of any given crop; practice aggressive season extension and succession planting to maximize the amount of fresh harvests available during the entirety of the year; and preserve the over abundance of summer to feed us during the low production periods of winter and early spring.   I monitor how things are going and when something is not producing I make appropriate changes.   Since a large part of our daily food supply comes from the garden, I tend to take it all a little more seriously than others might.   While I could quite easily just buy vegetables elsewhere, the point is I choose not to.   The taste, nutrition, and overall economy of the effort provide constant reward for that commitment.   If anything, I feel compelled to produce even more - so that we may reduce the amount of meat we consume on a regular basis and replace it instead with an even greater amount of plant based foods.   I have no intention of becoming a vegetarian, but I think we would be well served to lower the overall amount of meat in our diet.                  

Have you thought about your gardening goals? Are you on track to meet them?

You might have noticed I did not post my usual mid-week blog post this week.    The reason is that I was called away to be with my father as he passed on.       

One of the many great things about my dad is that he was a brilliant craftsman and artist - able to visualize something and transform it into reality.   He was also a gardener.   One of my favorite planting areas he created was a little island rose and flower garden that showcased a charming "Flower Mill" (with a working water wheel) that he had designed and built.                           

Sadly, my dad had been battling alzheimers for more than five years now and had entered into the last stages of this horrible disease late last year.    This past week he contracted pneumonia.   They were able to successfully stabilize him for several days, but on Tuesday night I got the call that he had taken a dramatic turn for the worse and was not likely to make it through the night.   It turns out he did make it through to Wednesday morning, but he was struggling mightily.   I made the decision to drop everything and drive to Spokane to try and get there in time to say my farewells and if I was too late for that to at least give my mom and sisters the support they might need.   It is an 8-hour drive one way to get there from our place in North Kitsap - so I left on the journey Wednesday morning with a high probability I would only arrive to find him already passed.   However, it appears he was waiting for us because when we arrived around 5:30 pm Wednesday we found that he had hung in there.   The next many hours were then spent in the long vigil with my dad as he struggled to let go.   He passed away on April 22, 2010 at 3:15 am in the morning.   My mom, my three sisters, and myself were all with him (surrounding his bed) holding his hand and talking to him as he took his last breath.       

May we all be so lucky as to have a room full of loving people surrounding us as we depart this earth.        

C. Ray Hood

April 1, 1928 – April 22, 2010

One of the beautiful things about gardening is that the cycle of the seasons has a real rhythm and predictability about it.   There is something comforting about the timeless activities associated with growing your own food.   I value that aspect of food production gardening very much.   But while there is this constancy to vegetable gardening there is also a constant pull to change things up.   Sometimes that need is fed by expanding the size of the garden or types of crops, sometimes by the addition of new varieties, and still other times by the use of new techniques or approaches.   I seem to always be doing some or all of the above.   My gardens (and life for that matter) are continually evolving and growing and nothing is ever quite the same from year to year.   I would like to think that the continuum of change is always one of improvement, but I would be deluding myself to think that everything new I have done or every change made - was a step in a positive direction.     Overall though, I can safely say that my skills as a gardener, my garden’s productivity, and my personal satisfaction with my involvement in those activities have vastly increased from where I started over 25 years ago - breaking ground on my first small plot of a garden patch (in the back lot of our first rental house in Spokane).    I grew up on a small farm and had a family that gardened and raised livestock regularly, but this was my first garden as an adult and it was done by choice - not because someone gave me a chore to do.   That made it different and the flame was lit and my passion and interest in the subject has done nothing but grow ever since.     

So what will be changing this year?   First, I have already changed up a technique or approach in that I am giving the John Jeavon’s method of growing potatoes a try.   No idea if it will be a success or not, but the promise is there of much greater production in the same or less growing area.   The other significant change I will be making this year is to add a small flock of laying chickens to our homestead.   I have wanted to do this for some time but was unsure if I could really work it into our property without sacrificing valuable growing area from the garden proper.   However, after much deliberation I have figured out how to work it into the property and am ready to move forward with the idea.   My husband is quite excited about the prospect of adding a flock as well and I think we both will be equally involved in this particular endeavor.                                

Before getting underway with the actual purchase of chicks, we researched coops and options for building them and decided on the purchase of a kit that provides pre built panels and all the hardware etc necessary such that two people with 2 to 4 hours of time can knock it together with simple tools.   I looked at several designs from different companies but went with the one that had the best quality and features and which was bigger than what we really needed - so that the chickens would be comfortable and not crowded.   This is the coop kit that we purchased. 

We also purchased a small covered run extension, which provides a safe outdoor area for the birds.   We will build an actual chicken yard that comes off of that covered run, but this takes the pressure off of doing that instantly and provides a nice intermediate step from coop to yard that is more protected.  

The coop kit is purchased and will be delivered and constructed in the near future.   There is some site prep work that will need to be done just before putting it together, but I am not expecting the set up process to be overly difficult or time consuming.   In addition to the coop, I have also acquired a red heat lamp with reflector and clamp, simple water containers,, feeders, feed, and shavings to set up the brood area for the chicks.   I believe at this point we are ready to find and acquire our small charges and get underway.  

The addition of some laying chickens is just another step in the constant evolving process of growing more of our own food supply.   Animals have been a part of our lives for just as long as we have had gardens (longer actually).   Animal husbandry and the responsibilities that go with it are not new to us.   However, the last time I personally was charged with the care and keeping of chickens specifically – I was very young and much of that specific experience will be of little or no value.   I am confident though of our ability to learn and apply our other related experiences to this newest undertaking.                

The symbiotic relationship of chickens to a garden makes this a very compelling next step.   They utilize resources that otherwise would go to waste or be considered a pest (weeds, insects, and garden trimmings) and convert them into eggs as well as manure for the compost pile.   Along the way they can become cherished parts of the family and provide a real source of entertainment with their various antics and interesting social structures.   I look forward to having them become a part of everyday life in this Modern Victory Garden.

In early January I received an email from Sheila De La Rosa editor of Oregon Home magazine asking if I would be willing to be interviewed by Margaret Foley for a segment in their regular Trade Secrets series – this particular article to be focused on growing victory gardens.   I am always interested in providing encouragement to others to grow more of their own food, so of course I was pleased to participate as requested.   A few weeks ago I received several copies of the April-May 2010 issue in the mail, which has the final article as completed in it.

You can read the complete article HERE.                                    

I am constantly amazed at the amount of daily traffic and interest this blog and website gets and it just keeps growing over time.   The interest level in food production gardening has definitely spiked up with the enduring recession and heightened awareness of how our daily "living" choices impact the environment and our personal economics.                        

A working kitchen garden has been a part of our household's routine since before we were even married - which is saying something because we will be celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary on May 18, 2010!   While food production gardening has been part of our lives for a long time, the focus with the garden has changed over the past six years, in that I now actively work to provide 100% of our annual vegetable needs from the garden.   Before that time I did not put nearly as much planning into it and had less lofty ambitions (at least as far as meeting our family's food supply needs are concerned).   I think a greater amount of people are now ready to explore that same shift in focus or are ready to up their "garden game" to a new level for the sake of sustainable and frugal good living.   While the drivers of that increased attention are unfortunate and dire for those that are facing job loss or reduced incomes, it certainly has been positive in that people are discovering (or rediscovering) the real satisfaction that comes from having a greater involvement with working to provide one of the essential elements of daily living - food.                                                

I fervently hope that this surge of interest is long-lived and not just a passing fad.   How does your food production garden fit into your life and what are your personal goals related to it?

There really is nothing quite like soup when you are feeling a little worn out or under the weather.   Even better - soup that starts with good chicken stock and builds upon that base with an abundance of great tasting vegetables!   I really slept badly last night and was headachy and tired all day today as a result.   I decided some comfort food was in order for dinner tonight but did not want to spend much time in the kitchen to get it accomplished.   Inspired by the culinary efforts of a friend and colleague, I decided to make some tomato and roasted pepper soup with crusty toasted cheese sandwiches.   I modified the soup recipe to fit with what I have on hand and since I did not write down the recipe I was pretty much winging it – despite all that it turned out really delicious.              

Tomato & Roasted Red Pepper Soup

• ½ cup of chopped onion
• 2 large cloves of garlic, peeled and diced
• Olive oil (enough to coat the bottom of the pan)
• 1-quart jar of diced tomatoes (drained)
• 1 cup of roasted red peppers, diced
• ½ box of organic free-range chicken stock (box is 32 ounces)
• Dried basil (not sure how much I added really)
• Pinch of sugar (to taste as needed to cut the acid of the tomatoes a bit)
• Dried red pepper flakes (hot!) – as much or as little as you like

In a large heavy bottomed stockpot, sauté onion and garlic in the oil until it starts to become translucent.   Add the remaining ingredients and bring to a low boil.   As soon as the peppers are generally softened, use a stick (immersion) blender and blend the soup until it reaches a nice chunky puree consistency.   Continue to simmer on low heat for about 15 minutes or until the flavors are well blended.   Adjust seasonings as needed.   That's it!

I used up the last of the storage onions last weekend, so I am using diced frozen onions currently.    Hopefully the freezer supply will last me until the green onions are ready to start being harvested.   The roasted peppers are also from my freezer supplies and while many of them were red and yellow, I also used some roasted jalepeno peppers too.  So this was actually a "Tomato & Roasted Multi-Colored Pepper" soup!    The home canned tomatoes are from the pantry.   I am afraid I did not think to take pictures of this soup because my head is fuzzy this evening and my focus was just on cooking, eating, and getting to bed early.    I have managed two out of the three objectives so far!                 

The seedlings in the shop under lights are doing splendidly. I watered them last evening and checked on them after dinner tonight.   The cabbages and pac choi started last Saturday are substantially emerged.   I am going to leave the humidity dome cover on them for one more day and then pull it off.   The Chinese cabbages and kale I started in mid December are continuing to really size up.            

These will be planted up in the unheated greenhouse in less than two weeks.

I hope you are having a good week and enjoying some of the bounty of your garden in your daily meals too.

I live a busy life.   I don’t think I am unique in that regard.   The technology and work ethic that makes us efficient and productive as a nation, means that the responsibilities of work and family often become interwoven into every waking hour of every day.   I embrace the technology that we have at our disposal.   It allows me to share images and thoughts with all of you about something I feel quite passionate about (home food production gardening), and it allows me to be a high performer in my professional life.   Those are good things.   It does come with a burden though, and some risks.          

The intensity of a typical modern day life can result in a serious erosion of time for just being “still”.    Ironically, it is my belief that the value of such time is inversely important in relation to the time available to devote to it.    The less you have of it - the more we need it.   My own experience is that I am most honest with myself and am more likely to find the hard answers to problems that are troubling me – when I step away from the constant noise and demands on my attention and allow something quite foreign in our society to occur – being alone for a while and savoring a moment of relative silence.   I say “relative” because even if all technology were to magically disappear and the cars, planes, and other mechanical noises that are in the background of all but the most remote locations were to disappear, there would still be lots of sounds that are occurring in our natural world.   They are just hard to hear sometimes because the other noises and demands on our attention, drown them out.   Sometimes our own inner voice of reason and truth are similarly drowned out.                                             

People often ask me (with genuine incredulity I might add) -  how I can possibly fit food production gardening (and related tasks that typically come with such an undertaking such as preserving and cooking from scratch) into a life that is demanding professionally and with it’s share of family demands as well?    To this I must respond, “my success in all the daily roles I fulfill can only come if my body and my mind are well nourished and periodically refreshed.”     It is the very act of physically working in a non-technology based effort; producing something tangible for my efforts; and having regular periods of time spent outside (away from the phone, the television, the radio, the computer, and the mobile phone) – it is those very things that make my effectiveness greater when I then step back into them again.   My attention is greater, my mental state more steady, and I bring greater energy to bear on whatever is currently in need of attention.   In addition, my family eats an abundance of quality, nutritious food, and I believe my general good health must be largely attributed to that fact, because it certainly cannot be attributed to any adherence to a regular exercise regimen!     In short, choosing to have a food production garden be a daily part of my life is an investment that I think pays many dividends. 

I hope to be able to garden until the day that I am planted into the soil myself.    I wish for others the same oasis of calm and nourishment in their lives as well.   I think it is missing in too many lives today.   That is just one (of many) reasons why I share my garden and part of my life with all of you through this site.   In the hope that perhaps others might be encouraged in their pursuit of food production gardening and that they too may discover how truly wonderful it is to simply be “still” in the garden and allow our mind as well as our bodies to be well nourished and refreshed. 

A package arrived late last week and inside was a gift of a little homemade TLC to brighten up my winter months.   Annette from Sustainable Eats sent me a jar of her homemade body lotion.                                   

Wow!  This stuff is wonderful.    It really does a great job of hydrating the skin - making it feel smooth, and the residual faint scent of beeswax has me wanting to smell my own hands.    I had read her blog post earlier in December about making this body lotion and was properly amazed at how simple it sounded and yet would have never occurred to me to try to do such a thing.   Imagine my surprise when I was then a subsequent recipient of my very own jar!        

If you have not spent time at Annette’s blog, I would encourage you to go check it out.   Gardening is definitely part of the mix of topics, but is just one element of an overall effort of eating more sustainably.   She really walks the talk and is truly inspiring in her efforts.                                

Annette lives in the greater Seattle, Washington area and is just a short car and ferry ride away from our homestead.   I hope to be able to meet her in person later this year for a garden visit.    In the meantime… thank you Annette for the thoughtful surprise gift!

This is the season of the dreamtime.   That quiet period when nights are long, temperatures are chill, and the garden is largely hibernating for the winter.   The rush of the annual garden season grows still, and there is time – time to plan, consider options, and most of all … time to dream.               

For many of us the Muse of our aspirations is delivered right to our mailbox.   Glossy and beautiful, every variety described in glowing terms - the annual parade of seed catalogs cannot fail to excite the imagination and provides much needed distraction as we while away the long winter nights.   I must get at least 15 catalogs a year.   Enjoy reading through all of them, but usually order (seeds and supplies) from only about 4.   A few of my particular favorites:

The catalogs set the dreams in motion, but the seeds… oh the seeds!   They are like a rare treasure that must be acquired, admired, inventoried, and stored with great care.   My seeds have all been requested, saved, or purchased for the 2010 garden season and as of today several of them are here, but many more are yet to still arrive.    Some recent arrivals:

The really big order from Territorial Seed should be coming any day now and it will largely complete the annual seed acquisition process.        

The seed order arrivals tend to just throw gasoline on my fire of excitement and impatience for spring to arrive.   I have gardened all of my adult life and yet I still get a bad case of spring fever year after year.   It helps to find useful employment for my energy and enthusiasm.   One form of off-season entertainment is to busy oneself with the construction of various garden structures or equipment.   Last year my shop project was the horizontal pea trellis, which turned out to be a resounding success.   This year, I have a simple idea in my head for a planting jig to make closely spaced planting easier to do – uniform spacing and fast to employ.   I spent a little time in the shop yesterday evening refining the idea and figuring out what supplies are already on hand, and what will need to be purchased.   Hoping to purchase the few items I need this coming weekend and get the working prototype put together.   I will need to clear off a section of the shop bench before I can do much work though!   All the small hand tools seem to just end up there as permanent residents.                                        

Sources of garden dreams also come in the form of surprise gifts that come my way.   I paid a visit to my sister and her husband on Christmas eve day.   She had acquired some really nice looking (and large!) planting containers – the kind that medium to large potted trees are sold in.   She gifted me with four of these beauties and I must have spent a good week enjoying thinking about all the possibilities of what I could grow in them next season.         

For now, I have settled on the idea of using them to grow four “Siletz” tomato plants.                                                                      

So what are dreams made of?   For me it would be seed catalogs, seeds, garden related shop projects, unexpected gifts of containers, but most of all, the first trays of seedling starts growing on under lights - promises of bounty to come.       

What are your garden dreams made of?