Bring back the victory gardens!
alone or with friends, either way, strive to achieve something great!
So, I started this publication with the intent to inspire young adults my age, and build culture. A big part of this mission of mine was learning how to start a garden myself with the hopes of better serving you. This is some of the things that I have learned in my journey.
More fun than you think
When I started with my garden over the spring I started with three plants, strawberries, spinach, and broccoli. Now, I’m growing cucumbers, chocolate cherry tomatoes, Baltimore tomatoes, and eggplants I was honestly impressed by how easy it was to keep them alive, let alone manage to get food from them. The most fun part was putting in the effort to find ways to plant and cultivate the plants. Well, that’s not exactly true, the most fun part was watching Cassie and Shelbi play with all the tools and supplies.
Honestly, gardening is really fun. It’s so relaxing to just get out there, and put your hands in the dirt, and it’s so rewarding to be able to serve dinner and say, “Wow, I grew this.” You can actually taste the difference between grocery store produce and something you pulled out of your own garden. I just go out there every day, look at what’s going on with the plants, give them some water, and just admire the beauty of guiding nature.
Not nearly as expensive as you think.
I get it, money is a factor. Here’s the way I got started, and didn’t break the bank.
Cheap plastic totes at big lots right now are $5.25 on sale for 30% off apparently.
all you have to do is fill it with soil mixed with some type of plant food and fertilizer (linked with what I used) this worked surprisingly well.
Tires. Tires are expensive, up front but also quite surprisingly easy to recycle; especially since there’s a plethora of people who’ve been holding on to old tires that will quite literally just give them to you. A big consideration here is that you should probably line them with some kind of material to prevent some of those rubber chemicals from bleeding directly into your plants, to my knowledge though, as long as the tires aren’t dry rotting and breaking down, it’s not the biggest concern. I wouldn’t use them more than a couple of years just to be safe.
Dirt Cheap. If you haven’t been there, you’re missing out. You can find everything from soil, to fertilizer, to tools for absurdly low prices. You can loose out on maintaining that brand that you prefer, but if you find yourself strapped for cash but looking for something you could use to help you get started on your next project, give it a shot.
Who do you know? Like anything, you can go far with finding out ways to get sick deals with people you know, like your co-workers, friends, family. If you strike up a conversation about what you’re doing and they can tell you’re excited about it, there’s a good likelihood that you might be able to access things that they may not be using, but with some ingenuity, elbow grease, and a little tact some people will just give you stuff sometimes.
Community goes a long way. Occasionally, you may find people who actually know quite a fair bit of information on gardening. There’s no shortage of older individuals especially who are just founts of knowledge; so much so that I took it upon myself to ask my pastor about creating a community garden, whether or not that bears fruit has yet to be seen. Since I haven’t got that figured out yet, I will just say there is almost nothing you can’t learn on youtube. Some of my favorite youtube channels for these topics are Self Sufficient me, Calikim29, Epic Gardening.
Building communities and culture
Here’s some food for thought… There are almost no downsides to gardening. This will make you more self sufficient, give you something to be proud of, and will inspire people as you talk about doing this. If you take it far enough, you could even save a pretty good chunk of change at the grocery store if you get it right too. The big take away though is consider two or three friends who you frequently hang out with. Why not make this a challenge or contest? If you have kids, what would be the harm in them knowing where food comes from and how plants work? Why not grow maybe too many tomatoes, only to have a friend who can trade with because they grew too much squash? What’s the harm in just getting outside to reconnect with nature with a few friends, and having something to show for it at the end of the day? When’s the last time you did any of that? It really is great. Give it a shot. You may surprise yourself.
I hope you enjoyed my article, make sure to subscribe, share this post, and tell your friends, family, and co-workers about it. If you have anything to add, leave a comment, let us know what we can do to start and improve our victory gardens! If you want to brag about your garden send us some pictures and let us know what you’re doing!