Our Victory Garden - Making and Using Raised Beds With Trellises

Victory gardens started during World War II. The government approached the public with the plea to begin a garden in their own backyard to help with the war effort. People that were self reliant were not people dependent on the government to care for them.

So, to take care of themselves and to do their patriotic duty "Victory Gardens" began to spring up all over our nation. Popular magazines of the day like the "Saturday Evening Post" and "Life" printed stories about Victory Gardens. Women's magazines gave instructions on how to grow and preserve garden produce which caused a rage in the purchasing of canning equipment across the U.S.. People purchased 249,000 more pressure canners in the year 1944 than they did the year before. People were serious about their gardens. The USDA estimated that there were 20 million Victory gardens planted here in America. Now that is a lot of produce! Fruit and Vegetables harvested in these home and community gardens were estimated to be 10 million tons of food. So, how about a "Victory Garden" in 2013? Even if you don't have time, you have a less than green thumb, you CAN do this. Let us help you with great ideas for your Victory Garden.

~ Our Victory Garden ~

This is a GREAT option for people with   a) very little time  b) poor soil  c)  less than green thumb.  We chose to do a series of raised beds in our yard this year.  Weeding took up so much time with our normal 2700 square foot garden and we girls were working till we dropped.  This year we decided to try this.  Weeds were controlled for the most part by the shade cloth that we will use for under these boxes and the trellis kept it all up off of the ground.  Read on and see how simple these beautiful raised beds are to make to begin your victory garden and take a step toward food independence (besides, there is nothing like a little dirt to make you feel good). 

 Our friend Jacque Line over at Deep Roots at Home gave us this great idea and kind of held our hand through it. We are so blessed to have her input. So, anyway every good job begins with a plan.  

Decide on where you want your boxes, how many, how large you need them and what you want to grow.  I will be writing on companion planting very soon to help to know what to grow and with what. 

To make the raised beds check on Craigslist for lumber or your local hardware store. We got 2x12x8  lumber, decking screws, and heavy duty metal staples to hammer into the wood to attach the cattle panels.  Cut your lumber to size. We chose 4x8 boxes. We screwed the boards together using an electric drill and deck screws at the corners of the box.  Place your box on top of shade cloth to prevent weeds.

Get a helper and hold your cattle panels short end up to the long end of your box.  using you heavy duty staples and a hammer secure the panel to the side of your box in several places, continue with the next panel.  Then connect the other side of your cattle panel to the next raised bed box having your helper hold it while you hammer.

You can fill your boxes with potting soil from your local garden supply or make your own using:

1/3 Vermiculite

1/3 Peat Moss

1/3 Composted Manure

  

Mix well (we mix it in a wheelbarrow ) and add to box.  Make sure you fill it well to give the roots of your garden plenty of room to grow.

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#Garden #Farm #RaisedBeds #SquareFootGardening  

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