Thinking about starting a garden?
Have you heard of the Victory Garden? Perhaps your grandparents knew what the Victory Garden was while growing up.
Today very few people today are growing gardens. It’s not hard to figure out why. Both parents are working, and raising a family, and after-school activities can take the time needed to grow a garden. In my opinion, it should change and I have a feeling with the increasing prices that people will result to starting their own gardens again. But I’m not sure if it would be called a Victory Garden.
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 during World War I and World War II.
Getting Started
Let’s face it planting a garden is hard work. Some seeds are also harder to grow for example the variety of pepper seeds. Planting these seeds in the ground can sometimes take a veteran gardener to dislike growing these seeds due to their stubbornness. This is why many gardeners would rather spend the money to have these plants 3”-5” before planting them.
This is what I and many others do to get started with Bell Peppers.
Get two sheets of paper towel and wet both sheets with water. Now open the two sheets and spread the bell pepper seeds on the one sheet of wet paper towel. After you have evenly spread the seeds onto the first sheet place the other wet paper towel over the top of the other sheet with the seeds so that all the seeds are covered.
To prevent the paper towel from drying out it’s best to place the paper towel in a 1-gallon zip lock bag. You would want to seal the bag to where you have about 1″-1 1/2″ opening to allow air and humidity to flow in and out freely.
Wait for about 10-14 days and you should see your seeds germinate.
Gently pull on the seeds and place them inside a small planter with good topsoil. If in doubt you can get a bag of planting soil at your hardware store for a few dollars.
Place the seeds about 3/4″ deep in the soil and leave for a few days. When you start to see the plant growing above the soil add water. Make sure there is plenty of sunlight or a grow light to get the plant to where it’s about 2″ or more in height.
Transplanting To Garden
Because today we have so much that is going on with the family and kids plus jobs it’s hard to manage your garden too. Growing and maintaining a garden is a full-time job, especially pulling weeds and such. I recommend purchasing a weed mat.
A weed mat is nice because it allows you to plant your garden like you always have but helps eliminate 90% of the weeds from growing. The nice thing about a weed mat is that it allows rainwater to pass threw and it helps to keep your soil wet below the weed mat. DO NOT confuse yourself with other weed mats that prevent water from passing threw. This will kill your garden. You can purchase a weed mat from amazon for anywhere from $50 and upward of $90 per roll.
There are times when the soil is hard to grow a garden for example clay or sand type soil. This can be a challenge all by itself. However, growing your garden in this type of soil and high climate does take a few extra steps.
What I found that works the best is to build a raised garden bed that is about 12″ in height. Inside of the bed would be regular top soil-filled to the top of the bed. Putting a weed mat over the top of the bed will help keep the moisture in the soil.
During planting make you’re whole about 2″-3″ round and start planting. With the higher heat you’ll need to water your garden at least once in the evening to help keep the soil wet.
Things to never forget.
Remember to always give thanks. Having a successful garden or having a garden at all is not by mistake. You do reap what you sow and God helps those that help themselves.
Growing your own plants is providing food for your family and it also provides richer vitamins and nutrients that your body needs.
Good Rule of Thumb
The size of your garden should be 12’x12′ per person. So if you are a family of four a 48’x12′ or 24’x24′ should be enough for the family harvest.
