Victory Gardening Revival

[Bluebonnet]

With various political situations looking ever less pleasant by the minute, self reliance is becoming increasingly more attractive for a number of people around the world.

I say this is a perfect time for a Victory Garden Revival!

 

[journey11]

This goes along with the how long until you'd starve thread. When food costs started rising a few years back, I started thinking of how I could best keep my family well fed. I have a 93-year-old friend who still cans. She's my role model.

 

[Bluebonnet]

Depends on how much land you have, what grows in your area and how you store it.

Survival and thriving for that matter do not have to be the complex effort that some make it out to be.

 

[baymule]

It amazes me how many people are not interested in raising a garden. They ooooh and aaaah over my garden, but they "don't have time" or "don't have a green thumb" or whatever excuse they can come up with. They can go to the store and buy mass produced GMO laced crap that masquerades as food.

WalMart even makes it easy for people. You can go buy plants, potting soil with the correct amount of nutrients, pretty pots to plant them in and a pretty watering can. It's not rocket science.

Plant a garden. Eat the food. Plant a little more and store, can, freeze or dehydrate the extra for later consumption.

Plant a fruit tree. Plant a nut tree. Plant several of them. There are pecan trees in town in empty city owned areas and I go pick up the pecans, shell them out and put them in the freezer. The lady who lives behind us has a pecan tree and doesn't pick them up and refuses to shell them out. She is poor, a single mother and you'd think she would be happy to have pecans to eat, but they require "work".

Yes, I think it is high time that people take responsibility for feeding themselves, even if it is a tomato plant in a bucket on an apartment balcony. I love this forum and how everyone is so encouraging and helpful. All newcomers are treated with respect, dignity and friendliness. Any gardening effort is applauded and encouraged. TEGers are the greatest!

 

[Bluebonnet]

Those same people further complain that it would be an all vegetarian diet or that you would get rabbit starvation and die. They do not bother to consider what all else goes into food sufficiency or the diversification that needs to take place, all while chomping down on candy bars and fast food as if they are loaded with the vitamins and nutrients their half plotted garden scheme lacks, even if they do have the caloric intake part down pat!

 

[so lucky]

I think you are preaching to the choir, Bluebonnet. We don't know why other people do, or don't do what we think is best for them. I do know that shaming them won't work.

 

[Chickie'sMomaInNH]

Victory Gardens now aren't what they used to be intended for. it used to be that people planted their gardens not just for themselves, but to help supply food to send to the troops. now we're not allowed to do that since everything has to go through FDA and USDA inspections, and then transformed into MRE's before it is sent to the troops.

today most people will plant a row for hunger, however, not every area has food drop locations to donate fresh fruits and veggies to be given to the poor. i know my area doesn't seem to accept fresh fruits and veggies to be given to the poor. our area does have food pantries to donate canned or non perishable item. they do allow the EBT/Snap cards to be used at farmers markets now, but with the high prices i've seen at the markets for some items i have to question how that will attract poor people to want to buy from them.

i like that our local EBT/Snap program allows people to use their dollars to buy veggie plants and some seeds to grow their own. the only problem i've heard from a few people i know are on that program and live in subsidized housing in our area is that their lousy neighbors will steal the ripe veggies or their kids end up destroying the plants.

 

[so lucky]

Victory Gardens now aren't what they used to be intended for. it used to be that people planted their gardens not just for themselves, but to help supply food to send to the troops. now we're not allowed to do that since everything has to go through FDA and USDA inspections, and then transformed into MRE's before it is sent to the troops.

today most people will plant a row for hunger, however, not every area has food drop locations to donate fresh fruits and veggies to be given to the poor. i know my area doesn't seem to accept fresh fruits and veggies to be given to the poor. our area does have food pantries to donate canned or non perishable item. they do allow the EBT/Snap cards to be used at farmers markets now, but with the high prices i've seen at the markets for some items i have to question how that will attract poor people to want to buy from them.

i like that our local EBT/Snap program allows people to use their dollars to buy veggie plants and some seeds to grow their own. the only problem i've heard from a few people i know are on that program and live in subsidized housing in our area is that their lousy neighbors will steal the ripe veggies or their kids end up destroying the plants.

I think that is why the community gardens are sometimes surprisingly successful. They managed to get those pesky neighbors and kids involved in the gardening; made it a source of pride for the whole neighborhood. I wonder if those particular folks you speak of have a vacant lot nearby?

 

[Chickie'sMomaInNH]

no, they don't and i wish they would have thought about including an open space for garden plots for their residents. but i think they chose not to do that because they expected most people that live in the housing to not care to take care of it properly.

i offered a few years ago to my friend to have an area in my yard tilled for her to have a garden space and she seemed excited at first. but then she decided it might be too much for her to have to drag the kids over to my house and try and get work done in her patch. so she decided to just grow a few tomato and cucumber plants in pots outside her 'apartment'. she kept finding the neighbor's kid ripping out the plants and kept having the discussion with the neighbor and the kid about pulling the plants. it did stop eventually and the tomato grew ok. when her tomato plant finally got a few tomatoes ripe enough to pick they were gone!

 

[Ridgerunner]

I donate stuff I grow to a local food bank. It’s a charity my wife and I volunteer for. Eight churches in the small town near us work together to take care of needy people. It’s non-denominational and there are no requirements that anyone belongs to any church or has any specific beliefs. They just have to be needy.


One of the things they do is give food to the needy. I’ve dropped off eggs, winter squash, sweet potatoes, dried herbs, onions, eggplant, sweet peppers, tomatoes, and probably some stuff I can’t think of right now. They’ve never refused anything, even when they had to ask what it was or how to prepare it. And they’ve never had trouble giving it away.


ChickiesMam, if you talk to a pastor, priest, or minister worth his/her salt they should be able to help you find a way to donate food to the needy. The formal food banks have to follow certain rules, but not all small locally run ones do.