It's been just over a month since my last post, 'Getting Ready For The Coming Food Shortage'. The last 2 months have been two of the busiest months I'v experienced. I've worked furiously to get my (several hundred) plants started while at the same time, I've been doing renovation work on the exterior of my house which was in need of new soffit and facia since the original wood had deteriorated and needed replacing. I've finally finished the three main sides of my house with vinyl materials while I still have the two front gables to do but that can wait a little while longer so I can tend a watchful eye over my new 'Victory Garden'.
Here are some pictures of the exterior work. I had done this kind of work in my youth with two older brothers, one of which lives nearby and came to help when he could. Having learned to do this type of renovative work really came in handy when doing these much needed repairs on my own house and saved no less than $5,000 in labor costs in the process. My brother, who is also a professional painter, painted the exterior of the house in white. The walls are original stucco / chiprock and the white paint completed the transformation.
During the winter months, I was writing an article a day on PublishOx, sometimes two. I just wanted my followers to know what I've been up to and why I've been 'away' for so long. By the way, my last article proved to be a great success, getting more than 1,500 hits within the first two days of publication. Thanks to everyone for the many likes and tips on that one!
As for my 'Victory Garden', aside from having to deal with animals, birds and insects, things are coming along very well. Fortunately, we had a good amount of rain in June, regularly filling up all four rain barrels on my property. Now, my back yard is a living garden. There's still some organizing to do as the plants get bigger as I have most of them in pots for easy relocation, if and when necessary.
In the image below, I have raised beds filled with a variety of bean plants and over that is an old metal frame of a temporary garage I once had. The tarp is long gone but as you can see, I found a new use for the framing. Bird netting surrounds the raised beds to prevent animals and birds from getting in while I have ten hanging pots, five hanging on either side with squash and melon plants including butternut, buttercup, sugar baby watermelon, delicata and canteloupe. I set up cotton string over and across the frame work to train the plants to go along their respective strings. This should look amazing in about a month's time. Upon inspection this morning, I can already see a butternut squash growing on the line.
The next photo is the bottom left of the picture above...
Here, you can see that I've placed red kale in a small bed where I've also placed ruby leaf lettuce in between. To the right are bunching onions, genovese basil, garlic and elephant / colossal garlic. I do my best not to waste any planting space and bunched up different plants here and there to maximize production.
In the image below is shown my little planting area at the side of the house. At bottom left are peas climbing up a plastic trellis, followed by more ruby leaf lettuce (I love my salads), 6 sugar baby watermelon plants, stringed up to climb vertically, followed by two zucchini plants, also growing vertically through wooden tripods that I put together in a matter of minutes. Beside the zucchini plants are rhubarb plants which I've already harvested, followed by a bed of green kale plants.
At the side of my shed, I quickly put together this shelving to place my many snowball cauliflower plants. The leaves get really big on these plants so some of these pots will eventually be placed on the ground and then there'll be three full rows of cauliflower.
Moving up just a few steps past the cauliflower is my bed of peppers, celery and green leaf lettuce. I've placed the lettuce at the outer edges of this bed which gives this bed a nice touch, I think. Again, I'm maximizing my growing space. If it gets too crowded, they can simply be trimmed down. When it comes to celery, lettuce and kale, I harvest a few leaves at a time to allow the plant to keep growing. This process also helps to prevent overgrowing. At the bottom right, is what appears to be grass but could actually be corn. I had tried to grow corn in this bed last year that had grown as tall as me... until the raccoons got to it and totally destroyed the bed of corn, so it's quite possible I have new corn growing at this spot. We'll just have to wait and see.
In the image below, I have several Gardener's Delight cherry tomato plants potted and placed in front of my pond. The goldfish don't seem to mind. At the top left you can see another raised bed which has 4 blueberry plants, a couple basil plants and a few more ruby leaf lettuce. At bottom right are more kale plants in pots. This location is just in front of the metal frame shown above.
At the very back of my lot along the back fence, I placed another raised bed and filled it with Brussells sprouts and 4 more kale plants. Just behind those are raspberry plants, of which I have several. At bottom right is my trusty squirrel cage. I've had to relocate 8 squirrels so far. When it comes to gardening, squirrels are a number one pest and can cause a lot of damage. In fact, when I stepped out this morning to inspect my garden, my small bed of leek plants was completely dug out and the plants uprooted. It's a never ending battle with these critters. So far, for some reason, they've left the Brussels sprouts alone.
And finally, at the other side of my greenhouse which is located next to the pepper and celery plot, I built a wooden framing structure to accommodate growing multiple squash plants vertically, as shown in the two photos below. I also have three hanging baskets with more squash plants that have started growing down as the plants below are growing upward.
At the far end are 15 butternut squash plants, all stringed up to grow vertically. After seeing a few videos online about the benefits of growing using this method, I decided to try it for myself for the first time and so far, the plants are loving it. The plants are growing so fast, I swear at least 3 inches per day. All I have to do is gently wind the string around the stem as the plant grows. If it gets too tight, I simply unwind a few turns and then rewind by one turn. At bottom left are 9 acorn squash plants and a couple canteloupe plants. In this little plot are more than 30 squash and a couple melon plants. Talk about maximizing space!
I have a few more varieties of tomatoes and peppers, okra, mustard lettuce, purple and asian cabbage and swiss chard. I'll make a video soon and upload it to my BitChute channel so you can see the progress in its entirety. Most of the hardest work is now done and I can finally take a little break and sit back and watch my garden truly come to life.
This is my 'Victory Garden'. Just as in WWII USA, victory gardens are making a comeback. With the constant threat of food shortages, I'm doing my best to stay ahead of the game. I'm really looking forward to the fruits of my labor in coming months. I hope your victory garden is coming along well also. Here's to healthy food and healthy eating!
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Check out some of my other posts...
Getting ready for the coming food shortage.
The food shortage that doesn't have to happen!
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