Victory Garden 2009

I've been gardening for a long, long time but have concentrated my efforts of perennials, flowers, etc. and not so much on a vegetable garden. A few tomato plants here and there and herbs but that was the extent of it. This year we are enjoying the fresh produce from our yard, more specifically, planted in raised beds - boxes that my sweet hubby built for me. Our own bit of a Victory Garden is planted with peas, green beans, tomatoes, lettuces, cucumbers, squash and okra. There's a special watermelon too that Jonathan (my 10yr old) gave me for Mother's Day. Watermelon IS my favorite food in the whole wide world! I also have a fig tree & blueberry bushes that are several years old with their best crop ever, coming right along. Victory Garden isn't just the name of the PBS show. Victory gardens were vegetable, fruit and herb gardens planted at private residences in United States, UK, Canada and Germany during World War I and World War II to reduce the pressure on the public food supply brought on by the war effort. In addition to indirectly aiding the war effort these gardens were also considered a civil "morale booster" — in that gardeners could feel empowered by their contribution of labor and rewarded by the produce grown. Making victory gardens became a part of daily life on the home front.

This bed was the last to be planted. It is at the back side of our garage and was a large bed of day lilies. I was afraid that my planting efforts were ruined last week when we had a new roof installed and the workers arrived and promptly began yanking out the support trellises, stepping on the young veggies, tossed large plastic tarps on top for shingles to be thrown down on. I just had to go inside and couldn't watch what they were doing to this plot. Someone came to the rescue and put down a large sheet of plywood on top of two packages of shingles, on each side of the bed which kept the young plants from further damage. Gracias señor!

These are the first of many tomatoes that we harvested yesterday. The yellow pear tomatoes are a heirloom variety that were a tasty and pretty addition to last night's salad and homemade pizza.

Here are two of the raised beds. In front are peas growing up a bamboo trellis. The other box is home to 5 tomato bushes and a squash that got into the mix.

Tonight we'll enjoy squash and green beans, fresh picked and some cornbread would be nice, incorporating Buttercup and Gretchen's eggs. I'll be sure and have some hydrangea blossoms on the table too!