... At long last a post has sprouted from the (questionably) fertile soil of my mind. Like carrot seeds that germinate for so long you're ready to give up and plant something else there. Speaking of which, twenty thousand other things have sprung from the soil – look at how the garden has grown!!!
Ok, so this was actually almost a month ago. More pics coming.
It's been a long summer and busy summer. Wedding, full-time employment at the amazingly beautiful Hagley library (more about that forthcoming), ), vaguely trying to still be an active academic (conference proposals, etc.), and gardening around the house and in the garden adds up to quite a lot. As I pointed out in another post, it's not that extraordinarily different from the over-full lives of patriotic American victory gardeners and war workers. In one of the least surprising turn of events ever, I am here to report -- it is not easy!
Fruits of My Labor
Baby beans! (Now eaten/canned) The next few weeks, I’ll be cranking out and finishing all the half-written observations, tentative conclusions, lessons learned for next year, trials, and tribulations that occupied the height of this heat-ridden summer (while you all waited with bated breath for updates, I’m sure). Topics on the agenda include:
- My verdict on row gardening
- Composting
- Garden pests
- Canning
- Other forms of preserving
- Food waste
- Gardening economics
- Lawns
- Plus some book reviews and miscellaneous historical finds
But First: The Ground Covered
Before I admit to all my shortcomings, failures, trials, and tribulations, I want everyone to have a clear idea of exactly the scale of my undertaking. Here’s a brief summary of all the ground I tried to cover this summer. Not just cover in fact, but plant, weed, water, treat for bugs and wilt, harvest, reseed as necessary, and keep free of rodents!
"Plan 750" All the Garden Beds Dimensions and Areas:
The grand estimated total is just over 748 square feet.
For reference, this delightful home plan to the right is 750 square feet and includes two bedrooms, a bathroom, a family living room with fireplace and a normal-sized kitchen. Yeah, I've been gardening a house worth of square-foot-age.
I did notice some beds got more attention that others – even days I didn’t have time or energy to water the Victory Garden with the hose for 25 minutes, I often found ten minutes at a time throughout the day or evening when I could water the entirety of the pots, the Lazarus bed, the Lettuce bed, the back bed, or take a few watering cans to the front herb beds. The same, unfortunately, followed for weeding, reseeding, and pest control. Just like how you clean the kitchen most days and the living room once a week while the bedroom constantly flirts with chaos, right? (I can't be the only one...)
- Fenced in area = 18’ by 22’6’’ or 405 sq ft
- Lettuce bed = 6’6’’ by 2’8’’ or 17 and 1/3 sq ft
- Back bed = 5’ by 26’ or 130 sq ft
- Back-side/Lazarus bed = 10’ equilateral triangle or 43 and 1/3 sq ft
- Front herb beds = two right triangles, 11’8’' by 12’6’', or 146 sq ft
- Back porch pots = 13 to 25, avg. 8” diameter, thus 6.5 sq ft
The grand estimated total is just over 748 square feet.
For reference, this delightful home plan to the right is 750 square feet and includes two bedrooms, a bathroom, a family living room with fireplace and a normal-sized kitchen. Yeah, I've been gardening a house worth of square-foot-age.
I did notice some beds got more attention that others – even days I didn’t have time or energy to water the Victory Garden with the hose for 25 minutes, I often found ten minutes at a time throughout the day or evening when I could water the entirety of the pots, the Lazarus bed, the Lettuce bed, the back bed, or take a few watering cans to the front herb beds. The same, unfortunately, followed for weeding, reseeding, and pest control. Just like how you clean the kitchen most days and the living room once a week while the bedroom constantly flirts with chaos, right? (I can't be the only one...)
A Little Knowledge Can Be Dangerous ...
Chard star! I am more than willing to call this garden season a success in so many ways: more vegetables than we could eat, more herbs thriving in our clay-like soil near the house than I dared hope, we didn’t abandon the garden or give up because it was hard and hot, the weeds never fully won, and I did manage to get (something approximating) a tan from all the hours out in the yard!
However, over the course of the summer I realized that I am definitely a first-year Victory Gardener. I ran out over-eager and over-ambitious -- especially in thinking I could keep up with the blog through the height of harvesting! Both bugs and rodents ate way more of our crops than their fair share (like our entire beet crop!), bacteria wilt got the cucumbers, weeds were more wild than ideal, and we definitely wasted seed when our stock accidentally baked out in a severe heat wave for five days -- and then wasted time and energy planting the dead seeds! In short, I became the twenty-first century embodiment of the World War II-era Department of Agriculture's greatest fears. The USDA encouraged scorn and mockery of those underprepared and under-committed to the task.
However, over the course of the summer I realized that I am definitely a first-year Victory Gardener. I ran out over-eager and over-ambitious -- especially in thinking I could keep up with the blog through the height of harvesting! Both bugs and rodents ate way more of our crops than their fair share (like our entire beet crop!), bacteria wilt got the cucumbers, weeds were more wild than ideal, and we definitely wasted seed when our stock accidentally baked out in a severe heat wave for five days -- and then wasted time and energy planting the dead seeds! In short, I became the twenty-first century embodiment of the World War II-era Department of Agriculture's greatest fears. The USDA encouraged scorn and mockery of those underprepared and under-committed to the task.
"We all recall the over-eager gardeners of the last war [...who] rushed into the field with hardly any preparation for their heroic labors, beyond looking up Agriculture in the dictionary to see what it meant"
Robbins, Leonard Harman. “15,000,000 Victory Gardens,” New York Times Magazine, August 23, 1942. Pg. 15.
An unfortunately apt, if hyperbolic, excerpt. Ogden Nash, “My Victory Garden,” House & Garden, November 1943. Most amazingly, I wasn’t even a new gardener! I’ve been paid to work in gardens and farms in three different states, and spent four years of undergraduate volunteering 20 hours a week or more on the school garden, plus spent a childhood watching my father garden (with varying degrees of success!). I surely had more experience and/or expertise than many of the urban citizens of the United States in World War II.
The problem could be that, try as I might, I just couldn’t make myself strictly follow all the instructions from World War II. Some were impractical (plowing 100 pounds of various additives into the soil), some were dangerous (applying arsenates to my food crops), and some were just . . . more work than I was interested in (ergh, I know how to stake a tomato just fine!). I wasn’t great at following the instructions, or being a good, pliable pupil/gardener. But isn’t that what most Americans/people would do? Combine intuition with past experience with inspiration and take these instructions a healthy grain of salt? My failures may well be as instructive as my successes, I suspect (and hope).
The problem could be that, try as I might, I just couldn’t make myself strictly follow all the instructions from World War II. Some were impractical (plowing 100 pounds of various additives into the soil), some were dangerous (applying arsenates to my food crops), and some were just . . . more work than I was interested in (ergh, I know how to stake a tomato just fine!). I wasn’t great at following the instructions, or being a good, pliable pupil/gardener. But isn’t that what most Americans/people would do? Combine intuition with past experience with inspiration and take these instructions a healthy grain of salt? My failures may well be as instructive as my successes, I suspect (and hope).
Unfinished Business
However, these are only tentative conclusions. The summer may be drawing to a close, but not the heat here at the top of the Delmarva Peninsula, and as my World War II materials remind me, the fall garden season is only just about to begin!!!
Ralph Sargent Bailey, “Plan Your Victory Garden for Three-Shift Production,” House Beautiful, February 1944.
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