written and photos by Keith D. Kurman

This garden has been growing steadily over many, many years. It’s seen many crop rotations…brilliant success and demoralizing failures. But each spring brings a renewed excitement, to begin again…“This year we’ll get it RIGHT!”

“To free ourselves, we must feed ourselves.”

The quaint “grow your own” aphorism presents us with a challenge regarding a change from our consumerist mindset of being dependent on ‘others’ to becoming more independent.

This recent NY Times article, Food Supply Anxiety Brings Back Victory Gardens, does a wonderful job addressing the need for growing our own garden today during the current pandemic in comparison to the War Garden of 1918 and Victory Garden of 1919.

A garden this size is quite an undertaking! Unless you've grown up on a farm or garden for a living you might want to start a little smaller and build over the years. But it is about the size of one generous front yard! Something to think about!

Times and conditions have changed remarkably since the mid-twentieth century. Now, a quarter of the way into the 21st century, when and how are we going to adapt to these changed conditions and adopt new paradigms for the mid-twenty-first century? Some of these changes and challenges include:

Climate Change. This is a new term for something we’ve been aware of and fighting to address since the 1960’s, corresponding with the “back to the land” movement, self-help books and anti-nuke protests. The idea of growing your own food has gone in and out of fashion throughout the ‘modern age’.
Sustainability. This was not a consideration or even a word generally used in the mid 20th century but it applies now to everything from product development to agricultural production.
Water. There are so many factors applying pressure on our water sources. Just as coronavirus is invisible, so is water and the threat to its availability. Unfortunately, it is not on the forefront of public concern.
The combination of climate change, sustainability and water shortage brings the priority closer to home.
Aesthetics. Aesthetics may seem like a frivolous or academic subject these days but it goes directly to our decisions about what we do to develop and maintain our own properties.
The Lawn. A pretense hung over from ‘between the wars’. They are wasteful of water and demand conditioning and fertilizers to keep them viable. They also occupy, usually, the sunniest part of the property. Would that area not be more beautiful providing sustenance for our families rather than exhausting our precious resources to satisfy our ‘aesthetics’? It is not that the philosophical perspective of ‘the lawn’ being beautiful is wrong, but if we were to change our philosophical perspective to value productivity more highly, then we may not feel the same way. If we find it necessary to supplement our food sources with what we grow ourselves wouldn’t the lawn be the first thing to go?

With all that in mind, and a lot of ‘alone time’ on our hands, let’s get to the question of Victory Gardens.

The NY Times article mentions how Victory Gardens started out as a big deal that quickly faded because ‘farming’ is hard work! True, but there are degrees to which we can go to supplement our nutritional needs without turning over our entire property to cultivation.

A Victory Garden can be anything from a potted rosemary on the windowsill to a window box with mixed greens to a raised bed by the kitchen door for growing your essentials. Of course beyond that you can go as far as your imagination and resources will allow.

Here's a small garden that's dedicated to mostly herbs (deer-proof!) a few Tomatoes and some flowers. There are no rules to break, its what works for you!

Let’s look at a few things we can grow that don’t require extensive time and materials to achieve.

I always go to the herbs first because they offer so much return for so little effort. Herbs as a rule don’t require a lot of fuss. They are generally from arid climates and grow under poor conditions. Plants like Thyme, Sage, Tarragon, Oregano and Chives are tough perennials that only require a patch of earth, some sun and occasional watering. But they provide a rich, fresh flavor to common dishes. Try adding them to the oil in your pan when you begin a sauté, it makes a big difference.

Annual herbs: Parsley, Cilantro, Arugula, Dill and Basil. These flavorful plants might require a little more attention to keep them productive but they can easily be grown in a pot as well as a cultivated garden plot. There becomes the question of quantity, if you use them a lot then you’ll need more space. It’s a good idea to stagger their planting so you have a continual crop. There are hundreds of plants that might fall under this category and you can certainly expand your collection as you become more adept at growing and harvesting, but these few selections are a good start and if you’ve checked the prices for fresh herbs at the grocery store you’ll see how this might really save some money.

Leafy greens are the next category of easily grown foods. We may be used to only a few lettuces but there is a dizzying range of possibilities, so again you can go as far as you’re inclined to labor. All are nutritious and most are flavorful! The lettuces, mustards, radicchio, endive, spinach, chard and kales are what we call ‘Early Season’ because they germinate and grow best in cool, lengthening days. They can be done in pots or window boxes or they can take up several rows in a vegetable garden.

Being limited in time and space shouldn’t stop you from growing some of the smaller root vegetables. Easily started from seed, and best when done so, are radishes, carrots and beets. These you would want to seed in succession so you have a continual supply ready for harvest. We may think of beets as just the red, bloody sweet beets but there are so many different varieties that make delicious eating, especially at the smaller size. Carrots don’t need to be the long ‘perfect’ carrots of agriculture, some of the best tasting are the smaller, heirloom selections that can only be gotten from a reputable source (like Vineyard Gardens!) The greens of these delicacies are all edible too and very nutritious.

Of course there are many food crops that require a little more space and attention to their cultivation; potatoes, cabbages, broccoli, the squashes, cucumbers and melons, and to some extent peas and beans. Peas are not that difficult but you do need quite a few plants to reap a meal-sized serving. With the proper tending they will produce a succession of crop but you need several plants to feed a family of two! Beans can be very gratifying, but again you need several plants to produce a family sized yield.

We can’t talk about vegetable gardening without talking about Tomatoes. Tomatoes are THE most popular plant by far of all vegetable crops. There will need to be a post dedicated solely to tomatoes to cover all the different varieties and the growing conditions. Suffice to say. Homegrown tomatoes are delicious and when well grown are a source of pride, but they can also be frustrating. They take a lot of space, time and resources to make them work but again, it’s up to you.

The last two categories of growing that one needs to consider are staples and fruits.

The Staples are mostly all grain plants, like corn, rice, wheat, and barley.. Although you CAN grow these in your back (or front) yard they generally require too much space to harvest a measurable yield.

The Fruits would certainly require a separate post but this will have to do as a placeholder. Growing the woody fruits, stones, pomes and berries (including Grapes) are some of the most frustrating endeavors of humankind! The space, time, materials and skill required to bring in a harvest is probably what doomed the whole Victory Garden Movement. It’s not impossible but it does require commitment, motivation and sophistication.

So there’s a start to it! All the details of ‘How To’ can easily be gleaned from books, online or questions you can ask our expert horticulturists at Vineyard Gardens nursery.

We may not be able to save the world or prevent pandemics by ‘growing our own’ but we might be able to supplement our diets with what we have grown ourselves and that has the added virtue of feeding our souls. It’s also a great way to spend part of a day in quarantine!

“We must cultivate our gardens.” (Voltaire-ish)