This is an actual WW2 book that we have here on the farm. It is basically, gardening for dummies. The book was commissioned by the government to help people learn how to produce and store their own food. It was either learn to grow food or starve. Rationing was the word of the day. They also realized that people did not have a lot of money to throw at this adventure. The problem with most gardening books today is that they want you to buy expensive equipment and chemicals to garden. If you throw $1,000 into your garden, to grow a couple of hundred dollars of veggies, you are in a losing proposition. So we decided to try out this book and see if it did in fact work. Bumper crop of veggies this year. Total invested in the garden…$30. We now have enough fresh organic veggies to feed a family of 5 for the year.
The beauty of this book is that it is designed for every size of garden. From a large plot to the person who lives in an apartment with just a balcony to grow things. Every plant we (as a people) grow is one less veggie or fruit that is imported. Plus the amount of fuel saved by not having to ship food across the country or around the world is good for the planet. This helps reduce our carbon footprint.
Adventures in Gardening!!!
I recently retired from the military and decided that I was going to grow my own food. My eldest child is Autistic and there seems to be a lot of info that chemicals in our food is a contributing factor. So I decided to give growing our own fruits and veggies a shot. How hard could it be? People have been growing food for thousands of years.
So I rented a small farm and started the adventure. I dug up a small plot and off to the local nursery for plants I went. $100 later I am home with flats of beautiful plants ready to go in the ground. I could just see the bountiful harvest of fresh veggies for my family.
Weeks went by and I dutifully watched for the plants to start feeding us. To my dismay, most of my wonderful plants shrivaled up and died. All was not well!!
Some plants did grow but provided little fruit. I must be doing something wrong. I''m college educated, I can figure this out. So off to the bookstore I go. Wow, there are hundreds of books on how to grow gardens. Somewhere in this plethera of information, the answer must lie. Another $100 in books and I am sure I can figure it out this time.
I thought I was back in science class. PH testing, nitrogen ground infusions. It never ended. Tools and more tools needed. I quickly realized that I was going to go broke just to grow a few tomatoes for my family. The insanity had to stop.
One last thing to try. I went and visited my wife''s grand-parents. They lived through the depression, they obviously survived. They told me that the government put out Victory Garden books to help everyone grow thier own food. Everyone grew thier own food. Now to find one of these books.
I searched the library with no avail. So off to the internet I went. Voila, there was a site I could download the book.
http://store.payloadz.com/go?id=74151
So I got the book and perused it exstensiv ely. This was gardening for morons. Hey, thats me!! So I started following the instructions from page 1 to the end. I had already failed miserably doing it myself. So I had nothing to lose.
I went step by step from the book. It showed me how to lay out my garden. Even how many plants of each type of food for my size of family so that I would have enough harvest to support the family for a year. Plus how to store my bounty. What more could I want.
Long story short. My garden is now full of fresh veggies. Wife and children are picking daily. The canner is busy preserving food for the winter. We have so much food that we are giving away some to the neighbors. Not bad for a retired sailor who lived on a ship for years. If I can grow a garden, anyone can. Seriously!!
If you are wanting to grow your own food and eat more healthyitems, than I can truly recommend this book. I can hardly wait till next year.