Bringing Back The Victory Garden
# 2001
Should a pandemic strike, it could conceivably go on for a year, perhaps longer. During that time there could be huge disruptions in the production and delivery of food. Our supplies chains are thought to be very fragile, and so food shortages are almost inevitable.
Here is what the Health and Human Services website has to say about disruptions and shortages:
"Stock a supply of water and food. During a pandemic you may not be able to get to a store. Even if you can get to a store, it may be out of supplies.
Public waterworks services may also be interrupted. Stocking supplies can be useful in other types of emergencies, such as power outages and disasters."
Recommendations as to how much food and supplies you should stock vary from country to country and from agency to agency.
Pandemicflu.gov talks of 2 week's supply here in the United States, but other agencies around the country, and around world, have suggested as much as 12 weeks.
I highly recommend checking out the Australian Food Lifeboat plan on my sidebar, also linked here.
Since we can't know in advance how severe the next pandemic will be, we can't know what is really a prudent amount of food to stockpile.
If we see a mild 1957-style pandemic, then stockpiling beyond the 2-weeks recommended by the government probably won't have been necessary. But, if we see a 1918-style, category 5 pandemic, then 3-months of supplies in your basement could prove very important.
And of course, 1918 may not be the worst that nature can throw at us. It is simply the worst we've seen in recent memory.
One option that many are exploring is the Home Victory Garden. During World War II, millions of families here in the United States, and around the world, planted these gardens to make up for food shortages and to augment their rations.
Poster for the U.S. Department of Agriculture promoting victory gardens, ca. 1942. NARA.
Dr. Grattan Woodson, who have given us several excellent home treatment of pandemic flu manuals, has a website chock full of other pandemic resources. All of this information is offered free for the downloading.
Dr. Woodson covers everything from obstetric care during a pandemic, to home gardening, and just about everything in between. If you haven't read, and leeched these articles to your hard drive, you really should.
A Hat tip to Sally on Flutrackers for posting Dr. Woodson's gardening article.
In 1995, after spending all but one of my 40 years in Florida, I moved to 24 backwoods acres in southeast Missouri, and this salt-water sailor spent the next decade attempting to carve civilization out of the wilderness.
It was quite an experience.
We lived 30 minutes from the closest town, and during the winter, the access to the property could be cut off for days, or even weeks, by ice or snow. We heated with wood, which we cut, split, and stacked ourselves.
And of course, we grew a garden.
As a live-aboard sailor, I'd never cultivated anything except barnacles on the underside of my boat. I spent the first winter with a stack of Mother Earth News that went back more than 20 years, and several dozen books on gardening.
One of the books that impressed me the most was Five Acres and Independence, by M.G. Kains. Much of this book is available online, here. The book may still be ordered from bookstores such as Amazon and Barnes and Noble.
That first spring, before the last frost had come around, I began creating what would eventually become a 4,000sf garden. I built 26 raised beds, each 12'x4', built 230 feet of fencing to keep the deer out, and tested and amended the soil. Indoors, we planted 80 tomato seeds in Styrofoam cups and put them on top of the refrigerator, then hung florescent lights suspended by chains over them.
By the time the seedlings were big enough to transplant, the last frost had come and gone. I dug 80 holes with a post hole digger over one weekend (my back may never be the same!), and planted them.
We also planted seeds for melons, corn, squash, and cukes, plus onions, string beans, peas, garlic (bulbs), and beneficial flowers. We had a few failures along the way, but 90% of what we planted produced.
Here is what our 50'x80' garden looked like just after planting.
(click to enlarge photos)
Over the next few months we tended this garden constantly, we dealt with horn worms, and aphids, torrential rains, and weeks of searing heat. And a windstorm that knocked down all of our corn.
It wasn't easy, particularly for people who knew nothing about gardening. And we had vowed to make this garden organic. No toxic pesticides, and only natural fertilizers.
Three months later, here is how our garden looked.
(click to enlarge photos)
Our harvest that year, and every year thereafter, was so bountiful that it fed not only our family, but our neighbors as well, and a great deal was donated to the local senior citizens food bank.
Truckloads of tomatoes, corn, beans, squash and melons came out of that garden plot each year.
We were lucky enough to already have an orchard on the property, although the trees had been neglected for years. It took another year, and a lot of hard work, but by the second summer we had peaches, apples, pears, and cherries.
And of course, you have to do something with this bounty.
So, being the cook in our family, it fell to me to learn how to can and preserve food. Every fall, our basement shelves were lined with hundreds of jars of tomato sauce and pickles, along with dehydrated fruits and vegetables. Our freezer was filled with dozens of squash casseroles, and bags of fried okra and corn.
My back-to-the-woods days are behind me now, but I carry much of this knowledge forth. I don't ever plan to garden on this scale again, but I know that a much smaller plot can easily supplement a family's food supply. It doesn't take 4,000 sf, or even 400 sf. A lot can be done in just 100 sf or less.
Two or three 12x3 raised beds can provide your family with plenty of growing space, and it won't require all day to tend. If you are an apartment dweller, don't despair. Many cities have community garden plots. If your's doesn't, consider starting one.
Gardening can be very hard work, and sometimes, nature deals you a bad hand. Drought, floods, hordes of voracious insects . . . well they can all ruin months of work and leave you with a barren field.
But gardening can also be relaxing, and life affirming. In these days of rising food prices, it can also be very practical. Knowing that the food on your table was grown without pesticides or other chemicals is also an attractive feature.
During a pandemic, knowing how to garden, and having some basic supplies on hand before a crisis begins, could be life saving as well.
It's a useful skill that should be part of every family's repertoire.
