Part I
I am going to try and share the experience my family have had in creating our Victory Garden on our small farm "Trinity" in the mountain regions of South Africa. As it is a journey (of which I have lectured on here several times - joyous!) I am going to have to do it in installments. It is imo inspirational to experience other peoples successes rather than see mere illustrations from a manual. And inspiration and vision is all it requires. Why do this? Well, if you are successful, in time you will thank God for having done it. This is my personal feeling and prediction for what is on the way!
Why a "Victory" garden?
Well - because it is a personal victory to succeed in your own work to be able to feed yourself healthy food from the earth and the effort you put in. I declare that I am not an expert, and my wife is my constant companion in this venture. Together we have been working for 6 years at our Victory garden, and we have learnt many lessons and failed at some. But overall, how hard can it be to succeed when all you need is - Soil, Seed and Water. The good Creator made it possible for humanity to survive on that. I don't think many people know that the Israelites survived 40 years roaming the desert by growing wheat and making Essene bread (I posted a recipe in the Food section) and using wheat grass extract to fuel their energy to survive their ordeal.
So I will attempt to be as clear as possible, and I invite questions as we go along. I know there are many who probably know a lot more than me, so I am happy to learn. But I say this - It is so cool to go to your garden and harvest your ingredients for your next meal, knowing it is organic, clean and healthy. The cold chain most people have to rely on for fresh greens from their food stores leave me cold!
There cannot be much value left in produce when it has been picked green and put into cold storage for the long road to profit for others and finally arrives on your plate, radiated, sprayed with insecticides and finally cooked in a microwave oven. A Victory Garden of our own has been one of the most satisfying experiences my good wife and I have worked on in our lives. We have had the pleasure of learning Permaculture Organic methods where cost is little, joy in the labour is great and health has been our prize. I am also going to attempt to record my efforts at running a Wormery where we process our own healthy compost using earth worms found in any garden. I will put that into a separate thread as it is a subject quite amazing to learn about.
The result of the effort of making your own Victory Garden - a healthy body, a healthy mind and and a happy Soul.
Next: Part II. Some images of where we are today.
Sky, I am really looking forward to your post on gardening. I am a beginner (4 yrs) and truly love to read about gardening. I always learn something. I also might live in an area similar to yours, I am in the deep south of united states (Alabama), mine is more tropical though than Blue's, but we have many similar types of weather. Please go into details as sometimes I do not get it without the details.
