Three summers ago, a heat dome parked itself over my county for eleven days straight. Temperatures hit 104°F by noon and barely dropped below 85 at night. On day three, the grid buckled. No AC and no fans. Just dead, heavy air sitting inside the house like a wool blanket soaked in hot water. My […]
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Let’s talk about what to plant in a victory garden. The victory garden once played a vital role in our nation, helping feed millions of Americans at home and those fighting overseas. After WWII ended, the government didn’t see much need for them anymore, and they slowly began to die out.
Yet, a few Americans still carried on with them, some even to this day. Your grandmother or grandfather may have been one of them and passed their love for gardening down to you.
There’s also the chance that you may not even know what a victory garden is, but could be interested in getting one started if you understand the whys and hows. After all, we’re facing tough times once again, and planting a victory garden is something I’d strongly encourage. I’ll share with you their history, several interesting facts about them, and what you need to plant in your very own victory garden.
Victory Gardens have been around with us for well over 100 years. They were first introduced and promoted during WWI, but were especially important during WWII. During this time, they were referred to as “war gardens.”
These gardens were a way for every American citizen to help the war effort and ensure there wouldn’t be a food shortage during those challenging times. It was certainly a morale booster, in which every civilian felt they had an important role to play.
People would plant these gardens in vacant lots, city parks, playgrounds, churchyards, and often in their own backyards. Some U.S citizens took it a step further and even plowed up their front lawns to help contribute to the food supply.
They played a key role in ensuring that everyone on the home front and the soldiers fighting overseas had plenty of food.
Victory gardens were more than just about feeding people. They were viewed as a way for Americans to stop relying on others for their food supply. That was a big deal, and something we certainly need to do better today.
It also allowed Americans to get their hands dirty by returning them to a more natural way of living and providing for their families while working alongside one another in a community.
A victory garden should include fruits and vegetables that are easier to grow, ensuring fresh produce is planted for harvest during their appropriate growing seasons, along with root and hardier crops that can be stored throughout the winter.
Here’s what you could be planting during certain times of the year to keep your victory garden flourishing up until the first snowflake.
Spring gardens should include vegetables such as lettuce, carrots, onions, peas, radishes, and kale. These are all vegetables that do extremely well during cooler conditions. Click on whichever link above interests you for more details on how to plant and maintain these various vegetable crops.
You can still grow a number of the vegetables I’ve already mentioned in your summer garden, but be aware that they become more difficult to grow because they prefer cooler temperatures.
Summertime garden vegetables to consider include corn, beans, peppers, eggplants, basil, cucumbers, tomatoes, pumpkins, muskmelons, watermelon, and summer and winter squash.
For your fall and wintertime garden, many of the vegetables that you planted during your spring garden, you’ll notice, are fairly similar. Consider planting carrots, lettuce, radishes, as you did in the spring, along with broccoli, cauliflower, beets, cabbage, spinach, parsley, parsnips, and turnips in your victory garden.
There’s even Swiss chard, Kohlrabi, and kale that are also extremely easy to grow, though they’re not as often talked about.
With rising food costs and a growing interest in self-sufficiency, more families than ever are turning to backyard and container gardening. A victory garden gives kids hands-on experience with where food comes from, reduces trips to the grocery store, and can meaningfully cut your household food budget over a single growing season. It also gets the whole family outside and working toward a shared goal.
Sunlight is the single most important factor when choosing where to plant. Most vegetables need six to eight hours of direct sun per day. Walk your yard or outdoor space at different times of day and observe where sunlight falls for the longest time. Avoid spots near large trees that cast shade or compete for nutrients. If you’re limited on space, a south-facing patio or balcony with containers works well for many crops.
One of the most common beginner mistakes is planting too much too soon. Start with a four-by-four or four-by-eight raised bed, or four to six large containers. This is manageable for a busy family and gives you room to learn without becoming overwhelmed. You can always expand next season once you know what works in your climate and soil.
Some vegetables are much easier to grow than others. For beginners, stick with crops that are forgiving and fast-producing. Zucchini, bush beans, leaf lettuce, radishes, cherry tomatoes, and cucumbers are all excellent choices. Herbs like basil, chives, and parsley are also simple to grow and add a lot to home-cooked meals. Avoid starting with notoriously tricky crops like corn, melons, or artichokes until you have a season or two under your belt.
Healthy soil is the foundation of any productive garden. Purchase a basic soil test kit from a garden center to check your soil’s pH and nutrient levels. Most vegetables thrive in slightly acidic to neutral soil, with a pH of around 6.0 to 7.0. If you’re starting a raised bed, fill it with a mix of topsoil, compost, and aged manure for a nutrient-rich growing environment. Adding compost each season keeps the soil productive year after year.
Seeds are less expensive and offer more variety, but they require more time and attention early on. Transplants are young plants already started for you at a nursery, and they’re a great option for families just getting started. A good middle-ground approach is to buy tomato, pepper, and herb transplants while starting faster crops like beans, cucumbers, and radishes directly from seed in the ground.
Consistent moisture is key to healthy vegetables. Most gardens need about one inch of water per week, either from rainfall or irrigation. Water deeply and less frequently rather than a little every day, which encourages roots to grow deeper into the soil. Morning watering is ideal because it gives foliage time to dry before evening, reducing the risk of fungal disease. A simple soaker hose or drip system makes watering efficient and easy to maintain.
A family victory garden is a perfect opportunity to teach children responsibility, patience, and where food actually comes from. Give each child their own small plot or container to take care of. Let them choose one or two vegetables they love to eat. Kids are far more likely to eat vegetables they grew themselves, which is a meaningful bonus for picky eaters. Simple tasks like watering, weeding, and harvesting are appropriate for most ages.
Weeds compete with your vegetables for water and nutrients, so staying on top of them early makes a big difference. Mulching around your plants with straw or wood chips suppresses weeds and helps retain moisture. For pests, start with the least invasive approach. Hand-pick larger insects like tomato hornworms, use insecticidal soap spray for aphids, and attract beneficial insects like ladybugs by planting marigolds or dill nearby.
Tracking what you plant, when you plant it, and how it performs takes only a few minutes a week and pays off enormously over time. Note what worked, what didn’t, when the first frost came, and which varieties your family enjoyed eating most. This record becomes your personalized guide that gets better every single season.
Most vegetables taste best when harvested young and eaten quickly. Check your garden daily once plants start producing. Zucchini can go from perfect to enormous overnight. Lettuce bolts and turns bitter if left too long in heat. Harvesting regularly also encourages plants to keep producing throughout the season. The moment your family sits down to a meal made entirely from your own garden is one you’ll remember for a long time.
Starting a victory garden is a commitment that rewards you more each year. Your soil improves, your skills sharpen, and your family develops a rhythm that makes the whole process feel natural. Many families find that what begins as a small backyard experiment grows into one of their most meaningful annual traditions. Plant the first seed this season, and you may be surprised how far it takes you.
It’s a great feeling not having to rely so much on others for your every need, and gardening is one way to do that. It also gives you the opportunity to get out of the house.
Now that you have the knowledge regarding what to plant, you can get started and “Dig for Victory” in your very own victory garden. And remember that you don’t have to confine yourself to one growing season.
If you’re already a faithful gardener, what do you find to be the most successful vegetable crop that you and your family enjoy to grow each year? What would you choose when it comes to what to plant in a victory garden? Please keep prepping, we must. May God bless this world, Linda
Copyright Images: Vegetables Deposit photos_25388211_s-2019, Garden Woman with Cucumber Deposit photos_5050434_s-2019, Garden Vegetables for Soup Deposit photos_78146246_s-2019
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Most people are completely unprepared for a disaster. And I'm not talking about being prepared for some end-of-the-world scenario. Most people aren't even prepared for common disasters that happen all the time. Hurricanes. Floods. Earthquakes. Wildfires. Chemical spills that force an evacuation. A winter storm that knocks out power for a week.
Sudden disasters don't care whether you're ready or not. And when one hits, the last thing you want to be doing is scrambling to find flashlight batteries or realizing you don't have a single gallon of clean water in your house.
The good news is that basic preparedness doesn't have to be complicated or expensive. You don't need a bunker. You don't need a year's worth of freeze-dried food. What you do need is enough supplies to get you through the first 72 hours. That's the period when stores are picked clean, roads are flooded or blocked, and you're essentially on your own.
This article is going to cut through all the noise and give you the bare minimum of what you need to have on hand before disaster strikes.
Click here to download a printable version of the checklist below.
Water is your single most important prep. You can survive weeks without food but only a few days without water, and in a disaster, tap water could be cut off or contaminated. Don't wait until a storm is approaching to think about this one.
New preppers love to buy MREs and emergency ration bars because they see survivors eating them in shows and movies. While those are good to have in certain scenarios, for short-term disasters you should just buy more of what you already eat and rotate through it on a regular basis.
When the water goes out, staying clean becomes both harder and more important. Illness spreads fast in disaster conditions, and something as simple as dirty hands can turn a bad situation into a dangerous one.
Disasters have a way of making small health problems into big ones. A cut that gets infected, a headache that becomes debilitating, or a stomach bug from contaminated water can all take you out of commission at the worst possible time. Stay ahead of it.
When the grid goes down, so does your access to information. Knowing what's happening, whether the storm has passed, whether there's a shelter nearby, whether you need to evacuate, can be the difference between making good decisions and wandering into danger.
Disasters don't just cut off your power and water. They can damage your home, compromise your air quality, and put you in situations where you need to take quick action to protect yourself or your property.
Staying physically comfortable matters more than people think. Hypothermia is a real risk during winter disasters, and mental exhaustion sets in fast when people are bored, stressed, and uncomfortable. Don't neglect this category.
If you have young children or pets, don't forget everything you need for them.
As long as you have these things, you'll be ready for all of the most likely disasters and in better shape than 95% of people. Don't wait until the last minute stock stock up on these items. Get them now while they're still relatively cheap and easy to find. The peace of mind is well worth it.
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