It’s VICTORY GARDEN time!

It is waaaaay past seed sprouting time but here I am, AS USUAL, late in getting anything going. Remind me next year in February to go ahead and start my dang seeds. These pictures were taken about a week ago on our back deck. In true DIY fashion, I’ve got my plants going in the most random containers…this time it is old cabinet drawers. These are left over from our kitchen demo which still happens to be in a pile on our deck. I’m keeping it real for y’all so don’t judge me!

LEFT {lettuce}, RIGHT {tomato seedlings}

AND SOMETHING NEW–potatoes in buckets.

More details on the potato adventure in a later post!

Surely someone had thought of this before me, but HOW GENIUS is this 6-pack holder for growing tomato transplants? Did I just hipster out-do myself and break the internet? They won’t hold up forever, but it’s a pretty great temporary holding container. It’d also make a rather adorable gift. You are welcome.

Here are some of the notes from my garden plan:

I’m trying to do a better job of keeping track of what & when I planted, etc. I wish I had taken pictures on 4/20 because everything looked SO HAPPY and flourishing. I had transplanted more tomatoes, started another basket of potatoes, planted some garlic chives, and planted more lettuce. THEN THE RAINS CAME. I made a pretty silly mistake, which is that I had some plants way too close to the overhang of the roof edge and everything got flooded. SAD. FACE. You only get a few little sneak peeks today at what is growing–hopefully I’ll have some more pictures soon.

You may be wondering why I’m planting in containers when I have such a huge back yard…and there are a few reasons for that. The main reason is that me and Mr. Smith are still trying to decide where and how we want to garden on our new property. We have an area that used to be a dog lot that will make a great spot once we get it cleaned out. There’s a ton of privet and other stuff of that ilk growing up through fencing that is nearly impossible to get loose. Anyone have some goats we could borrow for a week or so, lol?

As someone with a history of back issues, we are trying to design a garden that is going to a little easier for me to work in. Yay for raised beds! We are also experimenting with potting tomato plants in big buckets so that we can bring them in a green house over winter and keep some plants going for multiple years. Sounds kinda crazy but some of our favorite youtubers (Deep South Homestead) swear by it and we are going to try it out. I will still have some ground crops (squash, zucchini, cucumbers) eventually.

Have you read the history of what a Victory Garden is? I first read about them through the Meet Molly book way back in the day. I think everyone should have one–wartime or not, it’s a wonderful way to show your family and friends that you care about them. Home grown food = LOVE!

Look at my tags for things that grow for garden pictures from last season!

What is growing in your backyard/porch/window box/field?