My grandmother used to tell me stories of growing up in WW2 England and her father growing what was referred to as Victory Garden. Growing food meant growing hope. For the first time in fifty plus years, there is a shortage of things we use everyday. I think of her and the victory garden as my motivation to get as much knowledge as I can out to encourage people to grow their own food. And if I can do it, YOU CAN, TOO!!

If you’ve decided to try this as I hope you will, you’ll need some basic supplies to get started. I will try to be as simple as possible and break things down so that you can start as soon as possible. Now, don’t be discouraged if you don’t have a particular item, many can be substituted, as long as you got the job done. First things first, you’ll need seeds and lots of them. When you think you have enough, buy more. When your are stuck at home in quarantine with nothing to do, this skill is something that will stay with you like driving a stick shift. Eventually, you’ll develop your own style and tricks that work. Keep at it….now more than ever it’s very important you don’t get discouraged. Find seeds, any seeds, anything you want to eat. The older folks who know about a backyard garden are already stocked up and preparing their plants. That’s why the seeds are in short supply. But that’s okay, there are still seeds out there. You can even grow from veggies you already own. They have seeds in them!!

My growing area started this year as a total disaster. It was a collection of misfit pots from the yard over the winter and the empty shell of the pool filter that didn’t have a home inside the garage. Wherever you want to grow, whatever shape the yard is in, you can do this!! We will get to that in another post. For now, start to think about where you want your garden to be. Do you want it in containers, do you want raised beds or just sow the plants directly into the yard? Either way, I will try to document all three this summer and we can figure out the pros and cons of all.

The supplies (or substitute items) you’ll need are as follows:

Now, any device with a clear lid will do. Heck, you don’t even need the lid. You are merely trying to give the plants a head start by getting them started indoors. I like a top on my baby plant box, but they will do fine without it. You can start seed in whatever you want, I even demonstrate how to use solo cups. Just don’t use those crazy little peat pods. I’ll show you why further down.

Continue this process until all your little pots and spaces are filled up. Because of limits on how many pics you can add to a single post, I’m going to have to end this here. But this process should keep you busy for an afternoon at least….