Victory Gardens Are On the Rise

If you are not interested in riots and protests, coronavirus, or  political backbiting there isn’t much noteworthy news out there — even climate change seems to be on a back burner.

So, I decided to reminisce  a little.  After spending all of our lives in the Midwest, last year we moved to Idaho to be with our daughter and her family..  It’s not easy to leave family and friends.  Here is a Journal Entry from  Saturday, 16 Jun 2018
 “I am 85 years old today!!  I never thought I’d make it to this age.   It was a nice morning and I took a little stroll around the  yard and admired Ruth’s garden.  It is a perfect example of her green thumb and her love of being outside working with her plants.  Over the years, we have put in a lot of work fixing up the place  — walks, fences, deck, raised beds, trees, etc.  It is certainly a reflection of both of our personalities — but mostly Ruth’s.  It will be hard to leave this place.  If we leave next summer we will have lived here for 28 years, longer than we have lived anyplace else.” 

I don't know if the wall of plants in the one pictures is tomatoes or cucumbers, but whatever they are they were still growing

As I write this we have lived in Idaho for almost a year. We are reasonably well acclimated to the area and to our home and family here.  

In an attempt to partially replicate the gardening environment we had in Iowa, for Ruth’s birthday this spring I arranged for our daughter, Suzie, and her husband, Kevin, to duplicate the raised beds system that worked so well in Iowa.  The project was started the 25^th of April and completed 3 weeks later. As you can see it turned out extremely  well.  Some plants are already growing and I am looking forward to see the trellis parts covered with vines. 

If there is a bright spot in the coronavirus debachle it could be the return to backyard gardening.  I remember the Victory Gardens of WWII in the 1940s.  Then, as now, it was good for the environment, it provided a source of inexpensive nutritious food, and it brought families together. What could be better than that?

      Greeting from Doc and Ruth Holliday — now firmly planted in Idaho!