Your Guide To Green

I smell the sweet success of victory on the horizon and the timing is perfect. The victory garden concept was born in World War II to nurture home gardens, build community, and to feed our families. It appears that we are on the verge of planting seeds once again. Recently I was chatting with Bonnie Baker of Baker’s Nursery here in Phoenix and she told me that they are having trouble keeping seeds in stock. Well you can imagine my excitement in hearing that.

From the simple victory garden concept a country came together around a national crisis to create a grassroots system of farming, a sustainable system that can be implemented in virtually everyone’s yard. A whole new generation is discovering the beauty and the bounty of this old concept.

In addition to planning and planting their own gardens and growing their own food, some people are moving to the next level and designing their entire landscape as edible. It is actually quite a simple concept based on two simple thoughts…use the space that you already have as garden beds and DON’T plant anything that you can’t eat.

You’ll be amazed at what we can be grown. There is an abundance of beautiful and edible plants that you can choose to line your garden beds and many of them are perennial, which means you only have to plant them once and they come back year after year. I love that because it nurtures the lazy gardener in me. Some of my favorite perennials are yams, nasturtiums, asparagus, fennel and of course all the apricots, apples and peaches that adorn my landscape.

OK so I am not going to leave you hanging. There is a really nice planting calendar for the Phoenix climate at www.UrbanFarm.org. Plus the Phoenix Permaculture Guild offers a profusion of excellent classes geared to gardening in the desert. www.PhoenixPermaculture.org  For those of you that don't live in Phoenix check with your local cooperative extension office or Google Permaculture and the name of your town.

Go ahead and take a class, plant some seeds and experience the simple magic of growing your own food. In no time you may be harvesting your own broccoli, or turnips, or lettuce…well you get the idea and there is nothing better than enjoying the fresh, sweet taste of your own victory garden.