Did you know that Earth Day is celebrated on April 22, 2022? The Earth Day 2022 theme is “Invest In Our Planet”. The key focus is helping people understand why we must all begin to act and invest together so that everyone makes Earth Day an Every Day higher priority. What will you do to be part of the solution instead of part of the problem? One of the best things each family or individual can do to celebrate Earth Day is to plant an organic victory garden. Victory Gardens have been used for many decades to help families provide food and weather tough times. They also help Save Our Soil (SOS). With spring here, now is the perfect time to plan and plant your organic victory garden.
With the current crazy coronavirus conditions, crazy food inflation, and crazy supply chain concerns and issues now is a great time to develop a green thumb and grow some of your food. When you add these concerns with the big environmental issues like global food availability, Save Our Soil (SOS), and water scarcity, this blog is shared to offer simple steps we can all take to start being part of the solutions and stop being part of the problems.
The continuing issues for reliable electricity, food, fuel, goods, and transportation continue to be major areas we might want to invest our energy, money, and time to be prepared and more self-sufficient. BTW the Scout motto, “Be prepared” was wisely chosen for a reason. The global supply chains continue to be disorganized, disrupted, and distressed due to many factors. Climate change, economic sanctions, farming disasters, fertilizer and fuel issues, inflation, and other complex factors are causing the entire world to experience serve chaos, concern, and confusion. Many experts are predicting we will see major disasters, food conflicts, and shortages due to soil degradation. Some are even predicting significant numbers of people at risk for death, famine, and malnutrition in 2022 and beyond due to the convergence of several environmental and man-made factors.
In today’s complex and fast-paced world many parents and people are stressing and struggling with buying food for their families. After two years of crazy coronavirus conditions, people are finding it even more challenging to deal with inflation, make ends meet, and maintain a happy and healthy family. Today may be the perfect day to discover how to plant an organic victory garden as you become more self-reliant, self-sufficient, and sustainable. With many people living paycheck to paycheck and two paychecks ahead of problems the thought of three meals away from chaos and hunger should serve as a drastic wake-up call. Many people are living on the edge by being nine meals away from anarchy. Now is the time to protect your family and friends by planting a victory garden and being prepared for food shortages.
Education, information, and inspiration about food, gardening, and prepping are easy to find from many great resources and role models. To be happy and healthy requires us to plan and be prepared for a wide variety of challenges and problems soon. The goal of this blog is to share some education and information to help you create a plan, plant a victory garden, and prepare for potential problems that can harm you and your family. My experience consulting on healthy nutrition, growing food in Belize, and working on my grandfather’s farm may be helpful for other parents and people to be better prepared. Any person or parent who wants to stay happy and healthy will want to learn about the fable of the ant versus the grasshopper preparing for winter and acting like the ant.
How to Celebrate Earth Day
First, it is important to give thanks for all the beauty and bounty we receive from planet earth. Our world is a blessed and blissful place that offers a wide range of diversity, ecological complexity, and environmental harmony. As we come to give thanks for these many blessings it is also time to reflect on what the human impact on the earth has done to cause destruction, decimate species, and destroy large areas of rainforest and old-growth woodlands. Once we celebrate the blessings of Earth Day it is beneficial to invest in some thinking time to see where your lifestyle choices are harming or helping the beauty and bliss of the earth we can home. Once you are clear about destructive choices it is easier to find the leverage to make better choices and decisions. Then you can begin taking baby steps to buy less junk and buy better quality as you become a better guardian of the earth. The next step is to create a smaller carbon footprint as you reduce, reuse and recycle more of our precious resources. Become aware of important environmental issues such as Save Our Soil (SOS). Now you are ready to realize the amazing full benefits of a victory garden.
How to Plan an Organic Victory Garden
What is a great way to beat high food inflation? By producing your food and plant-medicine victory garden:
- One of the first things to do is to identify the areas of food insecurity where you may be most vulnerable. Start by looking at the foods you buy and eat the most often. If you are consuming a lot of bread, cereal, cheese, fast foods, frozen food, meat, milk, package meals, and take-out food you may want to consider how expensive, risky and unhealthy this form of eating is for your family. This food lifestyle makes you more susceptible and vulnerable and causes you to spend more as you become more unhealthy.
- The next step is to identify what areas you have available and find out what zone you live in. This will help with planning for optimal productivity. Look at your balcony, fence, porch, roof, yard, and even wild spaces nearby. On green spaces and open land nearby you may be able to find or plant seeds for wild foods that require no tending. Examples include berries, cactus, clover, dandelion, flowers, food trees, fruit trees, greens, herbs, nuts, roots, and seeds.
- Then observe and track the patterns of the sun and weather.
- Now would be a great time to visit a local farmer, farmers’ market, or urban garden to find some coaching, guidance, and ideas. Find some blogs, books, or websites for instructions. Start drawing up a blueprint for your victory garden. Identify the top ten foods that can be grown in your zone and what your family is eating or will eat when the hunger sets in.
- Borrow or buy some garden tools to get ready to plant your organic victory garden. Barter or buy some organic seeds or starter plants that are easier to grow. Beans, beets, bell peppers, cabbage, cantaloupe, carrots, corn, cucumbers, greens, herbs, kale, lettuce, mustard, okra, peas, potatoes, radish, sesame, squash, and tomatoes can be grown to provide delicious and nutritious meals.
How to Plant an Organic Victory Garden
- Avoid all Genetically Engineered (GE) and Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO) seeds that grow into known health hazards.
- Books can be great resources. You can learn gardening easier and faster with a wide range of tutorials. There is a wealth of wisdom in books, ebooks, and websites with great techniques, tips, and training on how to plant and protect your victory garden.
- Biodynamic gardening may appeal to many because it avoids using chemicals and only uses all-natural methods of feeding the plants and pest control. Check out the Kiss the Ground documentary for more information.
- Chose the family’s favorite nutrient-dense organic foods for the majority of your victory garden. Consider growing additional popular foods to barter, give or sell.
- Consider growing food in or on aquaponics, buckets, edible landscapes, gardens, greenhouses, hydroponics, living walls, patio planters, ponds, pots, raised beds, sprout trays, tower gardens, trellis, vertical shelf gardens, vines, walls, and window gardens.
- Consider learning about harvesting wild foods and planting wild gardens. The upside advantage of wild gardens is that they can be along bayous, drainage ditches, flood control ditches, lakes, rivers, and streams. The downside is that other people may access and recognize the plants so it is best to use seeds that easily grow and self spread out any care and effort on your part.
- Three of the best resources that teach low maintenance, natural food forests, and no-till gardens are Rob Herring, Paul Wheaton at www.Permies.com, and Marjory Wildcraft at Grow Your Own Food.
Passion and Purpose
The passion and purpose of Morningstar NEWS are to condense many hours of research down to two minutes of education, information, and inspiration for being happy and healthy.
“Nine meals from anarchy is a terrifying thought. The best time to plan, plant, and protect your opportunity for access to food is to start your organic victory garden now. It is better to be safe than to be sorry. Be Prepared or be prepared to perish…the choice is yours.” —Michael Morningstar
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