the Austin Garden | the Victory Garden returns | top leaves for toilet paper

One blessing to count at the moment has to be our current glorious spring. The even balance of sunshine and showers along with some cool nights has done much to lift the spirits of Austin's gardeners. Each day I am blown away by my Salvia amistad. Its rich, royal purple flowers have become this kind of pollinator rock festival. Masses of buzzing to-and-fro, and we even have a ruby-throated hummingbird dropping by once in a while. We are all so fortunate to have a garden of some sort in our lives. And now, with two of our big nurseries carefully opeing their doors in this new Cov-19 era, we have another blessing to count. D.M..

Barton Springs Nursery: shop on-line and pick up your order at the nursery. When it's ready they will text you, and will load it into your car (no contact). An impressive 2,000+ items on their site: Barton Springs Eternal.

The Natural Gardener: delivery service now available: $100 minimum order. Delivery fee charged separately ($35-60). Delivery zone is a 25 mile radius. Huge variety of plants and products to choose from: Natural Gardener.

The Great Outdoors: temporarily closed while staff work on building new e-commerce site.

Wimberley Gardens: open 9 - 3 p.m. Ten people allowed in at a time, 6 feet apart. Call the nursery 512 842 1220 to create a 'no contact' to-go order. ❦

Top leaves for toilet paper: during this time of deficit, the outdoorsy folks at HipCamp speak highly of mullein, and also wooly lambs ear. More details at HipCamp. ❦

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Yard trimmings pick-up to end: to focus on the 11% increase in household trash since the lockdown, the City will no longer be picking up all of our twigs and branches etc. Statesman ❦

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Five garden-to-glass cocktails: If you are growing herbs at home this season, you can easily add them to your cocktails and put together some extraodinary creations, writes Kimberley Stakal in Organic Authority ❦

Fig branch: illustrator Linda Anderson decided to challenge herself - to pretend she didn't have any paints. 'What would I use? Difficult to get bright colors. The leaves have about five layers of spinach juice. Tea works pretty well.' ❦

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a d v e r t i s e m e n t

Thursday Morning Landscape

design and installation,

free consultation Call Dwight: 512 913 2189

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Central Texas Gardener: Jeff Ferris explores garden myths 'to steer us from digging into the deep hole of misinfor-mation.' Tips for success with compost come from Sheryl Williams, and learn how to keep your office orchids alive and well from Lucy Newton and Sheryl Hawkins. Sat. 4 p.m. Sun. 9 a.m. KLRU

CTG first virtual garden party: join CTG folks and fellow gardeners on April 23 at 3 p.m. for this new type of event. There will be a live screening of Susan Snyder and Mark Hathway's first garden, and then a live Q&A where gardeners can ask questions. CTG Garden Party

The Return of the Victory Garden

by Amanda Moon

The Victory, or War Garden as it was originally known, began more than 100 years ago during World War 1.

Food was so scarce in Europe that Americans and Europeans were encouraged to plant home gardens (and just about anywhere they could find open land) to allow for more commercial fruit and vegetable production to be exported and redistributed around Europe during the war effort.

It was so successful that by 1918 over 5.2 million vegetable gardens had been planted in the U.S. alone. The concept was revived during World War 2 when commercial production was once again diverted and food rationing in the U.S. was instituted.

Ever since these critical gardens were introduced, they have become a symbol of taking back control of our own livelihoods, and at the same time supporting a greater good or cause.

In modern times, these victory gardens regained traction during the Great Recession just a little over a decade ago.

Now we are here again, with a worldwide crisis on our hands making us re-examine where our food comes from and how we can become more involved in that supply chain.

Even as we are deeply in the middle of a unique and uncertain time right now, we are also right in the middle of spring here in Central Texas, giving us an opportunity to create our own personal victory garden. I find that this project can be fulfilling in several ways.

One is the very creation of our own food, from herbs to fruits to veggies. We know where they came from start to finish.

Secondly, as so many of us are working from home or out of work completely, gardening can be important for healing, both mentally and physically.

In the last month, gardeners from new to experienced have been scrambling to start their own garden projects.

Articles are starting to be rewritten about victory gardens (including this one), garden Facebook groups are overwhelmed with requests to join, and seed companies are so busy that at least two - Baker Creek Heirloom and Territorial Seeds - have had to temporarily shut down their websites and close to new orders just to catch back up!

There are a few ways to maximize your time out in the garden the next few months and come away victorious.

Keep in mind that many nursery and garden centers are still open, offering phone and online ordering and curbside pickup for plants and seeds so you can still support local businesses, but safely.

The first way is a quick, short-term garden. Large containers and a few bags of good potting soil and some compost are all you need to get started (and maybe a little fertilizer). I am a container growing myself as I have limited space in this house. I have hot weather seeds germinating now of basil, okra and even chard (a great heat/shade tolerant green). Bush squash and other dwarf veggies are also a great option. Peppers are another good addition to a container garden, although at this point transplants are your best bet. Tomato transplants will be ready to plant again before you know it (July) and determinate varieties are great for large pots.

A second quick way is to plant in existing flowerbeds. Maybe a spot you usually plant annual color could be repurposed for colorful vegetables and herbs. Many herbs are actually evergreen and/or drought tolerant and look beautiful in a landscape. Oregano, Mexican mint marigold, garden sage, thyme and lemon grass are just a few great additions to any bed.

If the idea of a victory garden sounds like a wonderful idea, but the implementation of one this quickly is overwhelming, then take this opportunity to create a long-term plan to implement slowly and over time.

Research what you want to grow, and then decide where a garden might work best and under what conditions (raised bed, long tilled rows, containers, etc.). Then create a plan and a budget.

Join those garden Facebook pages, order those seed catalogs and start dreaming! Dreaming of something beautiful and amazing you plan to create in the garden can actually be just as cathartic as actually putting your hands in the dirt!

Until we are all together again, let’s go grow our gardens to victory! ❦