Welcome to Our Organic Victory Garden

  Welcome to buildavictorygarden.com your one stop access to finding all the neccessary information you need to start , maintain, and harvest your organic garden. You can search the web for hours like we did,(trying to find some of the information that is in the e-book) , or you can save time & money and get the ebook and start building that garden right now!.

  With the extreme winter that most of us have had, we are finally at a point where the white at the end of the tunnel , isn't another snow storm!

  This weekend kicks off the growing season for the majority of people in  the country, simply because the last frost dates are now approaching the safe zone for most planting areas. The 4 to 6 week germination & seedling growth periods are in effect, giving time for everyone trying to get in the ground by late April or May.

  If you haven't tilled your garden , then determining the soil moisture content in the garden area is important now. The consistency of the soil should be such that you cannot hand  compress it into a ball, then it is dry enough to till. Be sure to test your soil for PH & any additives that you may require." For the rest of the story"( as Paul harvey would say!) buy the book.

  We designed this site for easy introduction to organic gardening, somewhat of a homespun intro, which is generally what most organic growers are about, good old fashion lets stay natural , keep it simple , grow it clean & healthy food.

  Within our blog , we just outline some of the preparations we have made, sprinkled with some humor & some news worthy commentary on what is happening within the gardening community.

  If you need seeds , please see our affiliate seed add, Tomato Fest , they have they best diversity of heirloom seeds in the country. We have had nearly 100% germination from their products and are extremely satisfied with their service.

  Thanks for coming to our site, we hope you can benefit from all that is here, have a great day & a great growing season.

Hardening Off

                                                                    Mortgage Lifter

 For the last days we have been giving our 1st tier of tomatoe plants a day at the beach outside sunning themselves in preparation for permenant outdoor residency. Above is just an example of where were , as of last weekend.  We may consider putting them in a larger container, since they seem to be growing fairly well. Hopefully by this weekend we will have a inventory of what is available in each catagory for those who may be interested in getting some great heirloom tomatoes that are not locally available.
  We are wondering where the price of tomatoes will be in the summer, they are like $2.50 to $3/pound(actually $2.999999) at Krogers today. That is for regular tomatoes, didn't see organic prices.
   Started another 300 plants last weekend , and hopefully we will have another batch on the way this comming weekend.
  We will be starting on some peppers soon,  have a great day!

Selecting Cash Crop Plants

We've going over what the best yield per plant can be, i.e. Tomatoe & Peppers. Of course all of this is contingent on how the weather is going to be, and the quality of our care for the garden itself. ... That in mind, we can expect an average yield for a indeterminate tomatoe plant to be somewhere in the range of 15 to 25#lbs , per season, and the yield of a bell pepper to be somewhere in the scope of 10 to 12 peppers per plant...... That being said ; we now have a reasonable projection of potential gross profit margins depending upon the price per pound within the market place. Let's say the average price per pound for organic tomatoes is $ 1.25/lb, then we can reasonably predict that each tomatoe plant may yield $18 to $31 dollars ( rounded off), true organics may bring bring a higher price per pound, however various factors as to availabilty, quality, market, and time of year will impact this. The same is true with peppers,we saw some extremely high prices due to drought conditions in California last year, wheather or not these conditions will continue , will have an impact on market conditions. One thing is for sure, the National attention that is being diverted to nutritional emphasis, and a myriad of motivational rationalizations are being bombarded on the public to help sponsor some pending bills before congress, some of which the public should pay close attention to. HR875

WE're Back!

 It's raining, so we are potting & planting, we have 360 seedlings repotted in 16 oz containers. We took a bunch of them out yesterday for a preliminary hardening off exposure. Tomarrow is going to be a little too cool for a romp outside, so we figure Tuesday we are going to test out our little custom made green house.
  Hopefully by the end of the week we are going to have at least 150 in the green house hardening off, and then we will be inventorying what we will have for sale, that will not be dedicated to the garden. Out next batch will be ready in 3 weeks, which will be just about right for planting.

                                                                  

Potting will begin again

 We had what we expect is our last little break , even though we were somewhat busy over the weekend. We've been trying to hold off the next phase of potting while we get the hardening off area set up, as well as hoping that the weather will be somewhat better...... It looks as though we will be full speed ahead wednesday, as we are having a slight warming trend that hopefully will allow us to expose some of our first seedlings outside, for a short time in the afternoon.
  I have now figured out how to put photo's on our blog  TADAH!  ( new computer i.e. change from XP to Windows 7)  , so we will being updating some of the blog's with pictures as time permits, as well as trying to give more visual enhancement to current blogs. I
  It is our hope that we will be more consistant , after we get a few cliches out of the way. Since this isn't our primary business we sort of juggle quite a few things from day to day, besides responding to the family issue's of 5 grown children , which can pop up at any given time with whatever God decides that is a neccessary learning curve.

  Since it is March maddness,  we are going to put a full court press in play, since I can feel my fish withdrawls coming on, and the beggining of Crappie season about to begin.  For my fellow fishermen out there, gidder done this week, cause next week,  it  is time to metal in the target. Amen!

Somewhat cool weekend

  This weekend we are finishing the outside enclosure for the "hardening off greenhouse", since it is custom built, it is taking alittle more time than we had anticipated.    Be it as it may, we need this completed before we can continue potting the remaining 1st tier of seedlings.

  We have expanded the indoor holding area, added a grow light and hopefully we will be able to pot more plants on Monday.

  Recieved our business cards for this particular project, and I must say at a very reasonable price. We used Vistaprint, and they delivered a good product. At first I thought their promotion was some sort of scam, however we recieved 500 cards (multi-color cards) just $1.99 plus shipping , we paid a little premium  to have them delivered within 7 days , they came in 5 , we are very pleased.

  The plants are growing well,, so for the time being we are just hoping that the weather will continue to improve.

  Have been by Home Depot they are selling their Heirloom tomatoes for $5.99 per plant Wow!, they are on an average approximately 9 to 10 inches in height. Very pleased with the possibilities at present.

  Have a Great Weekend, will be back on Monday.

                                                                             

Transplants coming along

 Our first batch of 148 tranplants are doing marvelously (well on the way to breaking Dr. Debakey's Record), we are now strategizing how we are going to pull off another 600 plants within the next 10 days, this outo be interesting.

  Finished painting the hardening off frame, and the completion of this should give us some breathing room sometime next week when the weather starts to climb in temperature.

  We had inspection yesterday by Jessie ( Nora's gardening mentress), she seemed very impressed with the progress.

  Depending on how things evolve( and weather) , I'll start to build outdoor potting bench within the next few days. Have ordered new business cards with ebook information on them , should have them by 1st of next week.

  That's all for now, TGIF....Thank God I Fish!

Here we go, transplanting Brandywine Pink Tomatoes

 Oye Vey!, have we got some tomatoes........ Since we were 100%  successfull planting all seeds on our first batch, we have multiples coming out of our 1st 74 plant tray, translated that means we got more than 74 plants, which is great if you have somewhere to put them . As Bear Gyles would say ; " we gotta come up with another plan!".

  We are about 2 weeks away from really exposing them to hardening off, unless we get some unusual hot weather, so we are going to be somewhat creative in our living quarters for the time being.

  The good news we sold some more books , I ordered some new cards for better promotional material, and got creative in our potting abilities. I finished raking out the garden, and my physical fittness program is well underway, today I did not need the therapy chair.

  Going back to the pottting, the 1st batch consist's of  Brandywine Reds & Pinks, and Cherokee Purple, great high quality tasting tomatoes if all go's well. Will post their spec's on a later blog.

  This Blog is strickly to help my short term memory loss, I look forward to not having to think next year!

Garden plowed/tilled/raked.......Back in traction

  The tilling wasn't as bad as raking down the high areas, after an hour and a half of that, I was ready for our massage chair. The weather was fairly warm today, the seedlings  need to be separated soon, so we have plenty to do in preparation this week.

  On Thursday we are going to possibly have a thunderstrom, which for those who don't know, it  is a good thing!. Lightning, and the electrical charge that is in the air actually induce's plant growth , it's sorta like natures way of saying "let the games begin!".  So, if you are in the dumps about the rain , don't be ,it  is all apart of the grand show of spring, and above all 2 more weeks to fishing season....... Hah!, you can tell who's writing this blog.

  Got 2- 80# lbs of potting soil,( the back did not like that), some more odds and ends i.e. labels, screen for sifting compost, we will be transplanting in the next few days.

Garden Tilled

  I have survived the garden tilling event, tiller ran well and our first initial tilling of the year is completed. We will see how many mucles that haven't been used protest in the morning.

  The weather was very nice, and it looks as though we will have better tommarow.

   Somewhat spent from days activities, so we are cutting it short for the BLOG.  Have a great day!

On your mark , get set , GO!

  This weekend will be like the the horse's out of the shute at the Kentucky Derby. I went to both Home Despot, & Lowest's, both are beginning to look fully stocked in the garden department.   Lowes's now has the best price on tomatoe cages.

  Got the tiller back tuned up and serviced all in one day, looks like we really got ahead of the pack there, or the economy is really that bad.......... Did a test patch for soil moisture evaluation, after inpection late this afternoon, it looks as though I will be getting a physical fittness program this weekend tilling a 3000 sq.ft. garden, the good news ( if I survive) is that we will have less grass to mow. Since that is the area which recieves a lot of direct sun ( I called it the desert, when push mowing) we'll delighted to miss that agony.

  Got in a huddle on transplanting our 1st phase of seedlings, this is going to be interesting, we are a little stressed for room since Nora decided to adopt 30 Angel Trumpet plants, we are definitely not doing that again , sometimes it worse than a stray dog, at least they move around on their own.

  Well if I don't BLOG over the weekend , it may be cause I'm in traction, or having a hernia operated on, so excuse me while I go take it for the team......................... Have a Great Weekend!

Back to preparation!

  Delivered the tiller , hopefully we will have it back by Saturday.....Not sure that the ground will be dry enough, but we are finallly going to have some warm days that may allow us to till on Sunday, we just have to cross our fingers!. Actually, we will have to take a handfull of dirt , and make a fist, depending on how it compacts will tell us if there is too much moisture in the dirt or not, it should not cake a lot.

  Seedlings are growing right along, we are about 2 weeks from tranferring the 1st batch. We are custom making the plastic tarp that will cover the frame for the hardening off structure, may possibly get into that this weekend.

  Researching various receipe's for salsa's, sauce's,relishes,  and whatever may be applicable for the harvest.

  It looks as though we are on our way to Spring, this weekend should be bring the gardener out in everyone in this area. It will be game on, can ya dig it!.

Rolling along with garden preparations.

  Woke up to slush & snow this morning, so not much on the outdoor seen. ..... Went Lowes to pick up some odds & ends, organic plant food, another grow light , some more expandable soil for the seedling cups for the next batch ....

  Watched the News on TV ,NBC  had segment on "organic vegetables" which indicated the growth of the industry, however the insinuation that we may not be getting the best bang for our buck, left me disgusted with the Media.   If you think about it, if everyone starts growing victory gardens , this is going to take a big bite out of their Commercial sponsors i.e. companies like Kraft, Dole, Chiquita, Kellogs, Del Monte , Hunts etc. , as a result here we are with negitive spinning, probably in preparation to downplay the real benefits of organic growing....... It's like Big Business, or Big Brother can't stand letting the average Joe get a leg up without trying to control, or tax, or make laws that are unreasonably prohibitive for common people to just sustain a manor of living that their parents enjoyed........ We don't live in different times; we live in different ethics, it about time we changed back to what worked , not what  we 've been getting  from this broken system.

 We're not going to make this blog a pulbit, however we are not going to stand by , and watch the agro megagrowers take whats left and destroy our ability to survive.

Seed starter innovation

  Sunday was not a day of rest, however it got warm enough  to venture outside. We cleared the exisiting gardens of debrie, and allowed for the ground to get some sun to dry off.  ... Picked out all the perinial plants that made it thru the almost finished winter ( we hope ) ...... Finished making the PVC frame for the mini green house/hardenning off enclosure......... 


                                                                                                                                                                     NEWS FLASH! The highlight of the day (actually evening) was discovering that Dole mixed fruit jello  4.3 oz cups, will fit over the" Mousse Temptation" containers *(previous BLOG) to provide the nicest stand alone seed starter, talk about a green epiphany. Totally awesome! ( we got to start posting pictures). ..... So, now we have 2 excellent rationalizations to have our desert and our garden too....... Time to start sharpening your tools, pulled the tiller out and need to get the flat tire fixed, then off to the repair shop for a maintenance  tune up ( used it alot last year tilling other gardens beside our own).

  Our1st batch of seedlings are now getting their  next set of true leaves, so our next step perhaps this weekend will be to transplant into larger peat planter boxes......... It is now T-minus 45 days to official last frost, however we are going to add 7 more days , due to this extreme winter for now.