FREE Printable Vintage Victory Garden Guide for Gardening Success

This vintage Victory Garden Guide is packed full of gardening wisdom. It’s not too late to plant a Victory Garden this year!

Have you ever heard of a Victory Garden? If you’ve been on this Earth any length of time, there’s a good chance you have. For those who haven’t they were an essential part of life during the World Wars. People were encouraged to grow these victory gardens full of herbs, fruits, and vegetables to supplement their rations and boost morale. Somewhere along the line a simple Victory Garden Guide was printed, and it is packed FULL of wisdom. I stumbled upon a free printable version not too long ago, promptly printed it off, and knew it was something I needed to share with you.

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The diagrams lay it all out for you

I think my favorite part of the whole book is the diagrams. If you’ve ever planted a garden, you know that to be successful there is major planning that must go into where crops are located. Some plants don’t like others. Others thrive around certain ones. Learning all of that takes a great deal of time. Not just time, but lots of failure. The garden layouts take all of that into consideration and plan accordingly. I can simply look at the layout, and plant everything as they have it. HUGE time saver.

I do still suggest learning which plants like which. I’ve scribbled all of that information down in a notebook over the years. Hopefully soon I can get that typed up and share a little “cheat sheet” with you.

I am by NO means a gardening expert. I am still learning by trial and error. Every year I learn something new. I have planted a garden for most of our 17 years of marriage and have learned a thing or two. I jotted a few of them down to share with you.

Garden tips for beginners

1. Start small. I know the temptation is there to till up half of the back yard, and plant every variety of bean under the sun, but trust me, weeding, watering, harvesting, and preserving is a lot of work, and a lot of learning. Pick a few things your family eats and loves and grow them. Learn what makes those plants flourish, and then add more next year.
2. South facing is key. If you don’t know which way in your back yard faces south, your smartphone can most likely tell you. Many have a compass built right in. If you don’t have a compass, just watch your yard for a few days. Make a note of which area gets the most sun exposure. Sunlight makes a happy garden.
3. Plan your garden where the hose reaches. (Or buy a few hoses to link together.) Nothing is worse than a whole day of back breaking labor only to realize you’ll have to haul water to the garden.
4. Fertilize. I realize that not everyone lives on a farm, or has manure producing animals in their backyard, but the right fertilizer makes a HUGE difference. I cannot even believe the difference in my gardens when I started using our goat manure on them. Get on some local Facebook groups and ask around for buckets of either rabbit or goat manure. Better yet, raise a few rabbits and have your very own fertilizer producing pets.
5. If space is an issue, use containers. I love these flexible raised garden beds. I planted a few late tomatoes in them last summer, and they did great. You can also plant in buckets, flowerpots, or even straw bales.
6. Know your planting zone. It would be a shame to order seeds or starts only to discover they won’t grow in your area. The USDA has an interactive map and some downloads too. https://planthardiness.ars.usda.gov/pages/view-maps
7. Be sure you know your frost dates. Planting too early or too late can result in major devastation by frost. No one wants all of their hard work wiped out overnight.
8. FENCE. Maybe wildlife isn’t much of an issue where you live, but if it is…FENCE. Deer are majestic and beautiful to watch until they tromp down your garden, uproot your cucumbers, and eat all of the blooms. Rabbits are just as destructive. If you think it might be an issue invest in fence from the beginning.

Free Printable Victory Garden Guide

There are 34 pages full of wisdom and gardening know-how. From tilling the land to harvesting the produce you will find it all in this simple guide.

I hope that you enjoy the Victory Garden Guide as much as I have. I can’t wait to hear about your garden, and share what we’re doing this year very soon!

Here’s an image to pin for later…

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