In today’s environment, as the National Garden Bureau celebrates its 100th anniversary (1920-2020), it seems timely to reintroduce the concept of victory gardening. During World War I and II, the US Department of Agriculture urged civilians to start their own gardens and can their own vegetables to save commercial canned goods for the troops. People were encouraged to make gardening a family and community effort. These gardens were called “Liberty Gardens”. When it started to look like the US and its allies would win the war, the name of the gardens was changed to “Victory Gardens”. The USDA estimates that more than 20 million victory gardens were planted. Fruit and vegetables harvested in these home and community plots was estimated to be 9-10 million tons, an amount equal to all commercial production of fresh vegetables.
Creating a victory garden can provide a little control over our lives, satisfaction of raising nutritious and delicious food, exercising outdoors while socially distancing, relieving pressure on the nation’s food supply system, passing essential knowledge on to your children, growing extra to share with others and a constructive distraction in a confined environment.
The Old Farmer’s Almanac has always recorded and predicted astronomical events (the rising and setting of the Sun, for instance), tides, weather, and other phenomena with respect to time, as well as provided gardening guidance and advice. Their free planting calendar, based on frost dates, calculates the best time to start seeds indoors and outdoors, as well as when to plant young plants outside.
Beth’s Grandfather bought this 1941 9N Ford-Ferguson tractor in January 1942 in Darien, CT. It moved with the family to Denmark, ME in 1950. In 1953, it was traded in for a bigger model. In 2000, Beth’s Dad found the tractor at an auction and purchased it, bringing it back to the family after 47 years.
Beth’s Grandfather and Father plowing a Victory Garden. Through World War II, Grampy plowed hundreds of gardens, mostly at night, since he has his own dairy farm to run during the day. Tractor: Ford-Fordson with grader attachment.
The weather in New England is as diverse as its residents, but in order to plant a Victory Garden, it is important to do so in the best conditions possible. Use the observations below to identify what weather condition occurred on each day of the month.
WEATHER CONDITIONS
All days whose sums of digits equal 8 were foggy
Two diagonally adjoining even-numbered days whose sum equals 36 were snowy
Odd-numbered days that follow a foggy day were rainy
All Saturdays except one were sunny
The first, middle and last days of the month had weather that began with an s and hasn’t been mentioned yet
All foggy days except one came after cloudy days
Cloudy days followed all snowy days
Only two Thursdays were cloudy, and they were two weeks apart
Two Sundays of the month had hail
There was a twister on the 18th
The rest of the even-numbered days were the same as the majority of Saturdays
The remaining days were cloudy
The only day we can plant this month is on a sunny Friday.
What is the sum of the Victory Garden vegetables multiplied by the sunny Friday date?