Your Victory Garden

By Cynthia Sandberg

During the World Wars, we Americans were urged by our government to grow what were called “Victory Gardens.” These were at-home food production gardens for the purpose of relieving the strapped economy from having to feed every last person. 

Well, these are worrisome times, and perhaps you should consider growing a Victory Garden, or taking it a bit more seriously this year. Who knows what is in store for us? 

Our mandate at Love Apple is to help you do that. 

Not only are we offering dozens of varieties of tomatoes, peppers and eggplants, but we have added more vegetable plants for your Victory Garden too. We will open, as planned, this weekend, because of the food cultivation exemption. Here is what we are doing to avoid the crush of people usually seen in the first couple of weekends:

1. You must pre-order through our website at www.growbetterveggies.com so we can plan on having the plants you want.
2. You must then make an appointment on our scheduling page to come to our nursery. This limits the folks coming in to six per hour, staggered throughout. Don’t fret if all of the first weeks’ slots are taken. Your plants are here, we are caring for them and you’ll get what you ordered. Besides, it’s too cold and rainy yet to plant them.
3. When you come pick up at your appointed time, we will only allow ONE PERSON from your party to enter. No couples, no kids, no entourage, not even dogs. You will be in a line with stations every 8 feet apart to avoid social contact. Please DO NOT COME early or if you do not have an appointment.
4. If you are in a high-risk group, or otherwise feeling vulnerable, we can walk your order out to your car. We don’t even need to interact; just pop the trunk, we’ll pop in the box, and you’ll be good to grow. Visit our scheduling page to see how that is handled.
5. We will ask you for your transaction number (listed on your Paypal emailed receipt). If you are picking up for someone else, you’ll need their number too and the email address they used to place their order. Once we are sure you have an appointment, we will point you to a station where you will wait for your personal staffer to pull your order(s) for you. You WILL have a chance to order more things once you arrive. We will have an order sheet here waiting for you. 
6. This year, we will not be able to answer a lot of questions in person, but we are happy to do so via email. Email us at loveapplefarms@gmail.com to pre-ask your questions, and we’ll do our best to answer everything you are concerned about in your garden. We are also happy to give you suggestions, but best to do so via email this year. 
7. Please do not email us requesting an earlier appointment. I know we said you could pick up your order on March 28, but these are extraordinary times, and we MUST do our part to keep everyone safe.

Do not be concerned we will have sold out of the plants you want. This is not the case. We are keeping close track of our quantities based on daily pre-order totals and the plants for your Victory Garden will be here when you pick them up, even if it’s three weeks from now.

We are going to have paths and ropes and stations in place to distance you from each other and from us. We will be disinfecting your pick-up tables between each guest. We urge you to wear a mask, gloves, and wipe the boxes, bags, and plastics down that you’ll be receiving from us. 

•••

Cynthia Sandberg is the owner of Love Apple Farms, 5311 Scotts Valley Drive, Scotts Valley.