VICTORY GARDEN TAKE-HOME MESSAGE:
"SEEDS FROM UKRAINE GROW IN AMERICAN SOIL"
June, July, August, September. Only four short months in the soil of this rural New Hampshire town of Barnstead - a stone's throw from the gold-domed State Capitol in Concord - and this year's Victory Garden question can now be answered in the affirmative. "Yes, vegetable seeds from Ukraine will grow in American soil."
As attested by photographs and visits to the boxed garden on Maple Street at Barnstead School, genuine open-pollinated and heritage seeds from Ukraine, conventionally mail-ordered from sellers near Odesa, Dinipro and Irpin, have done well, sprouting, growing and maturing in both open rows planted in June and later interplanted among American basil, oregano, chives, squash, flowers, peppers and strawberries as the season progressed. Varieties include radishes, beans, pumpkins, sunflowers, greens, and squash that have kept growing despite a stressful summer.
Thanks to Barnstead School, the community garden was begun several years ago by Melissa Marston, her family and friends, and chronicled on Facebook for all to see and enjoy. This year's garden was started by Marston, Molly Brown and their daughters, plus Stuart Leiderman also of Barnstead, who reached out to Ukraine for seeds and then created Victory Garden kits with them, with tools, markers, original booklets and photos from the seed sellers, flags of both countries, and a large wallmap of Ukraine to help students and gardeners follow the news.
"As we have learned anew," says Leiderman, "Ukraine is a global breadbasket. The country has a large and mature agricultural sector, growing and exporting much of the world's wheat from expansive prairie lands, and cooking oil from miles and miles of sunflowers that I have seen first-hand when I traveled from Kiev to Mariupol several years ago. Ukrainians, including schoolchildren, have a long tradition of vegetable gardening for health, economy and survival. Wartime has now made this tradition even more critical."
In size, were Ukraine superimposed over the Northeast, it would cover a large region from approximately Boston to Chicago and south to Richmond. In latitude, however, Ukraine is approximately on a line with Quebec Province in Canada. Thus, according to Leiderman, "I expected Ukrainian vegetable seeds would accommodate well in Barnstead and New Hampshire. For the future, thanks to internet and email, students here and over there could easily exchange seeds and grow vegetables in controlled plots. They would see whether and how each country's varieties do in the other's soil and climate. Along the way, we might even hatch a few world-class botanists and agronomists. Who knows?"