*The Dash Garden*
By: Vikis
29 April 2020

Eighteen months ago, we sold our homestead, all the animals, stored our prepping items, bought a 40' motorcoach, and started traveling. Our travels stopped with the outbreak of COVID-19 as we retreated "home" to hunker down on a friend's property.

On the trip "home" my husband and I were discussing what we could do to help on the property and what could we grow. We were already witnessing bare grocery shelves and wondering how long re-supply would take, if ever, etc.

We made the agreement with our host family to take over the gardening and tending to the chickens. Luckily, we arrived (at their place) a couple weeks before the last frost date, giving us time to prepare the raised beds and get some seeds started.

We pooled all our seeds and before we knew it - the Dash Garden was born! The warmest, most protected, lit area we could think of was the dash of our Class A motorhome. And it's working so far!

Aside from the seedlings we also picked up some fresh potted herbs. Our state is currently under "stay at home/shelter in place" orders so when the herbs needed repotting, I simply used what I had on hand. A few 2L soda bottles became my new pots for some of the herbs along with some soil from the raised beds.

Most of the seedlings have made their way out to the green house for hardening and the seeds we planted directly into the raised beds are sprouting nicely. Not to mention I've used the Basil and Cilantro, which are growing on the dash, in several recipes already.

I can't say we intended to get back into homesteading just yet, but I'm thankful for the skills learned over the last decade. Growing vegetables/leafy greens, etc. isn't hard but there is a small learning curve.

My suggestion to everyone is to start growing sooner than later. If you haven't already start a seed bank, practice, and learn a new skill.

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