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Eustis, FL
– Visitors to museums are used to dusty relics that harkens back to another era,
but at the Eustis Historical Museum, learning about wartime victory gardens
means getting your hands dirty as well. Earlier this month, museum officers
joined with members of the Eustis Flower and Garden Club to plant a victory
garden on the grounds of the museum.
“Victory Gardens
were an important part of the war effort in the forties,” says Museum President
Tim Totten. “Many farmhands had been pressed into service in World War II, so
folks were encouraged to ease the strain on the nation’s food supply by growing
their own fruits and vegetables at home.”
Utilizing the
square-foot gardening concept, Eustis Flower and Garden Club founding member
Paula Quillen laid out a four-foot by four-foot raised bed, while Historical
Society Trustee Jim Gillies and Museum Vice-President Cindy Satur stirred
together the planting mixture. During the first teaching session, the group
planted spaghetti squash, cantaloupe, string beans and tomatoes.
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From left to
right: Jim Gillies, Cindy Satur, Paula Quillen and Tim Totten |
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“We’ve decided to
hold weekly teaching sessions to highlight the history of the victory garden and
to demonstrate how easy this gardening technique really is,” says Quillen.
“We’re holding these short training classes on both Tuesdays and Saturdays at
nine am. We teach the same thing each day, so people can choose which day to
attend and not miss out.”
So far, classes have
covered building a raised bed and marking the square-foot sections. Quillen
says that future class subjects include “Growing from your Fridge,” “What the
Zones Tell Us” and “What’s in Your Dirt?”
All sessions are
free, with a guarantee that willing attendees can get their hands dirty planting
and maintaining the garden. To sign up, please call the Eustis Historical
Museum at 352-483-0046 or attend one of the Tuesday or Saturday sessions at 9:00
am.
The Eustis
Historical Museum and Preservation Society, located at 536 North Bay Street, is
a 501c3 tax-exempt organization that relies on
memberships, grants, donations, fundraisers and assistance from the City of
Eustis to maintain the museum and local historical artifacts for future
generations.
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