VICTORY GARDENS
Early History and WWI
It's England in the 17th century and the drumbeat of war is being heard as the citizenry prepares for a possible invasion by Spain. A man named Richard Gardner (appropriately enough) produces a book called Victory Garden, encouraging cities to provide for their residents through home gardening with this advice: “...if any citie or towne should be besieged with the enemy, what better provision for the greatest number of people can be than every garden to be sufficiently planted with carrots?" Thus was born the concept of self-sufficiency during times of dire need, through simple grass roots gardening efforts, a concept that has seen America and Europe through the ravages of two great wars and may someday be needed again to salvage our way of life if war, population growth, climate change and other as yet unforeseen circumstances cause massive disruption in the global food supply. Fast forward 300 years from Mr. Gardner's day and the planet is engulfed in WWI, the Great War, the largest war the world had ever known. It was the first time in history that more countries were at war with each other than were at peace. Canada joined the war with the Allied forces when it began in the summer of 1914. America remained neutral for three years and then her hand was forced when a German submarine attacked and sank the luxury liner, Lusitania, in the spring of 1917. Throughout the war, Europe had serious problems getting sufficient food for its population. All the farmers in Europe had gone off to war during the summer of 1914, leaving their crops ripening in the fields, some never to be harvested. Since that time, much of the land in Europe had fallen into the war zone, making it impossible to farm. There was no meat to be found and, in England, dairy products were so restricted that a doctor needed to certify that it was necessary for the recipient's health. In some cities, bread was in such short supply that, many days, it was not available. Food shipments to Europe were threatened by German submarines that lurked and menaced beneath the seas. It fell to North America to help meet the burden of providing food for the 120,000,000 people in the countries of the Allied Forces. And so the U.S., though it had not yet joined the war, had to cut consumption greatly as well. Prices increased for foods such as butter, eggs, and coffee. There were meatless and wheatless
by Karen Harper
days to try to cut consumption of highly valued food products. The situation grew increasingly dire. Victory gardens to the rescue! Also called war gardens, liberty gardens or 'food gardens for defense', these were vegetable, fruit and herb gardens planted at private residences and public parks in the U.S., United Kingdom, Canada and Australia during the great World Wars, to reduce the pressure on the public food supply brought on by the war effort. In addition to indirectly aiding the war effort these gardens were also considered a civil "morale booster" — in that gardeners could feel empowered by their contribution of labor and rewarded by the produce grown. This made victory gardens an important part of daily life on the home front. Having seen the nation's Allies suffer with food shortages, civic and political leaders wanted to prepare this country for hard times. They also wanted to keep both troop and citizen morale high by cultivating a sense of patriotic selfsufficiency. Efforts were understandably concentrated in larger cities since the more rural areas regularly relied on gardening for sustenance. Through a publicity campaign of posters, slogans and pamphlets ("Our food is fighting," “Will you have a part in victory?,” “Every war garden a peace plant,” “Can the Kaiser,” “Sow the Seeds of Victory,” and “Put the slacker land to work”), the U.S. War Department convinced residents on the home front that the produce from their gardens would help to lower the price of vegetables needed by the Department to feed the troops, thus saving money that could be spent elsewhere on the military. Both government and private entities (including businesses, civic groups and schools) promoted gardening as a civic virtue. It was often noted that none other than Thomas Jefferson had seen a direct relationship between gardening and good citizenship. Continued on next page
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