A Victory Garden? What on earth is THAT? It sounds OLD! Well, as a matter of fact it IS old.
A brief introduction to Victory Gardens
Imagine you’re in charge of a country. It could be any country but this is YOUR country. The food supply is dwindling, moral is dwindling, what’s a country’s leader to do?
Have everyone plant a Victory Garden! Victory Gardens, also known as “war gardens” or “food gardens for defense” came about during World War I. They were planted both in public parks and people’s homes throughout the United States of America, the United Kingdom, Canada and Germany.
It’s estimated that during World War II around 1/3 of all vegetables produced in the United States of America came from Victory Gardens. It helped feed the general population, the troops, and increased morale.
A Victory Garden was considered so essential that the government made a 20 minute “How To” video to educate people on victory gardens and how to plant one. It covers plowing, planting, weeding, and pest control.
What I found most interesting
I found the parts about pest control especially interesting. I wonder how many of those pesticides are still in use. Though I’m not an “organic gardener” Per Se, I don’t relish (every pun intended) the idea of eating stuff that’s been sprayed with poison, no matter how well washed it is.
In any case, with all the pesticides that have been banned, and remembering the pesticides my grandfather and dad put on their gardens, it’d be interesting to know.
What does a Victory Garden have to do with I Am NOT A Gardener?
Nothing directly. I read an article that suggested that with the ongoing drought in several major food producing areas of the United States that going back to planting Victory Gardens is a viable way to help combat the inevitable price increase of produce that comes with a decreasing supply of vegetables.
As we celebrate Memorial Day, this seemed like a great time to write about such an important part of our history and the war effort.
Here’s the government produced video introducing Victory Gardens
That’s right, the 20 minute video produced way back when is not only still around, but on the internet. So as a small way for this blog to honor our Veterans, here is the video.
https://archive.org/details/victory_garden