Victory Gardens for Today

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Victory Gardens have a place today just as they did 80 years ago during WWI and WWII. Everyone can grow their own food – in full or in part – no matter where you live. Whether your garden consists of a series of planters on your patio, raised beds in the backyard, or a tilled plot of earth, take the time to plan your garden, grow what your family eats, and then share with your neighbors.

What is a Victory Garden?

During World War I and World War II the government rationed foods like sugar, milk, butter, eggs, meat, and even canned goods. Labor shortages made it difficult to get goods to market. The government encouraged families to do their part by growing their own fruits and vegetables at home. The Victory Garden, or War Garden, was born.

Nearly 20 million American families answered the patriotic call to grow their own fruits and vegetables at home. While farm families had been doing this for generations, now those in the suburbs and cities across America were pooling their resources. They grew fruits and vegetables in backyards, empty lots, and even on city rooftops!

And the result? According to the US Department of Agriculture, fruits and vegetables harvested in these home and community gardens totaled an estimated 9-10 million tons! That was an amount equal to commercial growers in the United States at the same time!

Because trains and trucks had to be used to transport soldiers, vehicles, and weapons, most Americans ate local. Combined with the items families could purchase through rationing, Victory Gardens kept food on the table. Even schools would grow gardens to have fresh fruits and vegetables to serve for school lunches. Something that is a novel idea today.

Families who grew excess would can their harvests to supplement their family meals through the winter months when fresh produce was scarce for most of the country.

Growing Victory Gardens is how many on the homefront showed their support of the government and military during the war. In addition to keeping families fed, it was a huge morale booster.

What do you grow in a Victory Garden?

The US Department of Agriculture didn’t just tell people to plant gardens to support the war effort, but they gave them a clear plan of what to grow for their family so there would be enough to eat. Individual states also gave garden plans that used these guidelines combined with what would grow well in their given climate so that families would be successful.

Gardens contained easy to grow crops that were also nutrient dense like carrots, radishes, beans, peas, lettuce, tomatoes, squash, parsnips, spinach, broccoli, and cabbage.

How big was a War Garden?

One USDA publication recommended that a family of two adults have a garden plot that measured 25’x50′ (1250 square feet) and that in that space they could grow enough for the two of them with the exception of sweet corn & potatoes. For a family of four, two adults with two children, a garden plot of 50’x100′ (5000 square feet) was recommended.

These gardens sound massive especially with the size of most yards today, but think about it … houses were smaller, towns were less densely packed, and people didn’t focus on having huge garages, sheds, and playsets in the yard. During this time, the purpose of the yard was to provide food for the family and give families food security during uncertain times.

The End of Victory Gardens

After World War II, the need for Victory Gardens subsided. The USDA stopped the campaigns. Goods began to once again flow into market places. Ration books became a thing of the past. Suburbs began developing at a faster pace with neighborhoods leading way to developments. In the forty years following WWII, the landscape of America changed dramatically.

Growing up in the 1980s, my Grandfather had a garden and so did my parents. I don’t think I knew anyone else who gardened when I was growing up. What was an act of patriotism and self-reliance during my grandparents’ generation was now a lost art. One of nostalgia and stories but no longer the norm throughout America.

Gardening Makes a Comeback

In my lifetime, there seems to be a clear point in time where gardening made a comeback. Where it even became trendy. And that was 2009-2017, when First Lady Michelle Obama brought back the White House Kitchen Garden.

During her tenure as First Lady, I saw an increase in schools putting in gardens to teach their students about nutrition. I saw my neighbors putting in vegetable gardens. I saw a community of people desperate to get back to the land and have a connection to the food they put on the table. They longed for the connection to food and community that 20 million families had just a generation before.

Farm-to-Table … Eat Local … Eat Seasonal … the buzz words that made all restaurants and cafes trendy. Something so simple, yet so foreign.

Victory Gardens Today

Today’s Victory Gardens are not growing out of patriotic duty but more out of a desire to reconnect, to have control over the food supply, and to have food security during uncertain times.

Victory Gardens have a place today just as they did 80 years ago during WWI and WWII. Everyone can grow their own food – in full or in part – no matter where you live. Whether your garden consists of a series of planters on your patio, raised beds in the backyard, or a tilled plot of earth, take the time to plan your garden, grow what your family eats, and then share with your neighbors.

While many still farm and garden the way its been done for generations, we now know more about the unique needs of certain plants. To get the most bang for your buck, and the largest harvest for the amount of garden space you have available, consider Square Foot Gardening (SFG).

The goal with SFG and container gardening is to work smarter, not harder.  SFG results in using 80% less space to grow the same amount of crops you would in traditional row gardening.  By using less space, you also are cutting down on the amount of water that is needed, the amount of fertilizers and soil amendments that are needed, and, probably the most appealing, the amount of time you need to spend working in the garden.

 Using the 15×25 Victory Garden plan for a family of 2-4 as a guide, I have converted the traditional garden to use the SFG method. The number of plants you can have in the same amount of space is mind-blowing!

That is so much more food than what a family of 2-4 would actually need. For several crops, you have tripled the yield!

Using SFG, to get the same number of plants as in the traditional garden you could get by with only 3 raised beds – one each 2×9, 4×9, and 3×9. Completely reasonable for today’s families without losing the backyard for other leisure activities. You’re working smarter not harder to be able to produce food for your family.

Now I admit, the layout of that middle bed leaves a little to be desired. I would probably modify the layout flipping the rows of beans with carrots so the shorter crop is in front, and the taller is behind it, but this gives you an idea as to how it could all work.

Take the idea of the Victory Garden and run with it. Make it your own and have it work for your family. Grow your own food, and take control of what you and your family eat.