Victory gardens, also called war gardens or food gardens for defense, were vegetable, fruit, and

herb In general use, herbs are a widely distributed and widespread group of plants, excluding vegetables and other plants consumed for macronutrients, with savory or aromatic properties that are used for flavoring and garnishing food, for medicinal ...

garden A garden is a planned space, usually outdoors, set aside for the cultivation, display, and enjoyment of plants and other forms of nature. The single feature identifying even the wildest wild garden is ''control''. The garden can incorporate both ...

s planted at private residences and public parks in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and Germany during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

and

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. In wartime, governments encouraged people to plant victory gardens not only to supplement their rations but also to boost morale. They were used along with rationing stamps and cards to reduce pressure on the food supply. Besides indirectly aiding the

war effort In politics and military planning, a war effort is a coordinated mobilization of society's resources—both industrial and human—towards the support of a military force. Depending on the militarization of the culture, the relative si ...

, these gardens were also considered a

civil Civil may refer to: *Civic virtue, or civility *Civil action, or lawsuit * Civil affairs *Civil and political rights *Civil disobedience *Civil engineering *Civil (journalism), a platform for independent journalism *Civilian, someone not a membe ...

morale Morale, also known as esprit de corps (), is the capacity of a group's members to maintain belief in an institution or goal, particularly in the face of opposition or hardship. Morale is often referenced by authority figures as a generic value ...

booster" in that gardeners could feel empowered by their contribution of labor and rewarded by the produce grown. This made victory gardens a part of daily life on the

home front Home front is an English language term with analogues in other languages. It is commonly used to describe the full participation of the British public in World War I who suffered Zeppelin#During World War I, Zeppelin raids and endured Rationin ...

World War I

Canada

Victory Gardens became popular in Canada in 1917. Under the Ministry of Agriculture's campaign, "A Vegetable Garden for Every Home", residents of cities, towns and villages utilized backyard spaces to plant vegetables for personal use and war effort. In the city of

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

, women's organizations brought expert gardeners into the schools to get school children and their families interested in gardening. In addition to gardening, homeowners were encouraged to keep hens in their yards for the purpose of collecting eggs. The result was a large production of potatoes, beets, cabbage, and other useful vegetables.

United States

In March 1917, Charles Lathrop Pack organized the US National War Garden Commission and launched the war garden campaign. Food production had fallen dramatically during

, especially in Europe, where agricultural labor had been recruited into military service and remaining farms devastated by the conflict. Pack and others conceived the idea that the supply of food could be greatly increased without the use of land and manpower already engaged in agriculture, and without the significant use of transportation facilities needed for the war effort. The campaign promoted the cultivation of available private and public lands, resulting in over five million gardens in the US and foodstuff production exceeding $1.2 billion by the end of the war. President

Woodrow Wilson Thomas Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856February 3, 1924) was an American politician and academic who served as the 28th president of the United States from 1913 to 1921. A member of the Democratic Party, Wilson served as the president of ...

said that "Food will win the war." To support the home garden effort, a

United States School Garden Army The United States School Garden Army (USSGA), was founded by the Bureau of Education in 1917 during the administration of President Wooodrow Wilson's. Wilson described gardening as "just as real and patriotic an effort as the building of ships or ...

was launched through the

Bureau of Education The Office of Education, at times known as the Department of Education and the Bureau of Education, was a small unit in the Federal Government of the United States within the U.S. Department of the Interior from 1867 to 1972. It is now separated ...

, and funded by the War Department at Wilson's direction.

World War II

INF3-96 Food Production Dig for Victory Artist Peter Fraser

Australia

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

launched a Dig for Victory campaign in 1942 as rationing and a shortage of agricultural workers began to affect food supplies. The situation began to ease in 1943; however, home gardens continued throughout the war.

Britain

In Britain, "digging for victory" used much land such as waste ground, railway edges, ornamental gardens and lawns, while sports fields and golf courses were requisitioned for farming or vegetable growing. Sometimes a sports field was left as it was but used for sheep-grazing instead of being mown (for example see ). Other schools, like

Winchester College Winchester College is a public school (fee-charging independent day and boarding school) in Winchester, Hampshire, England. It was founded by William of Wykeham in 1382 and has existed in its present location ever since. It is the oldest of the ...

, ploughed their fields to grow vegetables for school consumption, supplementing the meagre soil fertility by raising pigs for their manure. By 1943, the number of allotments had roughly doubled to 1,400,000, including rural, urban and suburban plots.

C. H. Middleton Cecil Henry Middleton (22 February 1886 – 18 September 1945) was a British gardener, writer and one of the earliest radio and television broadcasters on gardening for the BBC. Middleton broadcast in Britain during the 1930s and 40s, especiall ...

's radio programme ''In Your Garden'' reached millions of listeners keen for advice on growing potatoes, leeks and the like, and helped ensure a communal sense of contributing to the war effort (as well as a practical response to food rationing).

County Herb Committees The County Herb Committees were a nationwide medicinal plant collecting scheme, established by the British Ministry of Health during the Second World War. History The County Herb Committees were set up at a time when the German occupation of ...

were established to collect medicinal herbs when German blockades created shortages, for instance in ''

Digitalis purpurea ''Digitalis purpurea'', the foxglove or common foxglove, is a poisonous species of flowering plant in the plantain family Plantaginaceae, native to and widespread throughout most of temperate Europe. It has also naturalised in parts of North Am ...

'' (Foxglove) which was used to regulate heartbeat. Victory gardens were planted in backyards and on apartment-building rooftops, with the occasional vacant lot "commandeered for the war effort!" and put to use as a cornfield or a squash patch. During World War II, sections of lawn were publicly plowed for plots in

Hyde Park, London Hyde Park is a Listed building#Heritage protection, Grade I-listed major park in Westminster, Greater London, the largest of the four Royal Parks of London, Royal Parks that form a chain from the entrance to Kensington Palace through Kensingt ...

to promote the movement, while allotments growing onions in the shadow of the

Albert Memorial The Albert Memorial, directly north of the Royal Albert Hall in Kensington Gardens, London, was commissioned by Queen Victoria in memory of her beloved husband Prince Albert, who died in 1861. Designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott in the Gothic ...

also pointed to everybody, high and low, chipping in to the national struggle. Both

Buckingham Palace Buckingham Palace () is a London royal residence and the administrative headquarters of the monarch of the United Kingdom. Located in the City of Westminster, the palace is often at the centre of state occasions and royal hospitality. It ...

and

Windsor Castle Windsor Castle is a royal residence at Windsor in the English county of Berkshire. It is strongly associated with the English and succeeding British royal family, and embodies almost a millennium of architectural history. The original cast ...

had vegetable gardens planted at the instigation of

King George VI George VI (Albert Frederick Arthur George; 14 December 1895 – 6 February 1952) was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from 11 December 1936 until his death in 1952. He was also the last Emperor of Ind ...

to assist with food production.

United States

Amid regular

rationing Rationing is the controlled distribution of scarce resources, goods, services, or an artificial restriction of demand. Rationing controls the size of the ration, which is one's allowed portion of the resources being distributed on a particular ...

of food in Britain, the

United States Department of Agriculture The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is the United States federal executive departments, federal executive department responsible for developing and executing federal laws related to farming, forestry, rural economic development, ...

encouraged the planting of victory gardens during the course of World War II. Around one third of the vegetables produced by the United States came from victory gardens. It was emphasized to American homefront urbanites and suburbanites that the produce from their gardens would help to lower the price of vegetables needed by the

US War Department The United States Department of War, also called the War Department (and occasionally War Office in the early years), was the United States Cabinet department originally responsible for the operation and maintenance of the United States Army, a ...

to feed the troops, thus saving money that could be spent elsewhere on the military: "Our food is fighting", one US poster read. By May 1943, there were 18 million victory gardens in the United States – 12 million in cities and 6 million on farms. Eleanor Roosevelt planted a Victory Garden on the

White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in 1800. ...

lawn in 1943. The Roosevelts were not the first presidency to institute a garden in the White House. Woodrow Wilson grazed sheep on the south lawn during World War I to avoid mowing the lawn. Eleanor Roosevelt's garden instead served as a political message of the patriotic duty to garden, even though Eleanor did not tend to her own garden. While Victory Gardens were portrayed as a patriotic duty, 54% of Americans polled said they grew gardens for economic reasons while only 20% mentioned patriotism. Although at first the Department of Agriculture objected to

Eleanor Roosevelt Anna Eleanor Roosevelt () (October 11, 1884November 7, 1962) was an American political figure, diplomat, and activist. She was the first lady of the United States from 1933 to 1945, during her husband President Franklin D. Roosevelt's four ...

's institution of a victory garden on the White House grounds, fearing that such a movement would hurt the food industry, basic information about gardening appeared in public services booklets distributed by the Department of Agriculture, as well as by

agribusiness Agribusiness is the industry, enterprises, and the field of study of value chains in agriculture and in the bio-economy, in which case it is also called bio-business or bio-enterprise. The primary goal of agribusiness is to maximize profit w ...

corporations such as

International Harvester The International Harvester Company (often abbreviated by IHC, IH, or simply International ( colloq.)) was an American manufacturer of agricultural and construction equipment, automobiles, commercial trucks, lawn and garden products, household e ...

and

Beech-Nut Beech-Nut Nutrition Corporation is a baby food company owned by the Swiss branded consumer-goods firm Hero Group. History Beech-Nut's roots go back to 1891, to the Mohawk Valley town of Canajoharie, New York. Raymond P. Lipe, along with his ...

. Fruit and vegetables harvested in these home and community plots was estimated to be in 1944, an amount equal to all commercial production of fresh vegetables. The Victory Garden movement also attempted to unite the Home-front. Local communities would have festivals and competitions to showcase the produce each person grew in their own gardens. While the garden movement united some local communities, the garden movement separated minorities like African Americans. At harvest shows, separate prizes were awarded to "colored people", in similar categories, a long-held tradition in

Delaware Delaware ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Maryland to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and New Jersey and the Atlantic Ocean to its east. The state takes its name from the adjacent Del ...

and the deeper South, as well as in

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

. In

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, the lawns around vacant "Riverside" were devoted to victory gardens, as were portions of San Francisco's

Golden Gate Park Golden Gate Park, located in San Francisco, California, United States, is a large urban park consisting of of public grounds. It is administered by the San Francisco Recreation & Parks Department, which began in 1871 to oversee the development ...

. The slogan "grow your own, can your own", was a slogan that started at the time of the war and referred to families growing and canning their own food in victory gardens.

Postwar

In 1946, with the war over, many British residents did not plant victory gardens, in expectation of greater availability of food. However, shortages remained in the United Kingdom, and rationing remained in place for at least some food items until 1954. Land at the centre of the Sutton Garden Suburb in

Sutton, London Sutton is the principal town in the London Borough of Sutton in South London, England. It lies on the lower slopes of the North Downs, and is the administrative headquarters of the Outer London borough. It is south-south west of Charing Cross ...

was first put to use as a victory garden during World War II; before then it had been used as a recreation ground with tennis courts. The land continued to be used as allotments by local residents for more than 50 years until they were evicted by the then landowner in 1997. The land has since fallen into disuse.Sutton Garden Suburb Conservation Area Character Appraisal
The Fenway Victory Gardens in the

Back Bay Fens The Back Bay Fens, often called The Fens, is a parkland and urban wild in Boston, Massachusetts, in the United States. It was established in 1879. Designed by Frederick Law Olmsted to serve as a link in the Emerald Necklace park system, the Fe ...

of Boston, Massachusetts, and the Dowling Community Garden in

Minneapolis, Minnesota Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origins ...

remain active as the last surviving public examples from World War II. Most plots in the Fenway Victory Gardens now feature flowers instead of vegetables while the Dowling Community Garden retains its focus on vegetables. Since the turn of the 21st century, interest in victory gardens has grown. A campaign promoting such gardens has sprung up in the form of new victory gardens in public spaces, victory garden websites and blogs, as well as petitions to renew a national campaign for the victory garden and to encourage the re-establishment of a victory garden on the White House lawn. In March 2009,

First Lady First lady is an unofficial title usually used for the wife, and occasionally used for the daughter or other female relative, of a non-monarchical A monarchy is a form of government in which a person, the monarch, is head of state fo ...

Michelle Obama Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama (born January 17, 1964) is an American attorney and author who served as first lady of the United States from 2009 to 2017. She was the first African-American woman to serve in this position. She is married t ...

planted an "

Kitchen Garden The traditional kitchen garden, vegetable garden, also known as a potager (from the French ) or in Scotland a kailyaird, is a space separate from the rest of the residential garden – the ornamental plants and lawn areas. It is used for grow ...

" on the White House lawn, the first since Eleanor Roosevelt's, to raise awareness about healthy food.

Films

Several countries produced numerous information films about growing victory gardens.

Canada

* World War II ** ''He Plants for Victory'' (1943)

United Kingdom

* World War I ** ''Grow Vegetables For War Effort'' ** ''War Garden Parade'' * World War II ** ''Dig For Victory!'' (1940, 1941, 1942) ** ''Children's Allotment Gardens'' (1942) ** ''Compost Heaps for Feeding'' (1942) ** ''Digging For Victory'' (1943) ** ''Winter Greens'' (1943) ** ''Blitz on Bugs'' (1944) ** ''Dig for Victory - Proceed According To Plan'' (1944)

United States

* World War II ** ''Victory Gardens'' (1941, 1942, 1943) ** ''Barney Bear's Victory Garden'' (1942) ** ''As Ye Sow'' (1945)

Television

Historical documentary and reality television series such as ''

The 1940s House ''The 1940s House'' is a British historical reenactment reality television series made by Wall to Wall/Channel 4 in 2001 about a modern family that tries to live as a typical middle-class family in London during The Blitz of World War II.Cooper, ...

'', ''

Wartime Farm ''Wartime Farm'' is a British historical documentary TV series in eight parts in which the running of a farm during the Second World War is reenacted, first broadcast on BBC Two on 6 September 2012. The series, the fourth in the historic farm se ...

'' and the second season of '' Coal House'' place modern families in a recreated wartime settings, including digging victory gardens. The WGBH public-television series '' The Victory Garden'' took the familiar expression to promote

composting Compost is a mixture of ingredients used as plant fertilizer and to improve soil's physical, chemical and biological properties. It is commonly prepared by decomposing plant, food waste, recycling organic materials and manure. The resulting m ...

and intensive cropping for homeowners who wanted to raise some vegetables (and some flowers). The 1975 sitcom '' The Good Life'' portrays the efforts of Tom and Barbara Good to become self-sufficient in their suburban home, including turning over most of their garden to vegetable production and a chicken coop. Tom explains to his baffled neighbours that "We're digging for victory!" despite their protests that "That was during the War..." Much of the early episodes follow the Goods' struggle to adapt to living from their victory garden.

References

External links

Recipe for Victory: Food and Cooking in Wartime

curated by Michigan State University
''Victory Garden'' complete film at archive.org

History of Urban Gardening in the United States

* [http://www.victorygardeninitiative.org Victory Garden Initiative - a grassroots organization in Milwaukee, Wisconsin promoting revival of the victory garden movement as a means to address food system and environmental issues.]
''Oldest Remaining Victory Gardens in Boston''

1943 propaganda film ''He Plants for Victory''
(

National Film Board of Canada The National Film Board of Canada (NFB; french: Office national du film du Canada (ONF)) is Canada's public film and digital media producer and distributor. An agency of the Government of Canada, the NFB produces and distributes documentary f ...

)
1941 propaganda film ''Victory Gardens''
(

) {{Authority control Civilians in war Types of garden Landscape history Garden design history Urban agriculture Home front during World War II United States home front during World War II Home front during World War I

World War I

Canada

United States

World War II

Australia

Britain

United States

Postwar

Films

Canada

United Kingdom

United States

Television

See also

References

Further reading

External links