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Lets bring back victory gardens. As our government brings us again towards incredible inflation, as we again fight a war that has not been a real war, in the sense of patriotism, since Pearl Harbor and as gas prices drive Americans budget into the ground on all quarters, I say again, “Lets bring back Victory Gardens.”
For those of you to young to remember Victory Gardens they were called war garden and food gardens for defense during WWI & WWII and they were planted with vegetables, fruit and herbs at private residences in the US, Canada and UK to reduce the pressure on the public food supply caused by the war effort. They not only, indirectly, aided they war effort, they were a great civil morale booster and gardeners made victory gardens part of daily life on the home front of each country.
The governments encouraged it because gas rationing made it hard to move food around the country and as we went into food rationing these governments encouraged their citizens to create victory gardens. In the US alone twenty million people answered this call and fruits and vegetables produced in their home gardens was estimated to be nine to ten million tons. This program sort of died off in 1946 and as we went towards the “good life” less and less people produced home gardens.
The end of 2007 and the beginning of 2008 has shown us that fuel prices have driven up the cost of food and fresh produce and perhaps planting a victory garden this spring will help to lessen the trucking and transportation consumption of fuel. Perhaps not. Perhaps the ripple effect of a victory garden would be far reaching on the negative side when weighing the pros and cons.
Lets think of the plus side of the coin. You will have better fresh produce. You will have outside activity. You will have a family project. You will be teaching your children something. You will be having quality time with your family. You will have exercise. You will have remade a connection with the planet and mother earth. You may or may not be reducing your food budget, but your food will taste better. You may even learn how to do other things such as canning or preserving food.
Should you decide to plant a victory garden remember that a space of 5 ft. by 20 ft will produce enough produce for one person, ergo should there be 4 in your family you will need reproduce that space 4 times.
Plant veggies and fruits that are growable in your zone. You do not need a lot of equipment. Do some research. Make your garden organic. Do not use pesticides. Get other friends and family members involved should you have a big enough space to do some like a community victory garden in. Take a tip from the Amish, they do things in groups and as my old grannie used to say, “Many hands make light work.”
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Author Bio Box: Arlene Wright Correll
 Resources: Excerpted from “Arlene’s Gardening Series” by Arlene Wright-Correll
For more gardening or cooking information click http://www.learn-america.com/ and click on Arlene’s Books you can download or buy my gardening & cook books. All my royalties from the sale of my books go to the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and I thank you for your attention to this site.
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