Victory Garden - wikipedia Victory Garden For other uses, see Victory garden ( disambiguation ). American WWII - era poster promoting victory gardens Victory gardens, also called war gardens or food gardens for defense, were vegetable, fruit, and herb gardens planted at private residences and public parks in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and Germany during World War I and World War II. George Washington Carver wrote an agricultural tract and promoted the idea of what he called a `` Victory Garden ''. They were used along with Rationing Stamps and Cards to reduce pressure on the public food supply. Besides 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 a part of daily life on the home front. Two American war gardeners in 1918 Contents 1 World War I 1.1 Canada 1.2 United States 2 World War II 2.1 Australia 2.2 Britain 2.3 United States 3 Postwar 4 Films 5 Television 6 See also 7 References 8 Further reading 9 External links 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, ladies organizations brought expert gardeners into the schools to get school children and their families interested in gardening. In addition to gardening, home owners were encouraged to keep hens in their yards for the purpose of collecting eggs. The result was large production of potatoes, beets, cabbage and other useful vegetables. United States WWI - era U.S. victory poster. 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 World War I, 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 USA and foodstuff production exceeding $1.2 billion by the end of the war. President Woodrow Wilson said that `` Food will win the war. '' To support the home garden effort, a United States School Garden Army was launched through the Bureau of Education, and funded by the War Department at Wilson 's direction. World War II See also : Food waste in the United Kingdom § History The British `` Dig on for Victory '' poster by Peter Fraser A victory garden in a bomb crater in London during WWII. Australia Australia 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 Lawrence Sheriff School § Effects of the Second World War ). By 1943, the number of allotments had roughly doubled to 1,400,000, including rural, urban and suburban plots. C.H. Middleton '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 were established to collect medicinal herbs when German blockades created shortages, for instance in Digitalis purpurea ( 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 to promote the movement, while allotments growing onions in the shadow of the Albert Memorial also pointed to everybody, high and low, chipping in to the national struggle. Both Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle had vegetable gardens planted at the instigation of King George VI to assist with food production. United States Amid regular rationing of food in Britain, the United States Department of Agriculture 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 home front urbanites and suburbanites that the produce from their gardens would help to lower the price of vegetables needed by the US War Department 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 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 '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 corporations such as International Harvester and Beech - Nut. Fruit and vegetables harvested in these home and community plots was estimated to be 9,000,000 -- 10,000,000 short tons ( 8,200,000 -- 9,100,000 t ) 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 and the deeper South, as well as in Baltimore. In New York City, the lawns around vacant `` Riverside '' were devoted to victory gardens, as were portions of San Francisco 's Golden Gate Park. 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. `` A Victory Garden is like a share in an airplane factory. It helps win the War and it pays dividends too. '' -- Claude Wickard, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture 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 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. The Fenway Victory Gardens in the Back Bay Fens of Boston, Massachusetts and the Dowling Community Garden in Minneapolis, Minnesota 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 Michelle Obama planted an 1,100 - square - foot ( 100 m ) `` Kitchen Garden '' 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, Wartime Farm 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 and intensive cropping for homeowners who wanted to raise some vegetables ( and some flowers ). See also Wikimedia Commons has media related to Victory gardens. Australian Women 's Land Army Community garden Home front during World War II List of renewable resources produced and traded by the United Kingdom Rationing in the United Kingdom United States home front during World War II Women 's Land Army Woman 's Land Army of America References Jump up ^ Hopkins, John Castell ( 1919 ). The Province of Ontario in the War : A Record of Government and People. Toronto : Warwick Brothers and Rutter. pp. 60 -- 61. Jump up ^ Pack, Charles Lathrop. War Gardens Victorious ( Philadelphia : J.B. Lippincott, 1919 ) p. 15. Jump up ^ Eyle, Alexandra. Charles Lathrop Pack : Timberman, Forest Conservationist, and Pioneer in Forest Education ( Syracuse, NY : Syracuse University Press, 1994 ) p. 142. Jump up ^ Hayden - Smith, Rose : Sowing the Seeds of Victory ( Jefferson, NC : McFarland, 2014 ). Jump up ^ `` Victory gardens, Second World War ''. Australian War Memorial. Jump up ^ D. Matless, Landscape and Englishness ( London 2016 ) p. 246 Jump up ^ A. Harris, Romantic Moderns ( London 2010 ) p. 240 - 1 Jump up ^ A. Harris, Romantic Moderns ( London 2010 ) p. 241 Jump up ^ https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2009/jun/14/queen-allotment-organic-gardening Jump up ^ Kallen, Stuart A. ( 2000 ). The War at Home. San Diego : Lucent Books. ISBN 1 - 56006 - 531 - 1. Jump up ^ `` Where our men are fighting, our food is fighting ''. Loc.gov. Retrieved 2014 - 03 - 24. Jump up ^ `` 18,000,000 Gardens for Victory ''. Popular Mechanics. May 1943. p. 1. Jump up ^ Cecilia,, Gowdy - Wygant, ( 2013 ). Cultivating victory : the Women 's Land Army and the Victory Garden movement. Pittsburgh : University of Pittsburgh Press. ISBN 9780822944256. OCLC 859687116. Jump up ^ 1962 -, Bentley, Amy, ( 1998 ). Eating for victory : food rationing and the politics of domesticity. Urbana : University of Illinois Press. ISBN 0252067274. OCLC 38168249. Jump up ^ `` Victory Gardens during World War II ''. livinghistoryfarm.org. Jump up ^ http://www.ars.usda.gov/SP2UserFiles/Place/80400530/pdf/hist/bhnhe_1944_misc_pub_550.pdf Jump up ^ 1962 -, Bentley, Amy, ( 1998 ). Eating for victory : food rationing and the politics of domesticity. Urbana : University of Illinois Press. ISBN 0252067274. OCLC 38168249. Jump up ^ `` World war II : Civic responsibility '' ( PDF ). Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved 27 March 2014. Jump up ^ Sutton Garden Suburb Conservation Area Character Appraisal Archived 2016 - 10 - 09 at the Wayback Machine. Jump up ^ `` Dowling Community Garden History ''. Jump up ^ Burrows, Marian ( March 19, 2009 ). `` Obamas to Plant Vegetable Garden at White House ''. New York Times. Further reading Cecilia Gowdy - Wygant. Cultivating Victory : The Women 's Land Army and the Victory Garden Movement ( 2013 ) in Britain and U.S. in both world wars ; excerpt Hayden - Smith, Rose ( 2014 ). Sowing the Seeds of Victory : American Gardening Programs of World War I. McFarland Books. ISBN 978 - 0 - 7864 - 7020 - 4. Ginn, Franklin. `` Dig for victory ! New histories of wartime gardening in Britain. '' Journal of Historical Geography 38 # 3 ( 2012 ) : 294 - 305. Hayden - Smith, Rose ( 2005 ). `` Soldiers of the Soil : The Work of the United States School Garden Army in World War 1 ''. University of California 4 - H Youth Development Center. Retrieved 12 May 2014. Kuhn, Clifford M., `` ' It Was a Long Way from Perfect, but It Was Working ' : The Canning and Home Production Initiatives in Green County, Georgia, 1940 -- 1942, '' Agricultural History ( 2012 ) 86 # 1 pp 68 -- 90. Madsen, Joseph. `` Fighting the War Through Gardening : Ballard High School 's WWII Victory Garden '' ( PDF ). C.H. Middleton, Digging for Victory ( ( 1942 ) London 2008 ) Pack, Charles Lathrop ( 1919 ). The War Garden Victorious. J.P. Lippincott Co. OCLC 425762. Smith, Daniel ( 2011 ). The Spade as Mighty as the Sword : The Story of World War Two 's Dig for Victory Campaign. Aurum Press. ISBN 978 - 1 - 84513 - 617 - 8. External links Recipe for Victory : Food and Cooking in Wartime PBS : The Victory Garden A Visual History of Victory Gardens curated by Michigan State University Victory Gardens Handbook of the Victory Garden Committee War Services, Pennsylvania State Council of Defense ( April 1944 ) Victory Garden complete film at archive.org History of Urban Gardening in the United States GARDENS FOR VICTORY reference pubbed Mar. 1942, intro / first chapter 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 ) 1941 propaganda film Victory Gardens ( United States Department of Agriculture ) Horticulture and gardening Gardening History Design computer - aided Garden tool Green wall Arboretum Allotment Butterfly Community Forest French intensive Guerrilla Garden Historic conservation Landscape Native Parterre Raised bed Square foot Sustainable Xeriscaping Types of gardens Back Biblical Botanical Butterfly Byzantine Cactus Cantonese Chinese Color Container Cottage Dutch English Fernery Floating Flower French formal landscape Renaissance Front Greek Greenhouse Hanging Hügelkultur Islamic Italian Japanese Kitchen Knot Korean Market Mary Monastic Mughal Orangery Orchard Persian Bagh Charbagh Paradise Philosophical Pleasure Roman Spanish Rain Rose Roof Sacred Scottish Sculpture Sensory Shade Therapeutic Trial Tropical Victory Vineyard Walled Water Wildlife Winter Zen Zoological Horticulture Agriculture stock - free sustainable urban Arboriculture Botany Companion planting Crop most valuable Flora Floriculture Fruticulture Genetically modified tree Hydroculture Indigenous Intercropping Landscape architecture Oenology Olericulture Plant breeding propagation drought tolerance hardiness Pomology Postharvest physiology Tropical Urban agriculture horticulture forestry reforestation Viticulture Organic Biodynamic agriculture List of organic gardening and farming topics Vegan organic gardening Plant protection Fungicide Herbicide Index of pesticide articles List of fungicides Pesticide Plant disease forecasting Pruning Weed control Agriculture and agronomy portal Gardening portal Commons Agriculture in the United Kingdom Economy of the United Kingdom Agriculture Companies ADAS ( company ) Arla Foods UK Bernard Matthews Farms Dairy Crest Faccenda Group Farmcare Frontier Agriculture Genus Müller Wiseman Dairies NFU Mutual Norbrook Group Openfield Vestey Group Conservation Grazing marsh Hedgerow removal Rare Breeds Survival Trust Government and regulation Agricultural Land Classification Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board Potato Council Animal Health and Veterinary Laboratories Agency British Cattle Movement Service The Country Code Crown Estate Department of Agriculture and Rural Development ( Northern Ireland ) Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Institute for Animal Health Legislation Meat and Livestock Commission Natural England Rights of way in Scotland Rural Development Council Rural Payments Agency Scottish Government Enterprise and Environment Directorate Single Payment Scheme History Agricultural Revolution British timber trade Celtic field Common land Corn Laws Diggers Dutch barn Enclosure Haughley Experiment Highland Clearances Highland Potato Famine Lowland Clearances Napier Commission Rationing Run rig Rural Reconstruction Association Scottish Agricultural Revolution Swing Riots Victory garden Women 's Land Army Foot - and - mouth 1967 2007 Nations and regions England Agriculture in London Cuisine Cornwall Devon Fishing Scotland Animal breeds Shetland Crofting Scottish Crofting Foundation Cuisine Factor Fishing Royal Highland Show Wales Cuisine Royal Welsh Show Tŷ unnos Non-governmental organisations Unions Farmers ' Union of Wales National Farmers ' Union of England and Wales National Farmers ' Union of Scotland Ulster Farmers ' Union Young Farmers ' Clubs of Ulster British Egg Industry Council British Poultry Council Country Land and Business Association Fresh Start Initiative Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences James Hutton Institute Museums Museum of English Rural Life National Museum of Rural Life National Non-Food Crops Centre Nottingham Arabidopsis Stock Centre Rothamsted Research Royal Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland Soil Association Tenant Farmers Association Universities and colleges CAFRE Royal Agricultural University Scotland 's Rural College Sectors Beekeeping June Gap Fell farming Forestry Other Countryfile Eglu Farmers Weekly Farming Today Hurdles Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Victory_garden&oldid=848746847 '' Categories : Civilians in war Types of garden Landscape history Landscape design history Landscape architecture Urban agriculture Home front during World War II United States home front during World War II Horticulture and gardening Hidden categories : Webarchive template wayback links All articles with unsourced statements Articles with unsourced statements from July 2018 All accuracy disputes Articles with disputed statements from July 2018 Talk Contents About Wikipedia Dansk Español فارسی Français Українська 中文 Edit links This page was last edited on 4 July 2018, at 01 : 25 ( UTC ). 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Question: gardens planted to produce more food for the war effort
Answer: Victory gardens