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 and Germany[1] during World War I and World War II to reduce the pressure on the public food supply brought on by the war effort. In addition to 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 become a part of daily life on the home front.



Time to promote home gardening again, unemployment shows no sign of improvement, food prices are rising, energy prices rising, and in some areas water supplies are waning. Some argue that gardening is more expensive than going to the grocery. Truth is it can be, if you add all the equipment, modern fertilizers, and buy nothing but seedlings. Also adding to the costs the nay sayers tout as reasons to shop instead of grow is size or scale. Half a dozen tomatoes, and two rows of beans, with four rows of corn makes for a nice summer treat, but not enough food to justify the costs of such a small garden.

I would also like to see this used more these days: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allotment_(gardening)


Semi-organic growing practices, combined with seed saving, and good use of the spaces available make food production a more viable option for everyone willing to put in a bit of time and effort.

Semi-Organic?? It is or it isn't right? Well strictly speaking you either use chemicals and gmo's or you don't, you either grow organic or you don't. So what do I mean by semi-organic? Well between my grandfather and my parents I tend to grow things in a manner consistent with some of the practices of the old timers of the 1920's. From them I incorporate the seed saving practices, the use of manures, and earthworms to promote plant growth. Where I differ with the old timers is that I consider soil as a living thing that gives us more and better food if it is kept healthy. They used to use up a plot of soil, leave it bare and move to another plot and use it up, leave it bare and move to still another plot. Little thought was given to putting anything back into the soil, other than chemical fertilizers. Vast amounts of land cleared, and few understood the need for windbreaks. A disturbing trend continuing even today is clearing all trees from around a field in order to gain a few more rows of crops.

However, while I compost, and prefer to use no chemicals, I also prefer to use things that work quickly, and last long enough that a single application is all that is needed. So I will use some pesticides, in moderation, instead of spending a fortune on what has been shown to be less effective, but certified as organic. Now some organic practices, and substances are superior to non-organic methods, and I readily use those, and try other things as they become available to us here in KY. I also will use F1 hybrids, when heirloom types fail to yield expected results, but I always try the heirloom types first.

We haven't used any chemicals in our garden since moving to Georgia. We enrich the soil with chicken and goat manure that has aged and also, since our soil tends to be acidic we spread ashes over the garden area and till it in. One thing I have learned that helps prevent using up the soil is rotating the crops. For instance, I always plant my corn where beans were planted the previous year. It seems to work for us. Our tomatoes may not be as big as our neighbors who use chemicals or non-hybred type of seeds, but they sure taste better. We do have some hassles with certain bugs, but not as much as I thought we would.

last year, due to the drought, was not a good year to compare, but my heirloom sweet corn and heirloom popcorn out performed all the local field corn, by a long shot.

I too prefer to garden as organically as possible, opting for heirloom seeds and natural soil enhancing agents. I sure hope this year is better for the garden than last year with the terrible drought. I plan to do much more mulching than last year to help keep the weeds down and save as much moisture as I can. I really want to try adding more cardboard instead of newspaper as the cardboard seemed to be a much better weed deterrent and with a bad back that was a HUGE labor saver.

I really want to try adding more cardboard instead of newspaper as the cardboard seemed to be a much better weed deterrent and with a bad back that was a HUGE labor saver.

Last spring when I put in my tomatoes and peppers we used newspapers and mulched around all the plants with about 7 layers. It really helped out big on the weed production. Lots of mulching as I planted over 100 tomatoes plus around 50 peppers, but it was worth it as it kept the weeds down and se only had a few weeds come up here and there. I think it also helped keep the ground moist during a dry year. I'll do it again this year too. I never thought about cardboard. That might be worth a try.

that's some great advise. I use grass clippings also.