The Garden Of Oz

The Victory Garden - Introduction.

Michelle Obama, our new First Lady, recently made news by starting a vegetable garden at the White House. With the help of 26 local school children, Mrs. Obama began to prepare a place in the White House lawn that will soon be an organic vegetable garden. We’re told that the produce will be used by the White House kitchen staff to feed, among others, Sasha and Malia, who have a preference for fresh vegetables.

While it’s unclear as to whether or not the term “Victory Garden” has been used by the First Lady to describe this endeavor, others are claiming that the “Victory Garden” is back!

A Brief History of Victory Gardens

During both WWI and WWII, the United States Government urged Americans to plant “victory gardens.” Much has been written about the victory garden effort of WWII in 1943, in part because First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt planted a garden on the White House lawn. Canned goods were among the items that were rationed during the Second World War, and victory gardens were promoted as a patriotic response to the war effort. Indeed, 315,000 pressure cookers – fundamental to home canning operations - were sold in 1943, vs. the quantity of 66,000 sold the previous year.

Approximately 20 million American families planted victory gardens, many of them engaging in home gardening for the first time. The USDA estimated that between 9 and 10 million tons of fresh fruits and vegetables were grown, which was equal to the amount of commercially grown fresh vegetables at that time.

Victory gardens became family and community activities, as almost any available piece of land was considered for food production. The US Government and private publishers provided printed information to new gardeners on gardening techniques, pest identification and treatments, and even suggested what kinds of fruits and vegetables to plant. The most often recommended fruits and vegetables were:

The Top 26 Recommended plants

Beans	Corn
Beets	Parsnips
Carrots	Leeks
Peas	Turnips
Radishes	Cabbage
Lettuce	Brussels Sprouts
Spinach	Broccoli
Chard	Peppers
Onions	Cauliflower
Cucumbers	Tomatoes
Parsley	Eggplant
Kohlrabi	Endive
Summer Squash	Rutabagas

The end of the war effort also brought an end to the government’s urging people to grow victory gardens, and the level of home gardening activity declined in 1946. Of course, we all know that this was the beginning of the “baby boom” as well … but, I don’t think that these two trends are directly connected!

Gardening Cycles

We all know that gardening is a seasonal activity for most of us, but the folks who run gardening businesses tell me that the activity is cyclical as well.

A friend of mine, who is a few years older than I, tells me that there was a gardening boom in the mid 70’s that coincided with the first Arab Oil Embargo. Conventional wisdom is that the high cost of gasoline, and the long gas lines at gas stations, caused many folks to travel a lot less, and stay closer to home during the summers. The high cost of fuel and fertilizer also caused a spike in fresh produce costs. So, many Americans took up gardening for the first time.

In the mid 70’s, gardening was “chic” and people talked about their gardens the way that some people now talk about their careers and exotic vacations. Even folks in Hollywood were eager to be recognized as gardeners. Newsweek featured a tomato on one of its covers!

Another little boom occurred in the very early 80’s, again precipitated by the high cost, and questionable availability, of gasoline. But, not all of the new gardeners in either of these upticks remained loyal to the hobby. I suppose it’s not unlike many things that have swings in popularity. Those of us who are old enough, or have older friends, recall the ups and downs of racquetball, bicycle riding, tennis, and other activities, which were “the in thing” for a while, and then relatively quickly replaced by something else.

Gardening for a Cause

Perhaps we’re experiencing another boom in gardening, as the current news suggests that, once again, we’re “gardening for a cause.”

While we are involved in the two wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, we have not really been asked to sacrifice our American way of life for those efforts. There’s been no rationing of butter, meat, or gasoline for the war efforts.

The new cause, or causes, are both economic and environmental.

Going Green

There’s been increasing awareness of the cost of transporting fresh vegetables from coast to coast. Not to mention the cost of importing, then transporting, vegetables from the southern hemisphere! Some consider this cost to be wasteful; others consider the increased use of fossil fuels to be inappropriate with respect to the potential effect on global warming. Still others argue that the only way to get good, healthy, food is to grow it yourself or procure it locally and, some would argue for organic or “nearly organic” production.

The New Wave of Victory Gardens

I’m delighted that the First Lady has brought national attention to the benefits of growing your own fruits and vegetables. Whether or not this attention will result in a significant trend is uncertain at this point; but, when the Obama family does something, people pay attention.

In doing just a little bit of web surfing on the topic, I came across an interesting March 5, 2009 posting on alternet.org by Roger Doiron. The posting was titled “Economic Meltdown Reason for a New Victory Garden Movement.” this article title to This article, posted a mere 15 days before Mrs. Obama was shown with shovel in hand, recommended that the a vegetable garden be planted at the White House “On Day One” of the new administration, of course, Day 1 was mid January, so the first day of Spring makes a lot more sense. Actually, the campaign for a White House vegetable garden began in February of 2008, long before we knew who the First Family would be in 2009. For a delightful video version of Mr. Doiron’s campaign see http://vimeo.com/1812382.

You may underestimate the time required to do the job at hand, resulting in either an incomplete job or a second trip to the rental store.

I also found out that the “movement” to have a White House garden has roots back to the early 1990’s when “food activist” Alice Waters and author Michael Pollan first lobbied for some edible landscaping at the First Family’s residence.

Regardless of who gets or who claims credit, they’re growing vegetables at the White House … so, there’s a new and newsworthy trend being born.

Do You Want to Start Your Victory Garden This Year?

If the First Family’s garden has inspired you to start your family’s first garden, maybe I can help. I’m going to grow a little Victory Garden of my own – in addition to my regular large garden – to illustrate the concept. So, you can feel free to follow along with me as my Victory Garden progresses from planning … to planting … to tending … to harvesting.

Start with a Plan

Like all multi-step projects, a garden should start with a plan. A simple plan is better than no plan; and, you can always be flexible if you change your mind as your garden takes shape. Start with the ideal size for your garden. Do you own or plan to rent a small tiller? (see my Mantis tiller and the Small tiller section of the website) or do you plan to create your garden by hand? How much room do you have to dedicate to the garden? Only have a small space to use why not can create a small Urban garden? In the end the size of your garden and how you plan to prepare the land will help determine what you should plant.

Here are a few basic things to consider before you grab your shovel or tiller on that first warm day of spring.

Where, and how big, will the garden be?

If possible, choose a fairly level place that gets a lot of sunshine. If this is your first vegetable garden, I recommend that you start small – a 15 foot by 20 foot garden is a great size for your first garden, especially if you’re not going to dedicate a significant amount of your time to it. If, on the other hand, you have recently retired, or if you have lots of free time, then you may want a larger garden.

Make a list of what you want to grow.

This may sound obvious, but you should only grow what you really like to eat. Additionally, I recommend that you only grow what makes economic sense. For example, you can grow a lot of tomatoes in a relatively small space; but, you could use half of your 15 ft. x 20 ft. gardening space to grow a few dollars worth of raspberries. (I know, because I’ve done it!)

Victory Garden Supplies	3/23/09

Purchased online from Gurneys.com

Pole Beans, Blue Lake	1.95
Swiss Chard, Bright Lights	2.55
Spinach, Vital Green	2.25
Lettuce, Green Ice	2.25
Summer Squash, Multipick Hybrid	2.95
Beets, Perfected Detroit	1.75
Shipping	5.90
Tax	2.19
	21.79
Purchased Locally - Est mkt price
Tomato, Tangerine Mama (1)	1.00
Tomato, Supersteak (2)	2.00
Tomato, Sugar Snack (1)	1.00
Pepper, Anaheim (1)	1.00
Pepper, Rainbow Hybrid (2)	2.00
Pepper, Big Dipper (2)	2.00

Total Cost, Seeds & Plants	$30.79

Additional Supplies to be purchased from Gardens Alive!
Poles, for beans
Twine, for pole beans
Cages, for tomatoes
Steaks for cages
Twist Ties, to tie tomato cages
Vegetable Fertilizer
Insect/Disease Control

I’ve chosen these vegetables because I like to eat all of them and many of them are on virtually every nutritionist’s list of healthy vegetables. Moreover, they’re fairly productive – that is, I can grow a good supply of vegetables in a fairly small space.

And, here’s my plan:

The pole beans will be grown on a twine trellis, supported by 5 poles (actually 2” x 2” lumber, 10 ft high). I’ll show you a picture later. The tomatoes will be supported by cages or tomato towers; I haven’t made my final decision yet, and I may experiment with both types of supports. The pepper plants will be staked; but, I won’t have to add the stakes until mid summer. The row crops – Swiss Chard, Spinach, Lettuce, and Beets will be planted some time in mid-May, when the soil is dry enough to work comfortably. I’ll be mulching with groud-up leaves that I bagged last fall when I cleaned up my yard. You can also use straw, grass clippings, or even newspapers. I may do a little bit of experimenting with different mulches, too.

Virtually every home gardener plants tomatoes and peppers as started plants, while all of the other vegetables listed above will be “direct seeded.” I usually start my tomato and pepper plants inside, about 6 to 8 weeks before the last frost date for my area (which is May 15th for my garden in Southern New Jersey).

If you don’t want to grow your own tomato or pepper plants, they can easily be obtained from a local nursery, a big box store, or from many of the seed catalogs.

Go Vertical!

Except for the summer squash, most of these vegetables are what I consider to be “vertical” crops. I’ll grow my tomatoes in cages that are 18” in diameter and 5 feet tall. I’ll stake my pepper plants, and the pole beans will grow on a very inexpensive twine trellis that I’ll string between several 10 ft. high poles. Once they start producing, you won’t believe how many beans you can get from a 20 ft. row of pole beans! And, pole beans are easier to harvest than bush beans.

Prepare the Soil

Soil is fundamental to gardening. If you have really good soil, you’re more likely to have a really good garden. If you have really bad soil, you’re very unlikely to have a good garden. But, thankfully, anyone can create good soil. In my opinion, one of the real joys of gardening is nurturing the soil.

For a quick review of garden soil, see The Dirt on Soil article on this site.

Please do not ignore the importance of good soil for good gardening. A little extra effort at the beginning of the gardening season will pay huge dividends later.

Plan and Plant Your Garden

All of the seed packets tell you how much room you need to have between rows of various crops. Don’t be fooled by how small the seeds are, the mature plants will need room to grow. And that little spindle of a tomato plant is capable of growing 10 feet tall and will branch to 3 or 4 ft wide, if you let it.

Plant just two or three groups of squash plants (not the whole packet). You can replant more in the middle of the summer, or even toward the end of the summer, for a prolonged harvest. But, if you plant 10 groups of squash, they’ll take over the garden, and you’ll be begging your neighbors to eat your squash!

Thin Those Seedlings

After a week or two, thin most of your seedling sprouts, as recommended on the seed packet. Swiss chard plants will produce much more chard if they’re 12” apart than if they’re crammed next to one another. Thinning perfectly healthy little seedlings is one of the hardest things for most gardeners, even experienced gardeners, to do!

Weed, Feed, and Water

You’ll need to pull weeds, and occasionally feed your plants. If it doesn’t rain for a week or so, you may need to water your plants, too. I prefer the all-natural fertilizers from Gardens Alive! which I use to supplement my compost-enriched garden. If you really want to do the environment and your garden a favor, start a compost pile. Compost is by far the best thing you can add to your garden soil. And, composting reduces the amount of waste that must be handled by landfills. For lots of information on composting, visit HowToCompost.org.

Bad Bugs and Diseases

I don’t want to discourage you from gardening, but I must warn you that sometimes we need to deal with bad bugs and diseases. And, if you live out in the country, you may even need to deal with deer, raccoons, groundhogs, and other critters. The good folks at Gardens Alive! have an excellent range of environmentally friendly products that will help you wage war with bugs, critters, and plant diseases.

Have Fun!

Whether you’re starting a garden as a patriotic gesture, or you just want to grow some of your own food to save some money, by all means try to have fun with it. I’ve been gardening for more than 20 years, and some of my colleagues have been gardening for almost 40 years! We all make mistakes; we all have disappointments; but, we all have triumphs, too!

Get Some Help

Since you’re reading this on a web site, you probably know that there are thousands of resources on the web for gardening assistance. Here are a few of my favorites:

http://gardening.about.com - an all about gardening web site with lots of practical advice.

http://www.garden.org/home - the National Gardening Association. A non-profit organization that lives, breathes, eats, and sleeps gardening.

http://www.organicgardening.com/ - the web site for Organic Gardening Magazine, one of the oldest gardening magazines in the USA.

http://www.gardensalive.com/article_mcgrath.asp?ai=4 – A huge list of articles by Mike McGrath, former editor of Organic Gardening, and now a full-time radio gardening personality on NPR (National Public Radio - and yes I am a member). Mike’s list of articles on the Gardens Alive web site covers almost everything you’d want to know about gardening.

http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=7447270 - ABC had a "Good Morning America" report on how people are Gardening more to save money these days. Theres alot of good economical information on vegetable gardening even if you don't know how to garden they show you how easy it is.

http://www.hortmag.com/article/victorygarden - The old Victory Garden concept is set for a revival. Pamela Price explains the movement and how to get started in your own backyard. This articlecame in an email I recieved from hortmag.com.

OZ Gardener
The Garden Of Oz

Feel free to share this article however it has to be copied and published the same way as on this website, without any changes and please include a link to the original material.

Reviews

Read Reviews (4)
Write a Review
Avg Rating:

3.8 out of 5

September 16, 2010

By: Renshaw

Gardener: I'm sure the reason for mixing politics and gardening advice is to explain the roots of the concept of a victory garden, and to show that the idea is still alive today. I don't see any political slant in the article, just detailed and good info!

September 6, 2010

By: GARDENER

Hello Dear OZ,
You have very good information here, but don't understand why you need to mix politics with helpful info?

June 1, 2009

By: Martha

You make it sound so easy. Thanks for the tips and links. Can I try this at 1/4 scale? More my speed.

April 2, 2009

By: Geek Gardener

Love this article - you nailed it