Join the Victory Garden Revival

- Familiarize yourself with the movement's history. (This lens will help!)
- Create a Victory Garden in your yard, on your patio or in a community garden plot; invite friends and neighbors to join you.
- Share your expanding knowledge and efforts online, in video and one-on-one.
- Write news editors and reporters to encourage press coverage in your community. (For a sample of stories nationwide, see RW&G's Media & Web Watch.)
- Contact elected officials, school and faith leaders, and community/business groups to encourage them to get involved.
- Download pro-Victory Garden print materials from Revive the Victory Garden to distribute to individuals or at appropriate venues.

1910s- The federal government encourages citizens to plant "war gardens" in anticipation of America's entry into the Great War (aka WWI). At the end of the conflict, the term "victory garden" gains traction to connote the Allies' success.

1920s - School gardens, part of a movement that preceded victory gardening, provide young people a chance to acquire essential life skills.

1930s - In tight economic times, Depression-era Americans returned to urban and suburban gardening to survive.

1940s - Inspired by success of WWI efforts, the federal government again encourages Americans to garden and preserve their homegrown foods in anticipation of food shortages.

1950s - A vibrant economy and enhanced agricultural processes make gardening more of a hobby for most Americans.

1960s - In the aftermath of Rachel Carson's landmark Silent Spring and concerns about pesticide use, organic foods become popular again.

1970s - President Gerald Ford encourages the planting of Whip Inflation Now (WIN) gardens. Not long after, the popular and long-running PBS series The Victory Garden premieres.

1980s - With the rise of celebrity chefs (including Alice Waters) touting the superiority of fresh and local produce, farmers markets gain new cache.

1990s - School gardens receive renewed interest, in part thanks to Waters' efforts. The Slow Food movement and concerns about the poor nutritional quality of fast food increase interest in local food. Acclaimed author Sarah Ban Breathnach, in her famous Simple Abundance: A Daybook of Comfort & Joy calls for a return to victory gardening, too.

2000s - Following a brief upswing in home gardens after the 9/11 tragedy, a number of writers (journalist-turned-gardener Michael Pollan and novelest-turned-farmer Barbara Kingsolver) further the notion of homegrown food being environmentally responsible. In 2008, as the economy soured, national and regional media outlets reported an up tick in seed and garden sales.

For more historical information, please see The Victory Garden, Past & Present.

True...similar initiatives were undertaken in the United Kingdom and Canada, part of the "Dig for Victory" initiative.

The programs were quite similar in their approaches, though for some reason allotment (or community) gardens that grew up from the U.K. and Canadian endeavors retained widespread popularity.

It's worth noting that during The Blitz, many English people even took refuge in their gardens, constructing air raid shelters covered with earth to protect themselves and their children from bombs. Who knows how many lives were saved because of these garden air raid shelters?

Ah, lots to discuss about the Dig for Victory program...but that's another lens...another day...or perhaps you have a lens on the topic to which you'd like us to link? Drop us a line below.

- On the grounds of your workplace or house of worship
- At your child's school
- In your front yard or alleyway
- In an abandoned lot
- In a community plot
- In a cluster of pots and/or hanging baskets on your patio
- In a raised bed

Got another suggestion? Tell us below!

Red, White & Grew - This site offers action items and a compendium of terrific online Victory Garden-related resources. It is a companion to the Red, White & Grew blog.

Eat the View - An online initiative to restore a vegetable garden on the The White House's grounds...and to plant Victory Gardens in other high-profile locations nationwide. (See also my related lens.)

The Shibaguyz's Victory Garden Challenge - A West Coast Victory Garden planted entirely in pots!

Victory Gardens Make a Comeback- Another pro-Victory Garden Squidoo lens.

War Posts - A Squidoo lens that includes several WWII-era Victory Garden posters.

Slow Food Nation Victory Garden 2008 - Track the progress of a brand new Victory Garden in San Francisco!

The Victory Garden- Because to not mention the long-running PBS show's Squidoo lens would be just...wrong.

Home Vegetable Gardens on the Rise
By Christina Gilham
Source: Newsweek, 12 July 2008

Yvette Roman and Fred Davis's 1,300-square-foot front yard stands out from the grass lawns that are typical of their suburban Los Angeles neighborhood. Two large raised vegetable beds that contain colored rows of bell peppers, basil, parsley, purple cauliflower, two kinds of broccoli, onions, leeks, beets, four kinds of potatoes and three kinds of tomato plants dominate the yard. Climbing up a trellis are concord grapes, melons and pole beans. Near the driveway, there is another bed that holds tomatoes, tomatillos and Swiss chard, and Meyer lemon, tangerine and lime trees....(More here)

Victory Garden
By Sally Kalson
Source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 20 July 2008

For 17 years, we have grown almost nothing in our yard except what came with the house when we bought it. This summer, though, my husband and I agreed: The time had come to stick a thumb in the dirt and see if it came out green. (More here.)

Want more stories? Check out the Red, White & Grew Media Watch (updated weekly!)