Victory Gardens make a comeback
By MARLENE FRITZ
Illustrations by NOAH KROESE
VICTORY GARDENS—Vegetable, fruit, and herb gardens planted at private residences in the United States,
United Kingdom, Canada, and Germany during
World War I and World War II to reduce pressure
on the public food supply brought on by the war
effort. Such gardens indirectly aided the war effort
and were also considered a civil “morale
booster”—part of daily life on the home front.
Now—victory
over the recession.
MONTHS BEFORE Michele Obama turned her first pitchfork of soil on the White House lawn, sisters Dawn Larsen and Jodi Solomon signed up for the six-week Idaho Victory Garden series so their four-generation family can one day be self-sufficient at its eastern Oregon cabin.
This year, they’ll start with a healthy-sized backyard garden at their Nampa home, rototilled by dad and relished by grandkids. Fred Mould registered in part because he was intrigued by the class name.
At 72, the New England transplant recalls the real deal. “The day may come when, if you want to eat it, you have to grow it,” he says. “A small backyard garden gives you a start.”
Laura Johnson enrolled because she is finally “planted” in a Nampa subdivision and able to get serious about gardening. A creative and determined recycler, she sowed this season’s seeds in sliced-up toilet paper rolls—a response to instructor Ariel Agenbroad’s challenge to keep her costs low.
With hundreds of names on gardening education waiting lists and high volumes of calls about home-grown foods, Canyon County’s UI Extension educator offered the class to 51 Treasure Valley residents this spring in the College of Western Idaho’s largest available classroom. Interest in Victory Gardens was ignited during World War I and fueled again during World War II by millions of patriotic citizens motivated to reduce the pressure on the public food supply.
What qualifies as a Victory Garden?
“With so many people out of work, worried about money or food-safety issues, I thought growing your own would be huge this year,” Agenbroad says. “And I thought, why can’t we do Victory Gardens again?”
To Agenbroad, everything from a pot of herbs to “ripping out your entire front yard and planting it all to vegetables” qualifies as a Victory Garden. She advises her students to match their fruit and veggie plantings to their appetites. While beginner’s crops might include carrots, radishes, bush beans, and “determinate” tomatoes that don’t need staking, Agenbroad says it “doesn’t matter how well radishes grow here if you don’t enjoy them.”
As her students learned about seed starting, season extenders, composts, mulches, drip irrigation, pest management, food preservation, edible landscaping, and other topics, Agenbroad noticed “a really positive vibe in the class. There’s excitement. I see them whisper to their spouse or friend. They come in with questions and then continually come up with new ones.”
Noting that “experience is the best teacher,” Agenbroad hopes that arming her students with “some new tools and some new confidence” will encourage them to “grow at least some of their own food and get the satisfaction that comes from that and from sharing the food they’ve grown with their family and friends.”
Penny pinchers who monitor every input, recycle their garden supplies, and make their own compost can save money gardening, Agenbroad says. “You can’t do it the first year when you’re buying tools, but you can the second year.” Still, she says, “I think the real value is that your food is fresher, it’s of higher quality, you know where it’s coming from, and you get to choose which varieties you want to grow and eat.”
Agenbroad co-taught the course with Ron Galloway, Canyon County’s Master Gardener coordinator, and with invited University of Idaho Extension faculty and community members.
6 tips for great victory gardens
by Ariel Agenbroad
1. Start with a garden plan.
What do you like to eat? How much time will you spend cooking or preparing produce? Will you be freezing, drying, or canning? How much space/time/money can you devote? Design accordingly.
2. Choose seeds and plants
wisely.
Read variety descriptions carefully and make decisions based on how well a crop will perform, not just how it looks on the packet or catalog! How much space will this variety require? How many days from planting to harvest? Will it resist diseases or pests? Careful selection now can mean better performance later.
3. Landscape with edibles.
Crabapple, plum, and mulberry trees are ornamental while providing tasty fruit. Same goes for shrubs like currant, sand cherry, and quince. Herbs are another excellent choice, adding color and fragrance in the landscape and flavor in the kitchen.
For more gardening tips visit Agenbroad’s Web site at extension.ag.uidaho.edu/canyon/horticulture.
Visit www.extension.uidaho.edu/idahogardens,
or order/download “Planning an Idaho Vegetable Garden,” “Harvesting and Storing
Fresh Garden Vegetables,” and “Composting at Home” by searching UI CALS publications
at www.info.ag.uidaho.edu or calling 208.885.7982.
4. Involve children.
Introduce young people in your life to the magic of the garden, and encourage them to participate in everyday tasks. Cultivate their curiosity and develop a lifelong love of gardening.
5. Manage pests through prevention.
Reduce losses by rotating your crops, choosing disease-resistant varieties, removing weeds, and providing plants with the sun, water, and nutrients they need to stay healthy.
6. Safety first when preserving at home.
Use modern recipes. Use a boiling water canner to process jams, jellies, fruit, and pickles. Use pressure canners for vegetables, meats, and fish. Adjust processing times for your altitude. When in doubt, contact a UI Extension Food Safety Advisor.
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