A victory garden (also called a war garden or food garden for defense) is a vegetable, fruit, or herb garden planted at a private home or public space to supplement food rations and support the war effort. Twenty million gardens during WWII. Forty percent of America’s vegetables.
Families planted anywhere dirt existed. Backyards, vacant lots, city parks, empty land near railroad tracks. One mother’s garden butted right against train tracks where servicemen threw coins to kids waving as they headed to war. That memory stuck for 80 years.
These weren’t hobby plots. Fresh vegetables never got rationed because the government desperately needed them off commercial supply chains.
My grandfather Angelo's garden was his entire backyard. Started when they bought their first house in 1942 in Belleville. NJ. He tended that garden every day and grew every vegetable and herb available. That garden probably produce 30 or more percent of what they ate year-round...
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