Vegetable gardening during WWII and before was more a matter of necessity, not a hobby, and thus the consequences of crop damage more dire. Our present day arsenal of pest controls did not exist but the pests and the problems were about the same.

The purpose of these particular questions is twofold: first, to hear of some solutions to problems that still persist and secondly, to include a segment of the community that can provide us with great insight from the past for our present.

If you, your friends, or other members of your family were tending a "victory" garden (or before), please get to the keyboard and write us a note. Responses will be sorted and posted for all to read and enjoy. I'm sure we'll all discover something that is new to us and still is pertinent.

We have had wonderful response to these questions. I am particularly pleased to see so many WWII veterans and their families online. The demographic participation has expanded tremendously. (So much for the Internet as being just for the youth of the population.) This is a synopsis of these responses.

In the case of the WWII victory garden, one's civic duty was barely surpassed by the necessity of providing for the family dinner table. The common garden theme--live with the imperfections or do without the product.

The motivating forces for gardening were hunger, patriotism, accomplishment and fulfillment. No one used the words "for pleasure," but the emotional well being gotten from producing a crop no doubt had a good feeling associated with it. Quite the contrary when compared to the surplus availabilities of the present day.

Several respondents mentioned that they would join with the neighborhood and separate out the growing of single type of plant and then share their crop/harvest with the other members of the co-op.

I had never heard of this sort of cooperation, but it makes sense. Let a single parcel be tended by a single family unit. Some folks are better growers of some crops than others: Each to his trade.

Those persons who had established fruit trees were especially popular. They could provide for themselves and scores of others a scarce treat to a rationed populace.

Pest control was primarily physical; death by traumatic compression. It seems that squeamishness was not an issue. Partially eaten produce still had nutritious, tasty and perfectly edible portions. The most common cry: cut away the wormy part! This part of gardening also was well remembered by several readers. The participation of the whole family was noted, especially in pest control. Bounties were placed on everything from Japanese Beetles to snails to hornworms, and the kids jumped right in.

So simple. I had expected to hear about the use of DDT and arsenicals, but it was pointed out that these were quite costly compared to simply dealing with the bug and discarding some munched portion. For diseases, the tried and true Bordeaux Mix was the most common. Disease control was far more important than incidental bug damage.

From what I have gathered, growing a crop--from seedling through nurturing and finally harvesting, had become the most wide spread contribution to the home front.

The collective perspective towards the growing of one's food:

• Tolerance; the acceptance of imperfection
  
  
• Perseverance; toil for a collective good had tangible results
  
  
• Planning ahead; the vision of a future need with the positive attitude of a goal(harvest)
  
  
• Acceptance of responsibility; knowing that no body else was going to do it for you and there were plenty of folks worse off.
  
  

I doubt we will ever see such compelling reasons to garden again.

You may use the convenient e-mail form below or send us your note to info@capitalnursery.com. We look forward to hearing from you!

Your Name:
E-Mail:
URL:
City:	, State:
Country:
Comments:

  Back to Our Questions To You Main Index