National Archives

The Peterson Garden Project (and my self appointed Block Captain duties) have made me think really hard about how to get all the stuff I know about edible gardening out of my head and “down on paper” for the many novice gardeners growing with us this season.

90% of Chicago Victory Gardeners in WW2 had never gardened before so it was important to me to encourage novices to join our project. And, therefore, my responsibility to teach them the basics so they will succeed and be equipped to teach others in the future.

Since this is an exercise (for me at least) in recreating a Victory Garden using the original concepts, organization, ideas and materials that were used in WW2, the first step was to go back to the source.

And the first thing I found was a big SNAFU… All of the educational materials offered in WW2 by the Department of Agriculture, Office of Civilian Defense and local organizing groups focused on traditional row gardening.

This method won’t be effective in our raised bed garden. DOH.

The square foot gardening method was developed in the 1970’s. It’s the way I have gardened since the early 1990’s (my father taught me the row method as a child). It works well for raised beds because it provides a lot of produce in a very small space. It also cuts down on weeding since the plants are closely spaced. Less weeding + more food = good plan.

It appears that my approach to reuse planting-specific materials from WW2 is a moot one so other educational materials are required.

[All is not lost however! We will be suggesting some of the seeds grown in WW2 Victory Gardens. Those original materials will come in handy in that regard. But that's the topic of another post...]

Since The Peterson Garden Project is organic, and teaching a strictly organic method is different than other approaches, I was curious what our WW2 predecessors thought on that matter and if the materials could provide any guidance.

From my research, I have found very little reference to pesticides and other chemical treatments in Victory Gardens. (This propaganda poster was one of the few examples.) That doesn’t mean they weren’t used, I just haven’t found much evidence. On the flip side, there is a plethora of material on composting and on using animal manure and green crops so I’m going to make a leap and assume many of the original Victory Gardens were organic.

[Chemical fertilizers are a relatively new addition to the gardening scene if you look at the big historical picture... prior to the industrial age organic was the only way to garden. For a fascinating look at the history of fertilizer, click HERE.]

Being green is important so not having to make copies of materials people may not find useful is a good thing. Plus most of the communication for this project is happening electronically via email, online forums and our website so delivering printed materials would be time consuming as well.

Something online, something based on square foot, raised bed methods… where to find it?

Luckily – due to the timely collision of the technology boom and the edible gardening revival – I didn’t have to look far for a solution that seemed tailor made to our needs!

Gardener’s Supply – that great gardener/employee owned outfit in Vermont – has come up with the absolute best educational tool I can imagine. This BRILLIANT, easy to use application allows you to drag-and-drop the vegetables you want to grow into a custom sized grid. It automatically calculates the number of vegetable plants per the square foot method and it even generates an incredibly useful planting/informational guide based on your selection. (Thank you Gardener’s Supply for being so smart!)

We suggest this tool to our gardeners in their Welcome packet with instructions to consider what they want to eat and develop a planting grid. We’ll use their personal plans as a starting point when we get to planting later in the month. There’s plenty more to teach, don’t get me wrong, but this approach seems to solve many issues in a self-guided way. The other things we can teach hands-on as we go…

A great educational tool found… that leaves more time for me to consider another important aspect of my Block Captain duties: “morale boosting” activities… monthly potluck anyone? Surely that hasn’t changed much since WW2!