In 1942, Americans planted 20 million victory gardens for a harvest of about 8 million pounds of food. That represented 40 percent of all the fresh food eaten in the country. Today the words “victory garden” have been resurfacing in headlines and on social media. The hashtag #victorygardening is on the rise along with #socialdistancing and #pandemic. There’s a good reason for that.
What's a victory garden?
During the first and second World War, governments encouraged citizens to plant and tend gardens on private property and in public parks. The idea was to secure a local food supply in light of interrupted farming cycles and food supply chains.
U.S. National Archives. 1941 – 1945.
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In most cases victory gardens were small plots tended by a family or two. People grew common staples of the time, including vegetables that stored or preserved well over the winter. In some cases, victory gardens encompassed large public lands that would have been used for sport and recreation—if there hadn’t been a war going on. Here citizens tended the land together, much like a modern day community garden.
Why are victory gardens important now?
While a pandemic is not a war, many people are turning to gardening as a way to connect with family and supplement weekly menus. We don’t yet know if there will be any disruptions in our food supply. Farmers and retailers are working hard to make sure that doesn’t happen, and few expect it.
While supply chains remain strong, many people are interested in victory gardens because they provide a homegrown source of fresh food.
But while supply chains remain strong, many people are interested in victory gardens because they provide a homegrown source of fresh food. Maybe your income has been affected by COVID-19 and you’d like to trim your grocery bill. Maybe you’re just not that keen on an extra trip to the store to pick up fresh produce.
Whatever the case, gardening gets you outside, relieves stress and provides an opportunity for exercise. It also helps you feel empowered in a world where our daily routines are becoming more challenging every day.
What’s the best way to get started?
If you’re new to gardening, now is a great time to start. Self-isolating doesn’t stop you from turning over soil and planting seeds—all of which can be done in your own backyard. If you don’t have a backyard, there are scaled-down versions of victory gardening that might fit your space.
Types of victory gardens
During the last century, victory gardens were simple and straightforward by necessity. Many things were in short supply, including some tools and the metal to make them. People focused on planting staple crops that were most likely to succeed with minimal effort. This included standbys like carrots, potatoes, rutabagas, cabbages and beets, along with nutrient-rich crops like peas, Swiss chard, lettuce, and spinach.
Today we have more options at our fingertips. We can order most supplies to our door, and we can get advice with a simple click. What we can’t find in online articles, we can ask a social networking group and others will rush to answer our question. We also have many options when it comes to choosing our garden.
School children holding cabbage raised in the War garden of Public School 88, Borough of Queens, New York City, ca. 1918. U.S. National Archives.
Ground level
The most common type of victory garden was at ground level. People tilled patches of sod and bare earth, turning over grass or flowerbeds and converting them to productive food gardens. Eleanor Roosevelt even planted a victory garden on the White House lawn after hearing campaign messages from the Department of Agriculture. In-ground gardening is the least expensive and often fastest way to start growing.
Raised beds
A popular method of choice today, raised beds lift the level of your garden above ground to make the soil more accessible. The bottom of a raised bed remains open to the ground, so plants can reach the soil below. This means you don’t have to go very high if you have fair soil: just gather that soil beneath and inside your raised bed and you can grow a wide variety of crops.
For the elderly, handicapped or anyone struggling with chronic pain, raised beds make gardening easier and more comfortable. They’re important in urban areas, where people might choose to install them over concrete, pavers or rooftops, creating a garden where one wasn’t possible before. In all areas they help warm the soil earlier in the springtime.
Containers and raised planters
A collection of containers on a balcony or patio offers urban gardeners the chance to grow their favorite vegetables, even if they don’t have a yard. Plant pots and containers come in many different materials, each with their own benefits and requirements.
Raised planters are usually waist high and don’t require bending to tend. They’re deep enough to grow most popular vegetables and can often be moved during the season as conditions change.
What supplies do you need to get started?
In addition to your seeds, which are detailed below, it’s helpful to have a few other materials on hand to prevent and treat problems as they come up.
Complete organic fertilizer
Plants do best when nutrients are readily available. Organic fertilizer feeds the soil and helps to maintain a healthy balance of minerals and elements that your plants need all season long. It also prevents you from depleting your soil over the longer term. Most seed packets recommend adding complete organic fertilizer to your rows during planting time.
Dolomite lime
If you’re planting anything in the brassica family (which includes cabbage, kale, broccoli, bok choy, kohlrabi, and more), adding lime will help adjust your soil’s pH to the alkaline environment preferred. If you’re unsure about your soil’s pH, doing a simple soil test is a good idea. Most garden vegetables prefer alkaline soil, except for tomatoes and potatoes.
Compost
There’s a reason why gardeners call compost ‘black gold.’ It contains all the nutrients plants need to thrive, along with excellent soil conditioners and organic matter. Dig into the soil at planting time and add to the soil surface during the growing season alongside plant rows.
Composted manure
When compost is in short supply or reserved for heavy feeders like tomatoes and peppers, composted manure offers the next best thing. With a variety of nutrients and wide availability at garden centers, composted manure can provide an excellent, all-round amendment for garden vegetables.
Neem oil
Neem oil is a great all-purpose, natural insecticide to have on hand when pests strike. It can help with cabbage moths, aphids, and other insects, and slow powdery mildew when it appears on plant leaves.
Wood ash
If you have a wood stove or fireplace, a little ash goes a long way. Use for treating pests and for increasing the potash content of your soil.
Floating row cover
This light fabric protects young seedlings if the weather is slow to warm up. It’s also great to have if pests threaten your crops.
Secretary plowing Boston Common as part of Victory Garden Program, April 1944. U.S. National Archives.
Preparing your garden
Choose a location that receives 6-8 hours of sun each day. If you don’t have this much sunlight, consider growing leafy vegetables like lettuce and spinach that need less sun and heat. All vegetable crops will need some sun. You can check your location using a sunlight calculator or a sun-seeking app installed onto your phone.
As a general rule of thumb, prepare your soil by digging in compost and adding 1 cup of complete organic fertilizer per 10 foot of row. In future years it’s best to disturb the soil as little as possible. Cover your garden at the season’s end with a thick layer of mulch to minimize digging next springtime.
What to grow in your victory garden
As mentioned above, victory gardens were dedicated to fruits and vegetables that were easy to grow and keep. While everyone has their favorites, we’ve listed ten that fit this description below.
Once you’ve identified what you want to eat, consider how deep those plants grow. Knowing the soil depth requirements of your favorite vegetables is an important step in picking the type of garden you want to plant. We’ve listed the depth needed for each vegetable below.
We’ve also listed the approximate days to maturity for each. This number indicates how long seeds will take to mature before harvest. The range given reflects the shortest and longest average for different seed varieties.
Related: 6 Most Cost Effective Vegetables to Grow
Beans
There’s a reason why kindergarten teachers choose beans to demonstrate the life cycle of plants: beans are one of the simplest vegetables to grow while being some of the most prolific. Put them in a Styrofoam cup, water them once in a while, ignore them a lot, and they’ll still outgrow their living space.
Beans grow best in soil that contains bacteria known as Rhizobia. These common bacteria helps them pull nitrogen from the atmosphere and add it to the soil. If your soil has never grown legumes before, you can buy some soil inoculant to improve your harvest.
When choosing bean seeds, remember the basics: bush beans grow low to the ground and need to be spaced 6 inches apart in rows that are 2 feet apart. Pole beans will climb a trellis and form plants that reach upwards of 8 feet. You can plant them more closely together at 3 inches apart.
When to plant: After all danger of frost has passed and soil has warmed over 75 F (24 C).
Soil depth required: 18-24”
Days to maturity: 50-80 days
Beets
Full of antioxidants, beets make a great addition to salads and juices. Their large seeds make them easy to handle for children, and they’re relatively trouble free to grow if planted once the soil has warmed slightly. You can also harvest them at any stage: leaf, shoot and root.
The thing to remember about beets is that thinning is usually necessary. Crowded plants will make for smaller roots, but regular thinning will give you slender pickings for early salads. Beets grow best in well-drained, loose sandy loam. Before planting, gently loosen the soil with a digging fork. It helps to add potash to the bottom of your planting row along with your compost and organic fertilizer: you can do this with a fine sprinkle of wood ash.
Plant seeds 1-2 inches apart and thin any seedlings that emerge to 4 inches. Sow every three weeks for a continuous harvest.
When to plant: Plant in mid-spring to midsummer when soil temperature is 50-80 F.
Soil depth required: 18-24”
Days to maturity: 50-70 days.
Cabbage
With a little bit of care cabbages are easy to grow. Just be sure to know whether you’re growing varieties bred for harvesting in summer, fall, or winter, since there’s a difference.
Most cabbages bred for summer harvest grow quickly, in as little as 45 days. You can start these indoors in early spring or sow directly into your garden later in the season. Fall harvest cabbages take longer in the ground, closer to 100 days, but will reward you with longer storage times. Choose from green or purple varieties for fresh eating, cooking or fermenting.
The main cabbage pest is the cabbage moth, known for chomping away at leaves and leaving unappetizing holes. To treat problems after they appear, use neem oil. Cabbage maggots could also be a problem. For moderate problems treat with wood ash around the base of the plant.
Related: How to Control Cabbage Maggots
Cabbages are part of the brassica family, which benefits from a lower pH in the soil. If your soil hasn’t had lime added for a few years, use it now along with organic fertilizer and finished compost. Add more fertilizer or compost mid-season to help your cabbage form large heads.
Cabbages grow into large plants: space seeds or seedlings 18 inches apart in 2 foot rows. You can remove the loose, outer leaves before storage.
When to plant: Plant summer and fall cabbage after the ground warms up in early spring. For winter varieties, start seedlings in springtime and transplant out in mid to late summer.
Soil depth required: 12-18”
Days to maturity: Summer harvest cabbage, 45-65 days. Fall harvest, 70-110 days. Winter harvest, 100-120 days.
Cucumbers
With a little bit of heat, a few cucumber plants will produce more fruit than you’ll know what to do with. Once established, the plants are vigorous and tough, but they need lots of nutrients and water. The key is to keep your soil evenly moist and make sure pollinators (like bees) can reach your plant’s flowers. If tiny fruits appear and then shrivel up, that’s usually due to poor pollination.
In many places you can sow cucumbers directly into the ground, but if you live in a cooler climate, start seeds indoors. Many varieties benefit from support, but some will grow taller than others. Pay attention to the details on your seed package. A strong trellis will help pollinators find your plants and support continuous fruiting all season long. Plants with a shorter growing habit will do well when planted into mounds where they can sprawl.
To prepare your soil, add dolomite lime along with your complete organic fertilizer and compost. In some locations, cucumbers are susceptible to damping off, a fungal infection that attacks the base of young seedlings. If this happens, treat your soil with chamomile tea or strongly diluted hydrogen peroxide and plant again. Mature plants should be spaced 9 inches apart in rows 3 feet apart.
Related: Garden Alchemy – DIY Recipes for Organic Gardeners
When to plant: Cucumbers need warm soil to germinate (60-80 F).
Soil depth required: 18-24”
Days to maturity: 45-70 days
Kale
Kale is so easy to grow we dedicated an entire article https://learn.eartheasy.com/articles/kale-the-workhorse-of-your-winter-garden/ to it a few years ago. Not only is it the toughest vegetable to kill, it’s also a great volunteer if you let it go to seed at the season’s end. In theory, that means you may only need to buy kale seed once in your life. The rest of the time, it will plant itself.
Kale comes in three main varieties: Scottish, Russian, and Mediterranean. Scottish kale is curly and can be quite decorative in the garden. Russian kale is flatter and lacier and often has bright, colorful ribs. Mediterranean kale is elegant and plume-like. While these plants all look a little different, they share the same rich nutrients and easy care growing.
Like cabbage above, kale is a member of the brassica family and likes soil where lime has been added. If possible, add this a few weeks before planting. Sow kale early or late in the season: it’s not that fussy. Mature plants need 18-24 inches of space. Plant more thickly and thin as needed.
When to plant: Early spring when the soil can be worked.
Soil depth required: 18-24”
Days to maturity: 40-80 days
Lettuce
Lettuce grows best in cool weather. Once the temperatures hit 70 F, germination will slow. As the temperature warms further, mature plants will go to seed and stop producing. For these reasons it’s best to plant lettuce early and repeatedly until the weather heats up.
Before you plant, decide if you want to harvest your lettuce by the head, by the leaves, or both. Head lettuce such as butter and romaine need to be left intact as they mature. You can pick loose leaf varieties as soon as the leaves reach three to four inches long.
After adding compost and organic fertilizer, sow your seeds as thinly as possible. Head lettuce will need about a foot of growing space, while loose leaf varieties can be much closer—about 4-8 inches apart depending on big you want them to get.
When to plant: Early spring to early summer when the soil temperature is 50-70 F.
Soil depth required: 12-18”
Days to maturity: 30-70 days
Related: 5 Tips for Growing Early Spring Greens
Peas
The nicest thing about peas is how early you can plant them: they’re one of the first seeds in the garden in springtime. Like lettuce they prefer cool weather, but they can go in earlier—as soon as the soil can be worked. Just be sure your soil isn’t too wet, or the seeds may rot. Seeds will germinate within 1-2 weeks.
Most varieties will need trellising, but not all varieties grow the same height. Check your seed package for recommendations, or choose one that suits your space. You’ll also want to think about whether you want shelling peas (peas that need the pod removed) or edible pod peas. Edible pod peas come in ‘snap’ (fat, full pods) and ‘snow’ (flat pods) varieties.
When to plant: The best soil temperature is 50-70 F.
Soil depth required: 18-24”
Days to maturity: 65-80 days
Potatoes
There’s nothing quite like digging up a potato plant to find a collection of 10 or even 20 fingerlings waiting in the dark earth. Potatoes need ample space, but this space doesn’t have to be conventional. People have grown potatoes in old garbage cans or bathtubs, in circles of wire mesh filled with soil and leaves, and even in stacks of rubber tires.
Potatoes are extra easy to grow because they don’t require a soil high in nutrients to thrive. Too much nitrogen and they’ll turn out leafy. But potatoes will reward a gardener many times over if tended carefully. A one-pound bag of seed can yield about 10 lb. of potatoes.
Grow them using other potatoes labeled as ‘seed potatoes.’ Plant 3-4 inches deep in well drained soil that’s not heavy with clay. Avoid watering until plants emerge if possible. This will help avoid disease. When potato plants reach a foot tall, pull the surrounding soil into hills around the base of the plants, covering some of the green leaves. This will help produce more tubers. Finished plants should be 12 inches apart.
When to plant: Plant after the soil warms beyond 43 F.
Soil depth required: 12-18” plus hilling if desired
Days to maturity: 50-100 days. Dig new potatoes 7-8 weeks after planting.
Squash
Squash take up a lot of space, but they are prolific under the right conditions. Those conditions usually involve lots of compost or manure: squash are heavy feeders and love an old compost pile to climb on.
If you don’t have a lot of space to grow squash, choose one or two plants from one of the compact (or bush) varieties. Instead of sprawling over a long distance, they’ll grow in a contained area.
Plant squash in late spring once the soil has warmed or start indoors in mid spring for transplanting out. Sow seeds 1 inch deep in wide rows and thin to a spacing of 2 feet for summer squash and 4 feet for winter squash. Rows should be 3-4 feet apart.
Related: Squash – How to Plant, Harvest and Store
When to plant: The best soil temperature is 70-95 F.
Soil depth required: 24-36”
Days to maturity: 70-120 days for winter squash, 40-75 days for summer squash.
Tomatoes
The first thing you need to know about tomatoes is whether you’ll be growing determinate (bush type) or indeterminate (vining type). That’s because the trellis system for indeterminate tomatoes must be substantially higher than for bush varieties.
Vining tomatoes grow continuously, producing fruit over a longer season. They also require regular pruning to help them concentrate their energy into tomatoes instead of leaves and blossoms. Bush types produce a more concentrated harvest. They’re excellent for canning and storing. Choose varieties popular to your local area and whether you want early or late maturity. Many now exist for different climates and geographic zones.
Because tomatoes need an early start, plant seeds indoors if you live in a cooler climate, then transplant outside as the season warms. Tomato plants will survive nighttime temperatures of 50 F. Hot days and even watering will lead to a good harvest.
When to plant: Put plants outside after nighttime temperatures reach 50 F.
Soil depth required: 24-36”
Days to maturity: 50-80 days. Cherry and grape varieties will mature more quickly.
What else do you need to know?
Gardening benefits from trial and error. Your soil and location will be different than other gardens. By observing and experimenting you’ll learn what will work better, and what you definitely want to do again if you plant another victory garden next year.
