I live in Victory Gardens, San Marcos TX. It's the name bestowed upon this neighborhood in honor of the allied victory in Europe and Asia at the end of World War II. Coincidentally, I had been wanting to plant a victory garden long before I ever knew I would be living in this house, much less this neighborhood. How do you like that for serendipity? For those gentile readers who are unaware of what a victory garden is, I would encourage you to read on as I enlighten the good citizens of San Marcos to the benefits of creating a victory garden in their very own yard.
Many years ago, in fact so many years ago that only half of the wars we waged were unjust, Americans found themselves at war. This was a big one. I'm pretty sure this one was big because someone was upset about the outcome of the last big war. You know, the war that ended all wars? Yes, that one, it seems that the only people who like the outcome of that war were the victors. The losers were not happy at all and decided to have another war to end all wars. It was during this war that Americans experienced resource shortages like they hadn't seen -well it had been at least 5 years or so since they had been in the middle of the depression. In the midst of this resource crisis the people banded together held recycling drives that recovered such things as
copper, steel, and rubber.They also came up with an ingenious idea to grow food for themselves on every available plot of ground. This offset the high cost of food both for the civilian and for the government trying to feed an army fighting a global war. It is estimated that in 1943 that 40% of domestic food consumption in the United States was produced in local 'backyard' gardens. Victory gardens. The victory garden not only improved the health and economy of the people eating the food, it also improved morale on the home-front. Turns out that citizens were rewarded with the good feelings of self-sufficiency and being able to participate in the war effort at home. All this cost the government virtually nothing, yet the benefits were, in effect, legion.
The last several weeks I have been trying to determine how I want to proceed with my own victory garden. You know, do I want a potted garden, raised beds, or just right there on the ground. I will be working on an over-all master plan this week and once finished I will be better equipped to start planting with long term goals in mind. I'll keep you updated.
I should note here that my victory garden has nothing to do with the war in Iraq. I would happily celebrate declaring victory there right now followed by a hasty withdraw. My victory garden will rather work toward victory over global agribusiness and energy companies that get us into wars in the first place -one tomato at a time.
