Victory Gardens
By: Lauren Wake
World War 1 Food Garden Parade
General Information
They began victory gardens to make sure they would never run out of food. Many cities had experienced gardeners running the gardens. They would also help the less experienced gardeners. Major companies would allow their employees to plant the gardens on their property. These companies would provide the gardeners with essentials to run a garden. They provided them with irrigation water and other supplies. The gardeners were not allowed to start planting anything until they knew exactly how everything is going to be placed (22).
Hotbeds
Gardeners started with hotbeds, which are 3 ft. by 6 ft. wooden frames. These were covered with glass. For heating the gardens they used decomposed horse manure that was buried underneath the hotbed in the growing area. The hotbed would be about 70-90 degrees fahrenheit, which would last for about two months. After a couple of months they would remove the rotten manure (23).
Recording
The gardeners had to record how many seeds they were going to pant in the gardens. They also had to record the seed germination rates, success of watering methods, diseases or insects that they may have seem and what they did to stop the insects. The gardeners were also required to number of pounds of food produced from the gardens. Then they would have to record how much of it was eaten fresh, how much was preserved, and how much was thrown away. They recorded all this information to help them plan how much they should plant for the next year and to help minimize waste (24).