Victory Gardens Across Virginia
Victory gardens were among the many practices the OWI implemented into their propaganda campaigns for Americans to follow. Influencing the country to grow their own fruits and vegetables to relieve the war time duties of sending food and rations to the warfront became a common and patriotic practice done around the country once results of these gardens began to show that it was making an impact for the war relief.[1]
Inside Virginia, victory gardens were now being recognized as an effective war effort for everyone to enjoy. Once the trend of victory garden began seeing results, festivals and competitions were being held in order to increase the number of gardens in the state but to also spread awareness. Inside the Virginia Star newspaper, residents of Rappahannock county are being urged to create and continue their victory gardens as the war moves on.[2] The Rappahannock agricultural board asks residents to adopt the victory garden program so that may plant as many gardens as possible.
The U.S. Industrial Agriculture department were ensuring that Virginian farms were producing crops at a large amount to provide for the war effort through the duration of the war, leaving the general public the responsibility of producing their own crops so that Virginian farms can focus on providing crops to send to the warfront. Careful planning was then implemented into the program within Virginia to efficiently reap the benefits from the program after successful year. [3]
The victory garden program inside Virginia was very well practiced and welcomed with the help of propaganda influencing the general public of its necessity and purpose. Charles Johnson describes the social aspect of victory gardens as such, “Residents of towns and cities across Virginia worked side by side in community victory gardens. That sense of community and shared effort remain for many the primary memory of what Studs Terkel called ‘the good war’”[4]
[1] K.B.P. “Victory Garden Figures Exceed Expectations”. The Washington Post (1923-1954). Sep 06, 1942:1.
[2] "Says Plan Garden Now", The Virginia Star, Library of Virginia: Virginia Chronicle. February 08, 1942.
[3] Katherine BP. “Victory Gardens, Linked to War Effort, Demand Particularly Careful Planning”. The Washington Post (1923-1954). Feb 28, 1943:1.
[4] Johnson, Charles W. "V for Virginia: The Commonwealth Goes to War", The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 100, no. 3 (1992): Pg. 394
"Says Plan Garden Now", The Virginia Star, Library of Virginia: Virginia Chronicle.