Patriotic Gardens

By Regina Lufrano

April 06, 1917- Bronxville, Westchester County New York

In 1917, residents of Westchester County in New York faced rising food costs due to the Great War. The idea of home gardens was widely promoted to help provide low cost food to citizens. On April 06, 1917, the Bronxville Review argued that “every family which has or can get a garden in 1917 will find the raising of garden vegetables not only a pleasure and a great economy but will actually be rendering a patriotic service in increasing the present limited food supplies- a byproduct of the Great War.” Gardening had become a patriotic affair for women and children. The Bronxville Review reported on the large stock of unused land that existed in the suburbs and advised it be utilized for cultivation, suggesting that,“every foot of tillable [farmable] land should be cultivated in 1917 like never before.”   The title of the article, “Less Roses, More Potatoes” was a slogan that encouraged the adoption of private gardens by private citizens, who were to become more self-sufficient by planting fewer flowers and more food. These gardens became known as “Victory Gardens” or “Liberty Gardens”. 

The “extraordinary situation” faced by Westchester residents began with poor crop yields in 1915 and 1916. European nations were heavily dependent on the United States for food while “global agriculture production fell sharply during World War I.” As a result, the demand for food skyrocketed on the United States market.  Prices for grain, bread, meat, oil, sugar, and milk increased from week to week. To combat the uncontrollable rise of prices, a wartime committee known as the United States Food Administration (1917-1919), led by Herbert Hoover, was formed and tasked with aiding the president in food conservation and reducing waste.

Hoover firmly believed that ordinary Americans were willing to voluntarily control and reduce consumption as a part of an “unselfish patriotic spirit.” Thus, food became a way to allow ordinary citizens to be a part of the war effort on the home front.  Hoover‘s American Food Administration distributed propaganda posters that encouraged women and children (since the men were away at war) to “grow fruits and vegetables in their backyards and public spaces.” Victory gardens began in March of 1917 with the National War Garden Committee and spread like wildfire all over the country. “In the wartime months of 1917, there were reported to be approximately 3.5 million home food-producing lots in the U.S with a production value of $350 million.” Women and children were excited to participate in the war. These small gardens produced a shockingly large amount of food supply and sense of community for those on the home front. 

Liberty gardens provided food for the home front so the industrial farmers could focus on producing food that could be shipped abroad. They also gave the women and children at home a way to be a part of the war. The American Food Administration incorporated children into the war effort by encouraging schools to incorporate gardening into the curricula. Victory Gardens helped provide a strong sense of national pride and community for the women and children left at the home front.

Works Cited

 Gelfand, Lawrence E. Herbert Hoover–the Great War and Its Aftermath, 1914-23 / Edited with Introduction by Lawrence E. Gelfand. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 1979.

“Less Roses, More Potatoes.” Bronxville Review, April 06, 1917.pg 5.

Hayden-Smith, Rose. Sowing the Seeds of Victory: American Gardening Programs Of World War I. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers, 2014.

Mullendore, William. History of the United States Food Administration 1917-1919. Stanford, California: University of Stanford Press, 1941.

Tunc, Tanfer Emin. “Less Sugar, More Warships: Food as American Propaganda in the First World War.” War in History 19, no. 2 (2012): 193–216. http://www.jstor.org/stable/26098429.

Image: Penfield, Edward, 1866-1925, and United States School Garden Army. Join the United States School Garden Army : Enlist Now : Write to the United States School Garden Army, Bureau of Education, Department of Interior, Washington, D.C. Images, n.d. https://jstor.org/stable/community.12332074.