Vegetable gardens provide food and stress relief in these uncertain times as this photo from 2019's corn crop shows.
Gardening is as much a part of being a Southerner as weekend football games and a trip to one's favorite fishing hole. Yet in another era, gardening was a survival tool and the Federal government encouraged US citizens to plant gardens everywhere. Even local railroad companies encouraged its workers to plant gardens along the tracks.
Vegetable gardens have always been in the arsenal of preppers in the South going back to the early frontier of the 1700s. The items produced in the garden was often canned, placed in root cellars, bartered or sold as a matter of sustenance for the grower.
On May 2, 1929, The Atmore Advance interviewed Lawrence McKinley, of Canoe, as to his farming techniques as to sustenance agriculture and vegetable gardening, the article stated,
"McKinley's farm plan was an insurance policy against hard times. "By following such a plan, even in lean years he would sell enough corn, hogs, chickens, potatoes, syrup and other items to take care of his living and operating expenses," continued the writer.
"He (Lawrence McKinley), attributed his success through subsistence agriculture as allowing him to farm cotton as a sideline and make money at it and the plan kept him out of debt," stated the Advance article.
The plan was not unique to cousin Lawrence. Nearly every rural family in those days had a vegetable garden and every member of the family was expected to weed, water, fertilize, plow, prepare and harvest the crops.
In World War I the term Victory Garden came into vogue. In March 1917, the US National War Garden Commission inaugurated a campaign to promote vegetable gardens to support the war effort during World War I. Food production had fallen off dramatically in the US due to so many farm workers being in uniform and sent to Europe. By war's end the promotions had resulted in over 5 million gardens being planted and more than $1.2 billion worth of produce being grown.
The popularity of Victory Gardens never really went away. Following the arrival of the Great Depression in 1929, many people in rural areas grew ever bigger and more diverse gardens during those times of woe and want.
During WWII, Elanor Roosevelt planted a Victory Garden on the White House grounds. Locally, the Frisco Railroad began a campaign to utilize every available square foot of railroad property for vegetable growing and to get every employee to plant a Victory Garden, this according to The Atmore Advance from March 29, 1945.
Railroad trustee Frank A. Thompson stated in the article, "We will need at least as many Victory Gardens as in 1944 when 40 per cent of the vegetable crop (in the US) was produced by these patriotic persons (and gardens)."
The Brewton Standard of March 1, 1945 carried Alabama Governor Sparks call for 200,000 Victory gardens in towns and 200,000 farm gardens. "Whereas, every suitable vacant lot put to producing vegetables will be a stroke against Germany and Japan," stated Sparks in the article. Locally, those growing Victory gardens could take the vegetables to Mrs. McMurphy in Canoe where she ran a WPA supported cannery where the goods could be canned and preserved for the grower. The cannery was on Hill Street. The Boatwright family later lived in this home for many years.
Perhaps it's time we re-inaugurate the Victory Garden in this time of national uncertainty amid the Covid-19 pandemic. As food and supplies are liquidated from local stores and the future holds challenges for all Americans, it may be time for a sea change in how we arrive at our food supply. A small plot of ground in the backyard can produce an abundance of crops, especially when one can run a garden hose and spread a little 13-13-13 fertilizer to the crop. There is an abundance of literature about how to prepare and can the abundance of a local garden in order to save for the "lean years" cousin Lawrence warned us about in the late 1920s.
Perhaps a modern Victory Garden can reduce stress and provide a strike against the uncertainty of the present times.
Vote for and support the Canoe Heritage District Referendum in 2020.
