A Victory Garden For Today’s Challenges

Fighting Recession One Tomato, Carrot Or Zucchini At A Time

The Victory Garden was born out of a need to reduce demand for fresh produce during WWI and WWII, in order to feed the troops. In 1943 over 20 million home gardeners in the USA grew more than 8 million tons of fresh vegetables in their backyards, in containers on the porch or on vacant lots in the neighborhood.

These gardening patriots grew more than 40% of all the fresh produce consumed in the nation. The same movement generated a similar result in Britain, Canada and Australia.

A recent study by the Alta Burpee seed company revealed that a home gardener could reap a whopping 25 to 1 dollar advantage by planting a vegetable garden. An investment of $50 for seed and fertilizer can produce fresh produce that would cost more than $1,250 at the supermarket. That’s money you can keep in your pocket.

We garden gnomes have lived on what we grow ourselves for thousands of years, and until 100 years ago, so did most humans. Planting a victory garden now could go a long way toward easing this world wide financial challenge. Here is why.

The Real Wealth Of A Society

The real wealth of any society is not found in the value of the dollar, how the stock market is doing, or whether or not you can buy on credit. Real wealth rises or falls on how productive a society is.

When I was in college (yes, gnomes go to college) my economics professor explained this in terms of widgets. If a society produces 100 widgets, they enjoy a certain level of prosperity. If they increase output to 125 widgets, everyone will be a little richer.

The current cash crunch has reduced buying power, which has translated to a necessary reduction in production. Less productivity means less wealth.

Victory Garden Benefits

If the nation goes to work as usual, then grows more home gardens on evenings and weekends, our economy gets better, because it has become more productive.

In 1943 the U.S. population was only about 137 million people. Today, the population exceeds 305 million. Doing the math, if 20 million gardeners produced 8 million tons of homegrown veggies in 1943, then 44 million gardeners today should be able to grow more that 17 million tons of fresh produce at home each year.

If, on average, those 44 million gardeners produced only $500 worth of vegetables each (you could easily produce 3 or 4 times that amount), that would add $22 billion dollars to the nation's economy annually. Here are some of the other perks:

• Home grown food is more nutritious and means better health;
• Gardening is good exercise, leading to increased fitness;
• Locally grown produce means less fuel consumption and transportation expense;
• Less demand for commercial produce means lower prices at the supermarket and more available for export to feed the world and reduce the nation’s trade deficit.

In addition to enjoying fresh veggies in season, canning and preserving your excess will extend your savings and allow you to enjoy your garden's bounty all year long.

Start your victory garden today, and do your part to dig your way out of this economic hole the World has fallen into.

Happy gardening,

Geefrank