A little historical perspective with current applications

Over the holidays, Cal has been doing some historical work on gardening and its relation to the larger society. Here are some of the tidbits:

Victory gardens during WWII. (They were also done during WWI). This page has a basic historical description of the Australian situation:

http://www.awm.gov.au/encyclopedia/homefront/victory_gardens/

While Australian, this page uses the Obama White house garden (and Michelle Obama) to segue into discussing Victory gardens in general, and details some of the benefits of mass-gardening:

http://www.sgaonline.org.au/victory-gardens/

Im not sure what the take home message of this is. It isnt to replicate it, because it was an emergency situation. I suppose I wanted to post it as a stand out piece of Australian gardening history.

Finally, a really impressive picture of a garden built in a bomb crater. Look at it full screen and note the size and the detail (eg bricks at the entrance!)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Victory_Gardens._Where_the_Nazi%27s_sowed_death,_a_Londoner_and_his_wife_have_sown_life-giving_vegetables_in_a_London..._-_NARA_-_196480.tif

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A great-parish level 'gardening guild' initiative from Kettering, Ohio. Very encouraging!

http://www.stalbertthegreat.net/index.php/slideshow/offices-ministries/garden-guild/

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http://www.kitchengardenseeds.com/tips.html

Nice tips page