April 10, 2023

During World War One, it was the War Garden. In World War Two, the Victory Garden. Now, it is the Survival Garden. The United States military and its allies vanquished The Kaiser, der Furher, and The Japanese Emperor in the First and Second World Wars. Gardens grown in America were allies in the victories.

Now, at the beginning of the third decade of the second Millennium a new enemy is mustering its forces and initiating an attack, not only on the United States, but also on the planet. This adversary is a more insidious threat, one that can attack and potentially kill all the inhabitants of the planet.

The new battlefield is global hunger, mass starvation, sickness, and death. The world's supply of food is threatened by weather, wars, and willful destruction. The size of the world's grain harvests are dropping. Shortages of nitrogen are limiting fertilizers. The availability of food is challenged by shuttered food processing plants, train crashes, and disrupted supply chains. The health and lives of people are seriously threatened.

The prospects of global hunger are not only possible, they are highly probable. In some locations, starvation is assured, if not inevitable.

Consider the evidence. The bad news keeps pouring in from around the globe: the agricultural output from Ukraine and Russia, two of the world's largest exporters of grains, is compromised by the war. Anomalies in the weather are causing colder and shorter growing seasons.

A large volcano in the Southern Hemisphere in 2022 changed the atmosphere and is decreasing agricultural production in Brazil and Argentina, two of the world's largest exporters of grains.

The War Gardens of World War I and the Victory Gardens of World War II are models for Survival Gardens to grow food for the folks confronting shortages and inflated prices. The global "Fight For Food" threatens the health and life of people. The lack of food is the enemy knocking at the door. As in WWI and WWII, gardens, known as Survival Gardens, are being recruited to support  the war.

I created this website, Victory Garden Books, to assemble valuable books with critical information  from the late 1800's and early 1900's on the topics of self sufficient farming, gardening, and food storage. These books are from the "old days." They teach the basics our great grandparents needed to know about growing healthy crops and raising farm animals to be self sufficient on family farms. They lived before the mega farms, the genetically modified crops, Dow Chemical, and Monsanto.

I have been gardening since I was 5 years old, helping my great grandmother from Bohemia dig up her carrots, beats, and potatoes. In her 90's, grandma used her shortened hoe as a cane to get around  her garden and her kitchen. Now, I have my own garden and a greenhouse. I grow my own vegetables, fruits, berries, and herbs. Of course, carrots, beats, and potatoes.

Whether you live in a mobile home, a downtown apartment, or a yurt, you can learn to grow your own food. Maybe not all your food. But at least some. It is hard to think of a more rewarding and healthy hobby.

Download a few books from this website onto your phone. Read them while sowing seeds in your garden, arranging herbs on your window sill, or rinsing sprouts at your kitchen sink.

You are not too young or too old to garden. At five, you can dig potatoes. At ninety, you can cut two feet off your hoe and use it as a cane to get out to your garden to use it as a hoe.

Dan Youra

Publisher

Dan Youra with his favorite flowers