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Written By Lara Wadsworth |
Who is Eleanor Roosevelt? Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962) was First Lady of the United States from 1933 to 1945, a humanitarian, diplomat, and one of the most influential women in American history. During World War II, she championed Victory Gardens and community food production as tools of resilience, patriotism, and self-sufficiency. Long after her time in the White House, her words and actions continue to inspire generations—not only in politics, but in everyday life, including the garden.
I will never forget the day I first heard an Eleanor Roosevelt quote. I was about 13 years old and struggling with the common issues of teenage girls of that age: self-confidence, comparison, and unkind comments from others. My mother and I were sitting on my bed after I had just finished crying to her about something that happened at school to intensify the feelings of inadequacy. She said to me, “Eleanor Roosevelt said, ‘No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.’” Years later, I discovered that Eleanor Roosevelt didn’t just teach inner resilience through words. She demonstrated resilience through action. Not only did she demonstrate great resilience individually, but also by championing Victory Gardens and community food production during World War II to strengthen the country as a whole
While I didn’t automatically stop feeling inferior or completely stop letting unkind words from others impact me, her words did help me get a perspective I desperately needed at that age. I am in charge of my own thoughts, actions, and feelings. This very principle also lies at the center of the victory garden movement! Victory gardens are about much more than simply growing your own food. It is about taking charge of your life for greater security and prosperity.
Later in my life, as I entered the world of Horticulture, I was again taken aback by the impact that Eleanor Roosevelt had on the home and garden world. She helped popularize home and community gardens and show the American people that they can be important spaces that inspire patriotism, practicality, and empowerment. At a time when food instability and economic hardships were widespread, Eleanor helped restore power to the average American by promoting self-reliance through gardening. Eleanor’s legacy in home and community gardening reflects the same philosophy embedded in the quote that made such an impact on me- empowerment, self-sufficiency, and quiet strength.
Eleanor was a woman of action. Not only did she encourage all Americans to tend home and community gardens, but she lived her convictions. She planted a victory garden, a food-focused vegetable garden, right on the White House lawn during WWII. She also tended a flower-cutting garden at her personal residence in New York. Just as her words encouraged inner resilience, her gardening efforts encouraged practical resilience.
World War II was a challenging time for all Americans. With the need for food rationing and the scarcity of resources, the president and his wife began encouraging the American people to grow their own food, coining the term “Victory Gardens” for home or community gardens. To model food production, Eleanor insisted on planting their own victory garden on the White House lawn. She had to battle the USDA and others who claimed this wasn’t necessary. Thankfully, Eleanor was up to the task and eventually got her way.
This seemingly small gesture of hope inspired the planting of over 20 million victory gardens nationwide, which produced about 40 percent of the US vegetable supply in 1943. This movement, headed by Eleanor, sent the message that gardening is dignified, self-sufficiency is powerful, and each person’s contribution matters no matter how small.
Victory Garden Plowing at Boston Common. Photo courtesy of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library archives.
So, what crops were popular in victory gardens? The crops needed to be easy to grow, dependable, and offer a good amount of nutrition. Crops such as peas, beans, carrots, beets, tomatoes, cabbage, spinach, and lettuce topped the list. Not only in Eleanor’s garden but across the nation, people were finally seeing again how valuable growing these crops can be. All of these crops have a relatively high yield in small spaces, are nutritionally dense, and are suitable for a variety of growing spaces, from containers to raised beds to backyard plots. Which of these crops will you grow this year?
Girl scouts learn about victory gardens February 1943. Photo courtesy of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library archives.
While men were often recruited to fight the war, Eleanor’s efforts reframed the domestic work left to women. Rather than seeing men as the noble ones going off to fight and win glory, and women staying home because they were frail or unable to participate, she showed that a woman staying home and planting a garden was her civic duty and an important contribution to national security. Gardening was a way to model strength without spectacle. At 13, Eleanor Roosevelt’s words taught me that strength begins internally, and the more I learned about her, the more I saw that she demonstrated that strength can also manifest outwardly, through soil, seeds, and service. Gardening was then, as it is still now, a physical and emotional act of reclaiming control over one’s life.
While our world is not the same as it was in the 1940s, there are many things in common. The political landscape is once again uncertain for many reasons, and the costs of everyday essentials continue to change regularly. So, now, more than ever, we should be reflecting on the impact that the Roosevelts made on the American people and start popularizing Victory Gardens again. Imagine how the nation would be if, yet again, we were able to produce 40 percent of our fresh produce needs through home and community gardens. What could food self-sufficiency do for your life and your family?
The best way to implement these strategies is to grow! Plant a garden in any capacity that is allowed to you. Choose high-yield, useful crops. Plant crops that can be preserved and eaten throughout the year, like cabbage, beans, and tomatoes. Donate extra produce to friends and family. Share seeds and knowledge to help others garden more too. Gardening restores a sense of agency despite a world where control seems impossible. You can control what you plant. Just like I learned as a teenager through Eleanor Roosevelt that I cannot control others, I can only control my reactions, I have continued to learn from her that I can control my garden and my persistence in my own soil. So, let's get our hands dirty this growing season and show the world how resilient the American people can be. No matter what might be going on in our lives politically, or globally, we can plant a garden!
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My dad was born in 1929, at the beginning of the great depression. He was the youngest of nine children. My Grandad died just four years later in 1933, leaving my grandma to raise five kids between the ages of 3 and 17 by herself. She grew a huge garden and preserved enough to last until the next year and even sold some produce for cash. Dad always said that they had no money but, he never went hungry. They always had good food and plenty of it. That’s why I have always raised a garden. I will be 71 years old this year.