Victory Garden Love Letter

Last week I rode my bike to San Francisco’s City Hall to see Bill Basquin’s art show at Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi’s office; as I pedaled up through Civic Center Plaza my gut wrenched as I saw the large empty space where the beautiful City Hall Victory Garden used to be. All that is left where the native flowers, organic fruits and vegetables recently flourished is a lonely Christmas tree.

History

Victory Gardens were a common sight during the World Wars, when promoting local production and energy conservation were perceived as the very foundations of patriotism. In 1943 there were over 250 “war gardens” in Golden Gate Park alone, as well as flourishing vegetable gardens in front of San Francisco’s City Hall and throughout the country.

The urgency of supporting local food production infrastructure spurred the formation of organizations like the Women’s Land Army in Britain, Australia and North America, which trained women to work on farms to grow food for their nations at war. Growing your own vegetables was not only entirely practical, but was also a clear sign of dedication to one’s country and the war effort.

Victory Redefined

The most recent City Hall Victory Garden was created by many people, including Slow Food Nation, Victory Gardens 2008+, Amy Franceschini, John Bela and Blair Randall,  with the support of the SF Department of the Environment and the Garden for the Environment. In part it was established to  demonstrate that healthy food can be easily grown  anywhere, and to “support the transition of backyard, front yard, window boxes, rooftops and unused land into food production areas.”

Now “victory” is being redefined in the pressing context of urban sustainability. According to Victory Gardens 2008+, “Victory is growing food at home for increased local food security and reducing the food miles associated with the average American meal.” In many of our communities access to healthy food and green spaces continue to be very limited. What better way to help solve this problem than to start planting some vegetables of your own?

Even though the lovely City Hall Victory Garden is now gone, growing our own food is something that we all can do to lessen our carbon footprint; whether it be in a local community garden or a window box. Nothing connects you to the changing seasons and subtleties of light and nature like watching something grow; and nothing spells “victory” like helping to create a locally based green economy, one garden at a time.