Public Comment

In 1944 Roosevelt’s call to plant a Victory Garden was answered by 20 million Americans. Amazingly,these gardens in a short time produced 40 percent of all vegetables consumed in this country. (The rest was grown mostly by local farms) Gardens grew in backyards, in empty lots, and on rooftops or public gardens in cities. Even some portion of Golden Gate park was alloted to community gardens.) 

We can do this again. We can create a belated replacement for Roosevelt’s Victory Gardens, in our backyards and in our communities. And we can do this in the name of Peace, because after all, the only real victory is peace. Here is my suggestion. Plant a vegetable garden, a peace garden. Plant it for Earth Day. Plant it for your children or your grandchildren. Do it because it is a centuries old task and is profoundly satisfying. Do it because it will improve your health both to work in it and to eat from it. And do it because it is a practical step we can all take to promote peace.. inching our way away from corporate food to real food, from an oil-based food system to an independent, local food system. 

Vegetable gardening is not difficult. There are hundreds of books on the subject, but all you need is good soil, lots of good soil. You can make that yourself with the vegetable waste from your kitchen sink and those rotting leaves you didn’t get around to raking last fall. Stop using the garbage disposal and compost the old broccoli and coffee grounds. If that’s all you do this spring, you are on your way. Worms will arrive to work on your broccoli and leave castings for you that will help anything grow. Good bacteria will gather to increase the health of the soil. (think of the science projects there!) 

Let this all age until it looks and smells closer to the earth than broccoli, and you are ready. Spread the compost, working it in with a pitchfork to loosen old soil. That’s it. Lots of compost=good soil=the healthiest veggies on the planet. 

Like good wine, good compost does need to age, so start that process and then to jump start the whole thing, buy some good organic compost for your early vegetables. Use seeds or a mix of seeds and organic vegetable starts. Plant creatively with flowers and vegetables mixed together. And don’t worry about perfection. Nature is set up to make things grow. Your garden will produce something even if your time there is limited and you think you dont know a thing about gardening. Just enjoy it. Raising some of your food is an act of peace, and you will be amazed at how much is returned to you from that act.  

Happy Spring Gardening! Peace. 

Questions on getting started? Write to peacegardens@pacific.net. 

Barbara Wentzel is the proprietor of Traditions furniture store in Berkeley.