Environmentalism & Comfort in the Quarantine Victory Garden
Art by Qashka Rulino
Since March, I have seen an influx of youth-focused gardening on my social media. Most of my friends and followers have taken up a “plant parent” role at the very least, but many are growing their own food if able. If they aren’t growing their own food, they might be participating in an urban garden, or even just growing herbs on their windowsill. Prior to COVID-19, I held the rewarding role as a Garden Educator in Southern California. I was surrounded by fruits, flowers, and natural sunlight all day and I had the wonderful opportunity to teach young children about sustainability, agriculture, and environmental science. I know the happiness that comes from gardening firsthand.
So, when I saw gardens pop up on my feed, I was ecstatic. Everyone my age is realizing what I realized recently -- gardening is wonderful for the soul! I decided to delve into research regarding why Gen-Zers and young Millennials are taking on this gardening role. Did the virus have something to do with it?
Turns out it might.
After pursuing online opinions and personal blogs from the comfort of my kitchen table, I have noticed that people are gardening because it leads to a sense of control. If we can control our little plot of land or our pots in the window, it will make us feel better in these weird times. We can’t control the virus, but we can control what we do in our personal, individual lives. Gardening has become this sense of comfort in a hard time, and has often compared to the “Victory Garden” era of the second World War: gardening in a time of hardship to cope with worldly catastrophic issues. Sounds a bit familiar to me. People have even called the virus a “war” that we have to continuously battle until it can be defeated. I have even heard “World War C.”
The history of the Victory Garden is quite a fascinating one. During World War II, the U.S. government initiated the Victory Garden campaign, inspiring people to grow food at home in order to help the war efforts. The campaign promoted gardening, limiting food waste, and food preservation as a way to ration and support labor/transportation shortages. 20 million Americans ended up planting victory gardens.1
What are the benefits of the Victory Garden? The mental health benefit is a huge one. And when done right, gardening promotes sustainability - growing food in your backyard reduces your carbon footprint. Think about a tomato from your local grocery chain. That fruit had to travel to a distribution center, to the grocery store, and then lastly to your home. How much gas does that take? It takes significantly less gas to purchase seeds or a starter plant. Farmers’ markets are a more sustainable option compared to the supermarket supply chain, but nothing can beat growing food footsteps away. Plus, we can control how much water we use to grow our own food and what kind of tactics we can use to conserve water. For example, we can leave buckets out to collect rainwater, place a container in the shower while we wait for our water to heat up, and even use pasta water to water our plants. And of course -- no pesticides allowed.
Gardens can also mitigate food deserts. While this benefit is more geared towards urban gardens, home gardening can also benefit the community at large. Food deserts are defined as “areas where people have limited access to a variety of healthy and affordable food.” 2 Think large cities, where gentrification has jacked up supermarket prices: one batch of fresh fruit and vegetables can cost the same as multiple frozen meals, and low-income folks will rely on the latter because it is more cost-efficient. But with the development of urban gardens, fresh fruit and vegetables can become more accessible on a widespread level, as these organizations often donate their excess food. Additionally, if you grow your own food and have a surplus, donating your food to food shelters and community fridges does WONDERS for the community.
Gardening encourages thinking in a holistic manner. When we grow our own food, we rely on a circular economy model, meaning we use resources continuously until we can no longer do so. This model is brought to light with one super important element of sustainable agriculture: compost! If we grow a seed into a carrot plant, we can harvest that carrot and use the root as food. We can also use the stems to make vegetable stock, or put it in compost. This model opposes the linear production model, where we “make, take, and waste” our items, generating waste at astronomical levels. Gardening with the circular model means that we use everything to do the task of something else. That’s the beauty of regenerative agriculture.
Gardening can bring about mindfulness. We are outside, sweating in areas we didn’t even know we can sweat in, using muscles we didn’t know we had. However, there is a reward to the hard work -- the ability to see growth from a seed to a harvest. This, to me, this is why we garden. This ability to be present in such growth can bring about a kind of serotonin boost that you might not find in other places. Our love for our environment stirred together with a holistic mindset can create a beautiful setting where we cherish and appreciate what we have.
Whatever the reason may be, gardening has great benefits for the planet, people, and soul. The rise of the home Victory Garden is one of the rare gifts of 2020. We are all under dire circumstances with COVID-19, police brutality, the impending demise of our planet -- yet, though these hardships, young folks have found a light with a meaningful activity that brings about glimmers of hope worldwide. Here’s to hoping the Gen-Z gardening revolution stays.
Victory Gardens by Claudia Reinhardt, Living History Farm.
Characteristics and Influential Factors of Food Deserts by Paula Dutko, Michele Ver Ploeg, & Tracey Farrigan, USDA. Aug 2012.