THE NEW VICTORY GARDEN

THE

by Sandy Robson

NEW VICTORY GARDEN

As the world holds its collective breath during the coronavirus pandemic, I am spending as much time as I can in my garden. It gets me out of the house, away from social media, and is a wonderful distraction. Along with the stress reduction and therapeutic benefits of gardening, there are also the wonderful fruits of your labour. I am looking forward as I do every year to the rewards of my veggie patch: the taste of a sun-ripened tomato, an earthy beet, the crunch of a cucumber, and the freshness of my own leafy spinach and arugula.

But as the garden is only now being seeded for crops that will appear in the months ahead, my weekly trip to the grocery store has left me considering the nature of our food security here on Vancouver Island. While there are no actual food or other shortages here (other than those created by people whose fear is leading them to panic buy) there have been times when food supplies have truly been threatened. During WWI and II, supply lines to Great Britain were tenuous at best, so every bit of potential arable land was put into service for the production of food.

Lawns and rose gardens, even cricket pitches were plowed under and planted. In Canada and the US, rationing became the norm and supplementing your meals with homegrown fruit and veggies was encouraged, and even considered one’s patriotic duty.

Victory Gardens, as they were known at the time, are having a bit of a resurgence as awareness of where our food comes from and how it is grown is increasing. The organic food movement has taken hold, and many are realizing the benefits of growing at least some of their food at home. And now in the face of COVID-19, suppliers of seed, soil and garden implements are seeing greatly increased demand.

West Coast Seeds, based in Delta, has had to restrict online ordering to catch up with its backlog. On PEI, Vesey’s has always shipped seeds to home gardeners across the country, but this year has seen an increased demand. Fortunately, according to their director of sales “we are not seeing any sort of hoarding mentality with the seed orders we are receiving. Our average order size is exactly where it normally is at this time of year… it’s just the sheer number of orders that’s abnormal.” Even places where gardens can be more of a challenge are experiencing a surge in food garden related sales. With snow still on the ground, some garden centres in Calgary doubled and even quadrupled their seed and seedling orders in anticipation of the gardening season ahead.

And I take all of this as wonderful news. The more people gardening, the better… better for our mental and physical health, better for our communities and better for the planet! So, are you considering your own food garden this year? Or perhaps you are already well into it, in which case we would love to hear from you and see photos of your own Fairwinds Victory Garden.