National D-Day Memorial Victory Garden
Project Produces Much More than Vegetables
“Wow,
are we lucky today!” chirped a little girl embracing a bulging bag of green
beans. Her companion had just husked an ear
of corn, and the pair beamed as they bounced through the gate of W. E. Stevens
Family Victory Garden at the National D-Day Memorial. A few weeks earlier, they and their fellow
gardeners had filled a wheelbarrow with tender, new ears. After that, they picked bags of zucchini,
squash, green peppers, and tomatoes.
The
Memorial’s sixth season of victory gardening is drawing to a close and one
thing is very clear: this garden has produced much more than vegetables. The concept of using a victory garden as a
teaching tool took shape in 2007. Throughout the war years, families,
individuals, and groups had planted gardens similar to the Memorial’s Victory
Garden, thereby reducing homefront pressure on the food chain and making more
commercially grown food available to the frontlines. Often, victory gardens were cooperative
efforts, planted and maintained by churches, clubs, neighborhoods, small
businesses, and students at school. If
the food they grew helped satisfy a basic physical need, the physical effort
they spent growing it helped satisfy a basic emotional need to participate
actively in the battle against the Axis.
Persuaded that the Memorial would serve as a good backdrop for
present-day victory gardeners to experience the same sort of satisfaction, the
National D-Day Memorial decided to find a way to create one.
The
most satisfying part of the project is watching would-be gardeners, many of
whom have never held a spade, break ground in the spring and then continue to plant,
weed, and harvest in the coming months. The
victory gardeners discover what conditions and care plants need to grow well,
and they also learn the details of garden design. After lessons about soil, composting, mulch,
and garden tools, they are ready for a trip to the greenhouse to pick out their
plants. The youngsters’ anticipation is palpable and their excitement
contagious as they plant everything from corn, tomatoes, green beans and
strawberries to marigolds, herbs, and a host of other flowers and
vegetables.
The
children visit the garden weekly to weed, water, and learn more about
historical gardens and ecology through activities and crafts. The lessons,
ample and varied, range from recognizing beneficial insects and birds to
distinguishing a weed from a vegetable.
In the process, they make birdhouses, stepping stones, and memory boxes.
They pick flower and herb bouquets to give to loved ones, learn how to prepare
the vegetables they raise, and of course, each week they take home the harvest
to share with their families.
They
take home other things, too. A sense of
teamwork soon appears, as older children help younger ones and sharing becomes
commonplace. Friendships form between young gardeners and adult volunteers. Jokes are shared around tomato plants;
impromptu games of hide-and-seek between the corn rows break out. New discoveries abound: watermelons hiding
beneath giant green leaves (“We forgot one!” comes a small voice from across
the garden), corn silk sprouting (“Look, it’s like hair!”). New attitudes show
themselves, too: motivation, curiosity, a sense of pride and ownership. How
else does one account for an 8-year-old victory gardener traipsing around in
100 degree heat to pick four strawberries and a bouquet of lemon grass?
The
Victory Garden Program concludes each year in August with an end-of-season
picnic, featuring foods grown in the Victory Garden. People gather to recognize the hard work that
goes into the project, reflect on what has been gained, and to celebrate the
success of their combined efforts. The
Memorial’s garden won a national award in 2008 for being one of the best youth
gardening programs in the country.
World
War II ended in 1945, but the victory garden, as a vehicle for discovery, has
immediacy still.
Nutritious
food, outdoor exercise, increased self-confidence, teamwork, ecological
awareness, the wonder of watching a seed become a foot-long carrot − those are
the products of the National D-Day Memorial’s Victory garden. Remembered by those youngsters and perhaps,
in due time, refreshed and enriched in garden plots of their own, those
experiences will continue to bear fruit long after the season’s soil is turned
under in the Memorial’s Victory Garden. The value on a harvest like that is
beyond measure.
by April Cheek-Messier
Vice-President for Operations and Education
National D-Day Memorial
