The last frost was weeks away, but that didn’t stop Joyce Sander (left), Rita Wray and Mary McMahon from “vitamizing the soil for victory,” as the Herald-American put it. The women were starting a model victory garden to inspire Chicagoans to get their hands (and high heels?) dirty for the war effort. Preventing food shortages wasn’t the only goal: “Pack your 1942 War Garden with vitamins,” counseled the Daily Times, “but add a rose–for morale.”
Number of victory gardeners in Chicago in 1942: 12,601.
The city’s largest victory garden: 12 acres, at Foster and St. Louis Avenues, tended by 313 families.
Average annual percentage increase in lawn and garden spending from 1994-99: 9.
Percentage of respondents in a 1997 survey who garden to produce food: 18.
Most popular Chicago garden crop in 1942: tomatoes. Most popular crop today: tomatoes.
