Victory gardens, also called war gardens or food gardens for defense, were vegetable, fruit, and herb gardens planted at private residences and public parks in the United States, among other places during World War II. In the war time, governments encouraged people to plant victory gardens not only to supplement their rations but also to boost morale.

George Washington Carver wrote an agricultural tract and promoted the idea of what he called a “Victory Garden”. Besides indirectly aiding the war effort these gardens were also considered a ‘civil morale booster” in that gardeners could feel empowered by their contribution of labor and rewarded by the produce grown. This made victory gardens a part of daily life on the home front. 

Amid regular rationing of food in Britain, the US Department of Agriculture encouraged the planting of victory gardens during the course of World War II. Around one third of the vegetables produced by the United States came from victory gardens. It was emphasized to American home front urbanites and suburbanites that the produce from their gardens would help to lower the price of vegetables needed by the US War Department to feed the troops, thus saving money that could be spent elsewhere on the military: “Our food is fighting,” one US poster read. By May 1943, there were 18 million victory gardens in the United States – 12 million in cities and 6 million on farms.

Eleanor Roosevelt planted a Victory Garden on the White House lawn in 1943. The Roosevelts were not the first presidency to institute a garden in the White House. Woodrow Wilson grazed sheep on the south lawn during World War I to avoid mowing the lawn.

(excerpts taken from Wikipedia)