Spotting Modern Victory Gardens on Downtown Sacramento Food Tours!

By Dawnie • June 10, 2011

There are so many advantages to taking walks in a city’s urban neighborhoods.  Seeing the changes in landscaping; the beauty of the summer plants and flowers, bird baths filled with fresh water for the singing birds and most of all new sprouts in GARDENS.  Front lawn gardens!  As a tour guide walking through the tree lined streets in Sacramento four times a week, I have been noticing GARDENS popping up in homeowners front landscapes of their homes.  Tomato and pepper plants, Swiss chard, beans….you name it,  I am seeing it transpire into a beautiful modern victory garden and it sings to my heart!  Communities are rallying together to overcome the higher food prices creeping up in the stores as well as the higher gas prices to travel to get the fresh produce.  Yes, we have wonderful farmer’s markets surrounding Sacramento’s beauty but there is nothing like growing your own.   It is such a sense of accomplishment for oneself to know they are taking a very old concept dating back into the WWI and WWII era with Victory Gardens and putting a modern spin on it.

A Grassroots Food Revolution – The Modern Victory Garden

Harkening to the self-sufficiency of previous generations who planted victory gardens in their front and back yards as a means to support their nation’s war efforts – today many are undertaking the challenge of declaring independence from corporate food systems, reducing reliance on fossil fuels to bring food to the table, and cultivating a more healthy and fulfilling life.  This grass roots revolution is occurring in today’s modern version of the victory garden.   The “war” is a revolution – and the battleground is right here on the home front.   It is all about taking back responsibility and control of our own food supply.   Whether it is a modest container of tomatoes on a patio deck or a full fledged self-sufficient garden – each effort represents one step towards freeing ourselves from the forces that would keep us dependent on a system of petroleum fueled and factory farmed food.   Growing more of our own food heightens the taste and nutrition of  meals, and along the way we experience the empowerment and fulfillment that comes from learning the basic skills of providing for our families and ourselves

Grow What You Eat – Eat What You Grow!

I think we are already moving toward that place. Urbanites are  showing us that fruit and vegetable gardens can be beautiful while making a statement. The lawn as landscape icon was a declaration that you didn’t have to farm anymore. Perhaps we can replace it with a front-yard veggie garden that declares the age of the lawn over. What a proclamation that would be for thrift, self-sufficiency, horticultural skill, concern for the environment and the world we pass on.

Prince Charles said the other day that “we have to put nature back at the heart of the equation.” I think we should put every gardener at the center of it, too.