Dig for Victory!

This weekend is the 75th anniversary of VE day, which marks the end of World War II. To celebrate, we are reposting this blog post about the Dig for Victory campaign that we wrote in 2016. At times of extreme adversity, such as we are experiencing now, it's important to remember valuable lessons from past adversity. The Dig for Victory campaign was one such important lesson, and it's an incredible way for you to teach the kids about gardening, history and resilience.

We hope you enjoy it.

Dig for Victory

Did you know that during the Second World War, food was in very short supply. We – then, as now – imported much of our food from overseas, and during the war many of the supply ships from America and Canada were blocked from entering the country.

To save the people from starvation, the Department of Agriculture launched the ‘Dig for Victory’ campaign, and encouraged people to transform every spare bit of land they had into allotments to grow their own vegetables.

No land was spared: private gardens, public parks and golf clubs were turned into vegetable patches as part of Dig for Victory. Even the lawn outside the Tower of London became large allotments! This picture shows two people farming an allotment in Kensington Gardens.

Dig for Victory was one of the most successful propaganda campaigns in British history. In 1943, there were over 3.5 million allotments around the country, that grew over a million tonnes of vegetables. Not only did this supplement people's food rations and avoid mass starvation, but it freed up space on ships that could then be dedicated to the war effort.