Today’s passion for urban gardening began in the months leading up to America’s entry into World War I when preparedness was the watchword and various measures were being taken for food conservation. One was “promoting the general cultivation of vacant lots,” and locally the Indianapolis News editorially recognized “the city women can exert a tremendous influence in the back-yard garden movement.”
Recognizing “with war at hand,” Gov. James Goodrich convened a meeting of farmers, grain dealers, canners, dairymen, county agricultural agents, millers, and stockmen on April 5, 1917 to discuss ways of increasing crop acreage on farms and turning vacant lots into gardens. He proclaimed, “Indiana will supply her quota of men. She must prepare to furnish more than her quota of food.” The next day the United States declared war on Germany.
The Patriotic Gardeners’ Association was formed in Indianapolis to promote food production and Carl C. Osborn of Irvington was named its superintendent. Soon more than 2,000 applications came in for lots, and district chairs supervised gardening in the city’s 70 public school districts. The Patriotic Gardeners Association purchased ten plows and gardeners could pay $1.50 (2017: $29) to have a city team of horses plow a 40 x 100-foot lot. Persons who couldn’t pay and sincerely desired a garden could have a lot plowed for free and receive free seed packets.
Former Vice President Charles W. Fairbanks donated vacant space in his yard, while a 30-acre vacant tract along west 30th Street near Riverside Park was made available to employees of the Central Union Telephone Co. Employees of L. S. Ayres & Co organized to cultivate four acres of potatoes and an acre of beans. One tract of land in Irvington at the northeast corner of Emerson Ave. and Washington St. was divided into sixteen lots and allotted by the Patriotic Gardeners Association. East of Arlington Ave. along the south bank of Pleasant Run, the Delker family provided small garden plots to folks provided they “could not work on Sundays.” With the addition of other lots, Irvington garden supervisor George S. Cottman reported acreage equal to 50 lots in the Classic Suburb were being cultivated. By the end of May 1917, 2,275 lots in the city were under cultivation. Outside of Indianapolis, an additional 797 lots were under the plow.
In addition to “war gardens” on vacant land, 35,000 home gardens throughout the city were established. To help patriotic gardeners, a free “Garden School” began meeting weekly at Keith’s Theater, 117 N. Pennsylvania, with speakers from the agricultural department of Purdue University. Talks focused on a specific aspect of gardening; “Succotash Day” featured a discussion on beans, corn and other crops. Articles written by various garden supervisors appeared in the Indianapolis newspapers covering topics like “Thinning of Garden Plants,” “Egg Plant Growing,” “Moisture in Soil Helps Gardening,” “How to Combat Bean Diseases,” and “Some ‘Good Bugs’ Among Insects.” Gardening tips, however, did not cover the “two-leg” pests. Some home garden lots, particularly southwest of the city in the Mars Hill and Maywood neighborhoods, fell victim to the ravages of GARDEN THIEVES. To combat these “pests,” gardeners organized armed patrols to keep nightly watch over the more than 800 gardens in these communities.
Under the motto “Eat what you can and can what you can’t,” preserving the immense quantities of vegetables produced in the 35,000 backyard gardens, 10,000 vacant lot gardens, and 523 acres of larger garden plots across the city was the goal of a committee of women, organized by Mrs. Jane [Carl G.] Fisher. Experts on the cold pack process of canning offered daily demonstrations, and a kitchen was set up on the first floor of the Indianapolis Light & Heat Co, 46 Monument Circle, for canning beets, green beans, cauliflower, raspberries, and gooseberries.
Hoosiers celebrated the dawn of the New Year 1918 and could look back with pride on the contribution of patriotic gardeners who put Indiana ahead of all the other states in the planting of war gardens. With 75 percent of the total commercial supply of canned tomatoes and the entire supply of other vegetables and fruits being taken by the government for war purposes, the food from these gardens filled a critical need as well as providing a “substitute for wheat foods, meats, oils and sugar” needed by American and Allied troops.
With the slogan, “A Garden for Every Family in Indianapolis,” Mayor Charles Jewett proclaimed, “Vacant lots are blots on the beauty of Indianapolis. There ought not to be a slacker lot in Indianapolis in 1918.” However, a few only would make their lots available for a price and were scorned, “…in all justice, [they should] be styled traitors.” In response, Indiana federal food administrator Harry E. Barnard authorized the local Patriotic Gardeners’ Associations to “take possession of all lands suitable for garden purposes which are owned…by persons who will not use such land for garden.” Streetcar advertising placards and ads placed during the showing of motion pictures helped in promoting war gardens. For those who maintained war gardens, service flags for school children, a national war garden medal for Boy Scouts, and green and white posters bearing a shovel were available to gardeners to show their commitment to the war garden effort.
Newly introduced Daylight Savings Time enabled gardeners to be in their gardens after work, and to reduce the “depredations of poultry, cattle, horses, hogs, dogs and cats on wartime gardens,” a city ordinance prohibited these animals from running at large. Parents were encouraged to explain to their children the “seriousness of the food situation” so that the youngsters would refrain from “romping over the gardens.”
All classes were planting war gardens. Free seed packets and 50,000 cabbage and tomato plants from the Riverside Park nursery were distributed to needy families. While food production was the goal of the war gardens, the Star advised, “[it] would be, indeed, a sorry old world were it not for our flowers…Fill the flower beds…the lawn vases and the porch and window boxes. And send flowers to friends. Flowers, too, in their way, with their note of cheer, will help win the war.”
Toward the end of the 1918 season, war gardens began to be called Liberty Gardens; “a more fitting term. Liberty is freedom, and a good garden means liberation from store vegetables . . . Work in the garden means freedom in God’s sunlight and pure air. Plenty of fresh vegetables and exercise in the open air means freedom from disease, and the necessary toil insures sound, refreshing sleep. If a garden is a good garden, surely it is a Liberty Garden, without consideration of the food it may save to send to those who are giving their all for liberty.” But with armistice declared on November 11, 1918 the name would have to wait to be used.
The National War Garden Commission recognized the contribution of war vegetable gardeners who cultivated 5,285,000 gardens across the United States with a commemorative bronze medal. Although the war was over, at least 30,000 Indianapolis gardeners were so enthused with horticulture they continued with gardening. The Star wrote, “Peace will not cure the householder who acquired the war garden habit.” And it didn’t; as the Indianapolis News noted, “They’re still called war gardens because neighbors will be disputing constantly over the merits of their patches.”