Oct 03 2008
Depression Relief Gardens - Freedom Gardens
If I had to choose one major thing that I have learned in life, it would be to never make decisions our of desperation but always be prepared. Sometimes I have to remind myself, but then only when I’m starting to feel desperate. Therefore, in this post and in those of the near future, I will explore different aspects of life in which we can make life changes that will prepare us for the worst, but put us in a good place if only the best occurs. No whining, no complaining just preparation.
Today, I’m choosing to start with thoughts and research on a “Depression Garden” and/or a “Depression Relief Garden.” If you think about it, we should have started becoming more self-sufficient a long time ago. If you hadn’t though about a garden of your own, think about how food prices in the grocery store have increased over the last year. The truth is, there is no way of knowing how high they will go whether the latest bail-out bill passes through the house today or not. Life is precarious in ordinary times, so take some control.
During the Great Depression of ‘29, individuals did create gardens of their own. However, there was the “Depression Relief Gardens” that were community gardens. They didn’t have an organized beginning with arguments, by government officials, of how they should be put together. Would there be individual plots or would there be larger community plots that everyone worked on together. Personally, I wonder how they were able to keep outsiders or even those working from stealing the vegetables. After all, there will always be unscrupulous, greedy people (Oh, isn’t that why we are in this mess now?). So, would you need people to guard over the gardens day and night? The officials also couldn’t decide where to plant the gardens or even if they would need them as certainly the Depression wasn’t going to last that long.
The great depression of 1929 lasted for ten years. All this arguing by local and state governments, not resolved until 1933, should tell us it would be best if the government was kept out of it as much as possible. I mean, think of all the rules they’d want to set into place. Probably getting permission from local governments to use city land for a period of one year at a time would be all the involvement needed. Better yet, if an individual offered the use of their private land for the garden endeavor.
In 1933 after Franklin Roosevelt was elected president, the relief gardens became more organized as part of his “New Deal.” The FERA (Federal Emergency Relief Agency) was created allocating both money and aid in the work garden program. People were paid for tending the gardens and distributing food to those that needed it. True to governmental form, there were strict rules for both the vegetable gardens and the now governmental employees tending them. The positive thing was that anyone that needed food could request and receive it. With this type of organization, there was no need for anyone to take vegetables out of turn. The program grew enormously until 1935 when governmental funding was cut. The gardens remaining became viewed as fodder for citizens who were lazy, disabled or elderly. A new name was attached to them, “Welfare Gardens.”
Let’s start organizing our own gardens. Let’s be ready to feed each other by taking control now. If you have further interest, please see my article on Freedom Garden Structure. But, I also make another suggestion, a new name that is full of hope and promise. The name “Depression Gardens” seems to keep our thoughts in a negative place. Perhaps Freedom Gardens, more in the same realm of the World War II Victory Gardens. Please, I call for requests for a name for these new gardens. Let’s start a Garden Revolution. What would you call them?
