Whatever was grown locally helped free up produce to be sent overseas and to offset wartime food shortages. Therefore, in a very short amount of time, Victory Gardens began to spring up everywhere - in backyards, gas stations, rooftops and parking lots. Spring, summer and fall spare time went into tending a Victory garden, and Victory canning of the vegetables.

Those who owned and worked a farm were required by the government to set aside at least one acre of land to grow vegetables for their own family or to sell at cheap rates at farmerís markets and food stands. And property owners registered their vacant lots with the Farm Bureau, which were loaned to city residents. KU Professors set aside ground for their gardens.… Professors at Park College used a portion of the athletic field for their garden. …

Free booklets on garden information could be obtained from the Department of Agriculture. Some were sold for ten cents by companies like International Harvester or Beechnut Packing. Countless books on wartime gardening were available. Posters and articles encouraged everyone to plant the gardens.

Victory garden scarecrows were made into Hitler, Mussolini or Hirohito.

In 1943,Öthe Union Pacific Railroad made space available for victory gardens on what was then called Rickel Road (now Stanley Road). … During the peak war years, there were an estimated 20 million Victory gardens in the US, producing over 1/3 of the vegetables available in the country.

In 1942, there were 5000 gardens in the city, but as of June 1943, there were 44,000. Even the Civil Defense department had a garden on the 12th floor of City Hall.