War Vegetable Gardening and the Home Storage of Vegetables, published by the National War Garden Commission in 1918, connects two parts of household food production: growing a useful garden and keeping suitable crops for winter. Its first part is a gardening manual; its second is a home-storage manual for vegetables and apples.
Written during the First World War, the booklet encouraged families and communities to use backyards, vacant lots, and other available ground to increase the food supply. Beyond that historical purpose, it provides an illustrated record of garden planning, crop succession, seed starting, cultivation, and the storage arrangements used before household refrigeration became widespread.
Book details
- Title: War Vegetable Gardening and the Home Storage of Vegetables
- Author and publisher: National War Garden Commission
- Publication location: The Maryland Building, Washington, D.C.
- Publication and copyright year: 1918
- Edition: No numbered edition is stated on the title page
- Sections: Part I, War Gardening Manual; Part II, Home Storage Manual
- Language: English
- Format: Illustrated scanned PDF with searchable text
- Length: 36 PDF pages, including preliminary leaves
- File size: 2.51 MB
What the gardening manual covers
Planning a productive plot
The opening discussion considers individual and community gardens. It describes sharing tools, coordinating work, and obtaining help with preparing larger plots. These passages show how the campaign approached gardening as both a household activity and a cooperative effort.
A garden plan is treated as a working record. The manual recommends drawing it to scale, grouping crops according to their size and treatment, and allowing room to record costs and yields. Saving the plan helps with the following season’s rotation. An illustrated 50-by-75-foot layout shows attention to successive crops and a continuing supply of vegetables.
Soil, early starts, and cultivation
Sections on soil improvement, manure, fertilizer, and compost explain the period’s approach to preparing ground. Cold frames and hotbeds appear in diagrams, along with practical information about starting plants before they are ready for the open garden. The text also discusses arranging crops for sunlight and making use of the growing season.
The crop descriptions cover familiar vegetables such as beans, carrots, corn, lettuce, peas, potatoes, squash, tomatoes, and turnips. They include sowing, spacing, thinning, and support methods. Succession planting appears as a way to avoid receiving the entire supply at once. These entries make the booklet useful for studying how a compact early twentieth-century garden guide organized its advice.
Managing surplus and garden problems
The manual asks gardeners to think about surplus while planning the garden. It distinguishes the storage of suitable fresh crops from canning and drying, referring readers to separate manuals for those processes. This booklet’s detailed second part is about keeping produce in its natural state.
There are also sections on insects, diseases, sprayers, and period remedies. They are part of the historical record and include substances unsuitable for present-day home gardens. The practical value of studying the booklet is strongest when its layout, cultivation, and storage ideas are considered separately from its obsolete chemical recommendations.
Home storage for winter use
The storage manual identifies four main considerations: ventilation, temperature, moisture, and the quality of the produce placed in storage. It explains that different crops call for different surroundings, from a shelf or attic to a cellar or outdoor pit. The list includes potatoes, beets, carrots, onions, sweet potatoes, celery, cabbage, winter squash, turnips, and dry beans.
Illustrated arrangements include cellar storage, outdoor pits or banks, and outdoor cellars. The cellar drawing shows bins raised to allow circulation, space between containers and walls, and a way to control incoming and outgoing air. Other examples show how earth, coverings, and access arrangements were used to protect stored produce from changing weather.
The text also considers cooperative storage, with neighboring families sharing a suitable building or constructing a storage place together. Crop-specific notes explain why one set of conditions cannot serve every vegetable equally well. Storage of apples and the keeping of seed extend the booklet beyond the immediate harvest.
Why it belongs on a self-sufficiency bookshelf
Growing food and keeping it usable are connected tasks. This booklet makes that connection explicit, beginning with a plan for the ground and ending with a plan for the harvest. Its diagrams are useful for readers interested in garden history, household food systems, and traditional storage structures.
It suits gardeners comparing older methods, readers studying wartime food campaigns, and people building an offline preparedness reference collection. Explore related subjects in Ardbark’s gardening books and self-sufficiency collection.
Reading this historical edition
The PDF preserves the original pages, diagrams, photographs, and 1918 wording. Its searchable text has recognition errors, particularly in fractions and tables. Consult the page image for exact details. Do not use its lead-, arsenic-, or nicotine-based pest remedies. Use current local growing guidance and established food-storage recommendations when adapting historical ideas to an actual garden or storage space.
Read the gardening and storage manual
Explore the original garden plans, crop entries, and illustrated storage arrangements in the 2.51 MB PDF below.
