Grow it yourself
Designed by Herbert Bayer in the early 1940s, Grow it yourself was part of the Works Progress Administration’s (WPA) efforts to help promote the Victory Garden Program during WWII. With food sources stretched to their limits during wartime, citizens were encouraged to plant their own edible gardens wherever possible, not only to increase availability of produce but also to reap the health, recreational, and morale-boosting benefits of home gardening. It is estimated that by 1944, almost 20 million families were producing 40% of the vegetables in America with their victory gardens.Â
Today, we’ve once again turned to home gardening for both sustenance and solace in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. With food supply chains strained, essential workers stretched thin, and quarantine precautions in place, a new generation of victory gardens emerged. Bayer’s poster uses Bauhausian bold simplicity to show both the bounty and gratification that gardening can bring. And in a time of such uncertainty, even the slightest sense of control and accomplishment—in the form of the most petite potato—provides fuel to persevere.
