The Aber WWII Garden - A Living History Garden Project

Early in WWII, the Ministry of Agriculture launched their ‘Dig for Victory’ campaign, providing instructions for the nation to grow their own vegetables to relieve pressure on wartime food shortages. Siân Nicholas, Professor of History and Welsh History, decided to see how this would look almost 80 years later, by planting our own WWII garden. 

Garden Information

The garden began in Spring 2022, aiming to follow the Dig for Victory campaign’s advice on growing a variety of crops based on a 3-year rotation plan. Crops include onions, runner and broad beans, potatoes, peas, spinach, carrots, and Brussel sprouts. Heritage varieties such as Scott beans and George Richardson lettuce were planted where possible, in line with the kind of produce available at the time. The project was originally developed through the Department of History and Welsh History’s National Lottery Heritage Fund project, People’s Voices in a People’s War: Aberystwyth 1939-45, and received additional support from the University Farms and the Tyfu Dyfi community gardening project.

The land was originally used for sheep-grazing, so lots needed to be done to make the area useable as a garden. The biggest task prior to creating the garden was weeding, which could have outcompeted the crops planted. Since planting began, one of the biggest challenges faced has been rabbits, with entire pea and French bean crops being wiped out. Since then, fencing has been established to reduce accessibility to rabbits hoping to get an easy meal!

One of the biggest issues that the group have faced is the contradictions between gardening advice in the 1940s and the modern day, particularly the use of now banned chemical pesticides like nicotine spray. While wanting to follow the ‘Dig to Victory’ advice as closely as possible, this has had to be balanced with current government laws and regulations, as well as more recent developments in biodiversity and environmental research. Therefore, the garden took inspiration instead from a more prescient wartime publication, Lady Eve Balfour’s organic manifesto The Living Soil (1943) and has opted for more natural alternatives.

Impact on the Community

While the ‘Dig for Victory’ campaign provided for the nation almost 80 years ago, the WWII garden has no shortage of positive impacts for AU and the local community. 

Members of staff, students and those from the local community can get involved and volunteer, with many commenting on the benefits of working outdoors from a therapeutic perspective, as well as the joy of taking home fresh-picked vegetables after a volunteer session. The garden has also seen volunteers from students in ACV; the Aberystwyth Conservation Society and recent interest from the AU Cookery Society.

The garden is also utilised in our History degree through the Year 1 ‘Hands on History’ module as a case study and field trip in environmental history, to give students a deeper insight as to what the war-time effort may have looked like.

Other local schools have got involved, with students at Ysgol Gatholig Padarn Sant and Ysgol Rhydypennau helping us grow runner bean seeds,  Savoy cabbage, dwarf beans and chard.

Surplus food is donated to local organisations and charities like Aber Food Surplus and St Paul’s Methodist Church’s ‘Pay as you Feel Café’, making sure we reduce food waste and that no efforts in the garden are wasted.

Getting Involved

For more information on the garden: