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Defiant Gardens: Making Gardens in Wartime
Why is it that in the midst of a war, one can still find gardens? In the most brutal environments, both stateside and on the battlefield, they continue to flourish. Wartime gardens are dramatic examples of what Kenneth I. Helphand calls “defiant gardens” — gardens created in extreme social, political, economic, or cultural conditions. Illustrated with archival photos, this remarkable book examines gardens of war in the 20th century, including gardens built behind the trenches in World War I, in the Warsaw and other ghettos during World War II, and in Japanese-American internment camps, as well as gardens created by soldiers at their bases and encampments during wars in the Persian Gulf, Vietnam, and Korea. Proving that gardens are far more than peaceful respites from the outside world, Defiant Gardens is a thought-provoking analysis of why people create natural spaces.
304 pages, Hardcover
First published March 30, 2006
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
March 28, 2010
This is basically the most inspirational garden book I've ever seen. This is about gardening in times of adversity - and not just a tomato blight or wet summer kind of adversity, but really the most awful challenges to the human spirit. The gardens in this book include: the gardens in the trenches tended by WWI soldiers, ghetto gardens in Nazi Germany, Japanese American internment camp gardens, the transitional gardens of homeless people in NYC and immigrant gardening in urban spaces. There is a little information about resources, designs, and re-purposing, and then there are photos of the gardens and the gardeners. The gardens could be practically anywhere or anytime, really, just black and white photos of small jungles of food pressed into weird spaces and harsh landscapes, but the gardeners tie the place to a specific moment. The gardeners give a context to each photo and illustrate the revolutionary act of planting a seed, tending a plant, and hoping you'll be around to harvest. Reading this book was a somber, humbling experience for me.
January 3, 2010
Excerpt:
As I write and you read this, war rages on and defiant gardens are celebrated somewhere in the world. It has always been so: In 2004 soldiers from North Dakota of the 141st Engineer Combat Battalion stationed near Tikrit, Iraq, planted gardens with seeds donated from home. Sergeant Bob Syverson and Staff Sergeant Bill Poukka planted sunflowers. Syverson said of the garden, “I thought it’d be kind of homey touch over here,” and revealing a true connection to the landscape of home, he added, “It’d be nice if there was a lawn to mow, too.”
Sergeants Justin Wanzek and Carl Quam Jr. decided to plant a garden because “we were missing home, farming, and the joy of growing something.” Neither their Meals ready to Eat (MREs) nor the supply trucks arriving at their Forward Operating Base (FOB) supplied fresh vegetables, which proved a strong motivation to plant produce. Garden hoses and sprinklers were ill adapted to local conditions, so the soldiers adopted local irrigation and planting techniques, and they learned from local practice how to plant in this arid, sandy environment. They were pleased “just to grow something green out here.” Quam described their North Dakota garden experience as “good family times and maybe in a way, the garden helped me kind of cope with missing them, I caught myself drifting back to home with the four of us all spending quality family time in our garden.” These soldiers’ gardens were made in their limited spare time that Quam describes as follows” “At the time of garden prep, planting, weeding and watering, Sgt. Wanzek and myself, along with the rest of our crew, were running 4-6 combat patrols a week, in 100-140 degree weather. When we came back to our area, we had a hard time getting motivated to work and weed, but we did. Like I said, it was good therapy to relax after a day of dodging roadside bombs, RPGs and escorting semi trucks full of unexploded ordnance over the worst stretch of road in northern Iraq.”
As I write and you read this, war rages on and defiant gardens are celebrated somewhere in the world. It has always been so: In 2004 soldiers from North Dakota of the 141st Engineer Combat Battalion stationed near Tikrit, Iraq, planted gardens with seeds donated from home. Sergeant Bob Syverson and Staff Sergeant Bill Poukka planted sunflowers. Syverson said of the garden, “I thought it’d be kind of homey touch over here,” and revealing a true connection to the landscape of home, he added, “It’d be nice if there was a lawn to mow, too.”
Sergeants Justin Wanzek and Carl Quam Jr. decided to plant a garden because “we were missing home, farming, and the joy of growing something.” Neither their Meals ready to Eat (MREs) nor the supply trucks arriving at their Forward Operating Base (FOB) supplied fresh vegetables, which proved a strong motivation to plant produce. Garden hoses and sprinklers were ill adapted to local conditions, so the soldiers adopted local irrigation and planting techniques, and they learned from local practice how to plant in this arid, sandy environment. They were pleased “just to grow something green out here.” Quam described their North Dakota garden experience as “good family times and maybe in a way, the garden helped me kind of cope with missing them, I caught myself drifting back to home with the four of us all spending quality family time in our garden.” These soldiers’ gardens were made in their limited spare time that Quam describes as follows” “At the time of garden prep, planting, weeding and watering, Sgt. Wanzek and myself, along with the rest of our crew, were running 4-6 combat patrols a week, in 100-140 degree weather. When we came back to our area, we had a hard time getting motivated to work and weed, but we did. Like I said, it was good therapy to relax after a day of dodging roadside bombs, RPGs and escorting semi trucks full of unexploded ordnance over the worst stretch of road in northern Iraq.”
May 22, 2017
I give this book 5 stars for such unique subject matter: gardens that have been called forth from the earth in the midst of unthinkable horror. A must-read.
August 27, 2007
This book is pretty amazing. Almost scholarly in nature, with chapters on different wars--tons of incredible photos. The section on gardens in the Terezin Jewish Ghetto during WW 2 was particularly heartbreaking and beautiful.
July 1, 2022
Compelling read about landscape hope in times of desperation and devalued humanity.
January 27, 2010
This book is painstakingly researched. I was most interested in the first and last chapter where the author talked about the significance of the gardens, rather than, say, the dimensions of the plots, but it was all interesting.
He takes a look at gardens that were developed in unlikely, in some cases impossible places, like first world war trenches, Jewish ghettos, POW camps and internment camps, looking at the purpose and meaning of those gardens as well as descriptions of their physical properties and lots of interesting photos.
One story stuck with me - a little Jewish girl's sister was dying and wanted to see 'something green' so the girl risked death to duck under the wire in order to retrieve a single leaf from outside the ghetto, which she placed in a glass of water next to her sister's bed.
He notes Winston Churchill's words to the effect that the chief occupation of man is "war....war and gardening" and the destruction/creation, despair/hope, war/peace themes run throughout the book.
He takes a look at gardens that were developed in unlikely, in some cases impossible places, like first world war trenches, Jewish ghettos, POW camps and internment camps, looking at the purpose and meaning of those gardens as well as descriptions of their physical properties and lots of interesting photos.
One story stuck with me - a little Jewish girl's sister was dying and wanted to see 'something green' so the girl risked death to duck under the wire in order to retrieve a single leaf from outside the ghetto, which she placed in a glass of water next to her sister's bed.
He notes Winston Churchill's words to the effect that the chief occupation of man is "war....war and gardening" and the destruction/creation, despair/hope, war/peace themes run throughout the book.
Currently reading
January 7, 2009Lovely book. Gorgeous photos. But... can be a bit of a slog. Helphand wants very much to ensure that the reader understands just how very remarkable it was that gardens existed in the most degraded (both physically & morally) of landscapes, that he includes a huge amount of war-time contextual information. I ended up learning more about WWI trench warfare than I really needed to in order to understand how very cool it was that soldiers built and tended to lovely little flower or vegetable plots directly adjacent to the trenches. Neat book though...
July 19, 2013
The only reason people even find this interesting is that we have become so detached from our old Agrarian way of life that it amazes us that in times of war & conflict people actually grew shit! But alas, the photos and other art included alone are simply amazing.
August 10, 2015
Remarkable research into the symbolism of gardens: as hope, food and home. Helphand covers WWII European Jewish ghettos and camps, the US Japanese internment camps and soldiers on the line. Some later updates, but not the focus of the work. Fascinating with many photos.
February 10, 2008
started + sidetracked...but it helped me regroup and realize that my chosen profession was a worthy one after all!
November 5, 2008
Not too scholarly and full of inspirational photographs and personal accounts. An excellent book and unique collection of research on this material.
December 9, 2008
As an enthusiastic but undisciplined gardener, I was excited to discover this book, but think it would have made a better article than book.
June 2, 2009
Really interesting look at wartime gardens and the symbol they can represent in contrast with the landscape of war.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews