The first leaflet in the first Dig for Victory series quoted a portion of Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s speech to the House of Commons on 5th November 1940.
Much has changed since the war but a lot of the information is as useful today as then. Where I feel it helpful, I’ve annotated the information. To make annotations obvious, they are coloured green.
Rather than trying to replicate the original leaflets etc. I’ve formatted the information in them in such a way as to be easily readable on mobile phones and other devices as well as desktop computers.
This leaflet is, I believe, the most influential document ever in British gardening. The advice is followed today, nearly 80 years on by vegetable growers
Includes: 4 Pages
The onion family were considered very important to the wartime diet by the government and this dig for victory leaflet was the second one produced.
Includes: 4 Pages
The dig for victory wartime guide number 3 covered storing the crops to ensure a decent food supply over the winter period until the next season's crop.
Includes: 5 Pages
This dig for victory guide explains the growing of peas and beans including peas for drying, broad beans, French climbing, dwarf, runner and haricot beans
Includes: 4 Pages
This guide from the dig for victory series covers growing the leaf brassicas, the cabbage family including cauliflowers, broccoli, kale and Brussels sprouts
In this wartime dig for victory leaflet is a basic but thorough guide to growing the root crops. Carrots, Beets, Parsnips, Turnips and Swedes.
Compost is still the heart of the garden today but methods have improved over that promoted in this September 1941 official government guide.
Includes: 4 Pages
Tomatoes were popular but not a priority food for regulated commercial growers in the war. This official guide helped the home grower bridge the gap.
This wartime leaflet clearly explains how to make Bordeaux Mixture and Burgundy Mixture which are used to control blight in potatoes and fungal diseases.
This dig for victory guide on jam and jelly making from 1941 gives good basic information on the subject in a concise, clear format.
This dig for victory guide on bottling and canning fruit and vegetables gives good basic information on the subject. Bottling is still popular in the UK.
The 1941 version of this guide covered canning but by 1943 it was limited to bottling. A thorough, clear how to bottle fruits and vegetables
This leaflet on seed potatoes covers wartime potato varieties, seed saving, handling and storage, cutting tubers and the synonyms lost.
Includes: 4 Pages
Having grown your potatoes, they need to be stored properly to feed the family until the next crop. This wartime guide explains methods and seed storing.
Includes: 4 Pages
This concise but thorough wartime guide on drying, salting, pickles and chutneys was published as part of the dig for victory series of leaflets.
Includes: 4 Pages
In this wartime official guide to growing potatoes from 1942, the most important staple crop that the home grower can cultivate is covered in detail.
Includes: 4 Pages
This dig for victory guide from 1941 covered pest control on the important vegetable crops, mainly chemical based. Most of these chemical are now banned.
In this leaflet, No 17 in the dig for victory series the symptoms, susceptible varieties cause and treatment of potato blight is covered.
Includes: 4 Pages
The official war time guide to disease control on tree and bush fruits produced as part of the dig for victory campaign to help improve fruit yields.
Detailed but simple, this wartime guide to sowing seeds and using a seed bed is mainly a series of photographs. Designed to explain to non-gardeners.
In this wartime gardening guide, the best explanation of single digging and bastard trenching to break in new ground that I have found in 40 years
This guide from the dig for victory series explains what seeds may be easily saved and how to seed save along with which seeds should not be home saved.
This wartime guide to producing vegetables from a small plot to help the food ration, especially over the winter months. Includes rotation and cropping plan
Includes: 3 Pages
How to Prune Fruit Trees & Bushes, Dig for Victory Leaflet 25, an official guide to pruning practice to maximise fruit production.
A government official guide to National Growmore Fertilizer which is still a standard fertiliser today under the generic name of Growmore
As well as the monthly guides, the Dig for Victory campaign produced advice leaflets covering various gardening and food preservation topics in detail. These were issued free on request and huge numbers were printed.
