Resurrect the victory garden

Gardening columnist Jane Ford has been championing the idea of victory gardens on news-sentinal.com.

Ms Ford explained that victory gardens helped people feel like they were taking part in the war effort but that their popularity waned when World War II came to an end.

However, the growing popularity of organic food has led to suggestions that it is not only environmentally-friendly but also wallet-friendly to resurrect the idea of the kitchen garden.

"A return to old-fashioned natural gardening can cut the cost of buying organic and help maintain a healthy diet," wrote Ms Ford.

"It will also achieve the clean-air, clean-earth results encouraged by environmentalists."

She suggests that those who feel they would struggle to find the space for a vegetable patch can create some by re-developing a section of their lawn.

Vegetables, herbs and fragrant flowers will look much nicer than a patch of plain grass and will help keep grocery bills down.

Dallas News reports that now is a good time to plant cool-weather leafy vegetables and herbs such as parsley, lettuce and spinach.