'It is now extremely necessary to produce abundantly; it is strictly necessary that every single patch of land be cultivated to produce and to give those products absolutely indispensable to our existence'.
From: La trasformazione del giardino in orto di guerra: conferenza tenuta nel salone della Società impiegati civili di Pavia/The transformation of the garden into war garden: conference held in the hall of the Civil Employees Community of Pavia.

The diffusion of war vegetable gardens was one of the most tangible consequences of the food crisis caused by war. Lack of food due to the increasing difficulty of supplies, along with block of imports imposed by the government, made the problem of hunger more and more serious.
In this period, were disseminated Publications by the Cattedre Ambulanti di Agricoltura, for urging the citizens to sacrifice their gardens so as to give room to the vegetables' growing, in a period in which producing was a duty not only towards oneself, but also towards the Home Land.
Practical advices were spread about how to cultivate a vegetable garden, how to organize it, how to fertilize and keep it productive, which plants to remove and which ones to maintain, which were the most proper periods for sowing and which were the necessary measures to make productive even the worse grounds.

The proposal was therefore on the base of a rational cultivation, where nothing was to be left to chance: every single aspect, from the exposure to the kind of land, to the choice of seeds, was thus to be carefully evaluated in order to obtain the most from the land.
Although such publications were mainly addressed to housewives, were the farmers warned for often neglecting the importance of the families' vegetable gardens, which, on the other hand, if well cared for, could provide a diversified production of vegetables all year round, with positive impact on the quality of the daily nutrition.

Read below, an excerpt drawn by L'orto di famiglia/The family vegetable garden, in which the author Evaristo Elmoni lists some advices for how to do one's best to cultivate a small vegetable garden, fit to fulfill, at least in small proportion, the families' nutritional needs.