Is it time to dig for victory again to help tackle climate change?

Grow your own

Cultivation of fruit and vegetables in shared allotments and back gardens became commonplace during the war years when the nation was forced to quickly adapt to surviving without the 55 million tons of food it had imported not so long before.

The emphasis was on sharing knowledge of natural cultivation techniques and reusing materials. "The approach was pretty much organic, although the motivation then was producing crops with the highest nutritional value that were easiest to grow," says Graham Hartley, deputy manager of St James's Park in London, who has overseen the development of a working period allotment to accompany Dig for Victory: War on Waste, a summer exhibition and events season launched by the Churchill Museum and Cabinet War Rooms today.

The allotment, open to the public until late September, comprises two organically cultivated plots – one stocked with wartime produce, the other with a wider variety of herbs, fruits and vegetables more commonplace today.

As would have once been commonplace, beds have been raised to promote deeper rooting. This ensures healthier, hardier plants, Hartley explains. Crops are planted in small patches to reduce the risk of disease and carefully rotated. "Grouping different varieties of fruit and vegetables and rotating them around the plots ensures the soil can recover and rebuild nutrients," he says.

An emphasis has also been placed on companion planting. It involves using different plants to enrich the soil with nutrients, and attract or repel beneficial insects and pests. Garlic, for example, deters aphids. Carrots and leeks work well together – each repel pests that attack the other. Marigolds lure hoverflies, ladybirds and lacewings – all of which prey on insect pests – while repelling green and blackfly.

The plots make use of discarded household items. "Egg boxes or the insides of toilet rolls make useful planters and can be left in the ground," Hartley says. "Old carpet or underlay makes an effective defence against root fly when laid around cabbage plants. Old windows once made good cold frames and still do. Net curtains provide protection from birds and hot sun by deflecting rays away from the plants below."

Wildlife protection

Encouraging wildlife to feed in your garden or allotment can be not only a great natural pest control but also an important part of wildlife conservation. "The range of invertebrate life you would have found across the board in a typical allotment or garden 60 years ago would have been far greater than is the case today," says Royal Parks community ecologist Dr Nigel Reeve.

"One of the benefits of this was that the environment worked as a functional community with predators and prey more likely to balance each other out. The lesson from this is the importance of attracting wildlife and making good use of natural predator pest control."

An old sink filled with water and pondweed attracts insects. These will lure great tits, blue tits and robins – which are also natural predators of aphids, greenfly and caterpillars.

"Hedgehogs, frogs and toads are welcome for the same reason," adds Royal Parks wildlife officer Malcolm Kerr who has built nesting boxes, a bat house and "ladybird hotel" in the park allotment. "An upturned bin and some leaves and straw will provide a home for a hedgehog to winter in. Tubes of cardboard provide protection for lacewings."

Another more modern feature of the allotment is a wormery. While making compost from organic waste has long relied on garden worms, wormeries – enclosed composters housing waste matter and worms – have made the process more productive as compost can now include cooked organic matter without fear of attracting rats.

Eat local, seasonal and organic

Wartime principles of eating seasonal food grown locally and organically have fresh resonance at a time of growing concerns over carbon footprints, global warming and the impact of soaring oil prices.

By 1945, 1.5 million allotments were being cultivated in the UK, supplying 10 per cent of our food needs. "Evidence suggests vegetables were distributed free to those sharing an allotment or bartered for other food products," says Jane Stockton, the Churchill Museum's access and learning officer.

To supply meat, "Communities were encouraged to rear their own livestock with the opportunity to join a pig or rabbit club," she adds. "Club members got help rearing animals, such as free fodder."

Rationing forced people to cook with leftovers – a topical issue given recent reports that people in England and Wales throw away 3.6 million tons of food each year. "Little things once commonplace like pinching off the tops of broad beans – a fabulous spinach substitute – or trimming the tops from radishes and serving them as a vegetable are worth reconsidering," says garden historian Caroline Holmes.

Foraging in hedgerows was a once common practice, although traffic pollution is now an important consideration.

War on waste

Recycling was mainstream throughout the war years, with public information campaigns encouraging families to think creatively about everyday items they might otherwise have thrown away.

"There were a number of major recycling drives throughout the early 1940s – in particular, to collect paper to be recycled into containers for shells, cartridge packs, log books and military maps," says Howard Benge, head of learning and access at the Churchill Museum and Cabinet War Rooms.

"Bins were positioned at the ends of streets for householders to deposit unwanted food to be used to feed pigs. Rags, bottles and bones were collected, too – meat bones were used for making explosives. Metal was recycled to build tanks and planes and for munitions."

Government advice on reusing household items was publicised by the Board of Trade's Make Do and Mend advisory panel. The logic was simple: not buying new allowed resources saved to be put towards the war effort.

Clothes rationing was introduced in June 1941 due to a shortage of imported fabric and the need for cloth for uniforms, parachutes and hospital bedding. Reuse and recycling tips included reproofing raincoats by rubbing beeswax over the inside, then ironing.

Leather looks as good as new when treated with sour milk rubbed in with cloth. Old shoes could be revived by rubbing them with banana skin – the perfect accessory for a "new" skirt made out of men's old trousers.

"Recycling was born of necessity," Benge adds. "Today, with almost all of the UK's landfill sites looking likely to be full by 2010, it's on track to becoming a necessity once more."

Energy and water conservation

Energy conservation was vital for the war effort and the then government created the Ministry of Fuel and Power, which recruited and co-ordinated a network of local fuel wardens to encourage the nation to use scarce resources more sparingly.

Scant attention was paid back then to home insulation and conserving coal and water was a priority.

"'Carbon-saving' tips were widely distributed on posters and in leaflets," says senior historian at the Imperial War Museum Terry Charman. "People were encouraged to light fires just in one room, to eat where it was warmest in the kitchen, turn off unnecessary lights and unplug appliances when not in use – all messages we are once more being advised to follow today."

Householders were urged to draw a line around the inside of their baths to use less water. Men were advised not to leave the tap running while shaving.

"In certain periods – the early Seventies, especially, and the past few years – attention has turned back to wartime austerity measures – and there is much we can learn from them," Charman observes.

"Challenges we now face when it comes to getting the message across are quite different, however. Back then, conservation messages were received by a far thriftier nation. Attitudes have changed with the birth of the consumer society in the 1950s."

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