_136 Gardening Kits "With meagre food rations and disruption to the supply of Red Cross food parcels, the charity had to think of other ways of increasing food supplies for POWs. \r\n\r\nThe American Red Cross shipped garden seeds and small tools to the International Committee of the Red Cross in Geneva who distributed the gardening kits to POW camps across Europe. \r\n\r\nThe gardening kits contained a carefully selected mixture of vegetable seeds and flower seeds. The vegetable seeds included lettuce, spinach, Swiss chard, cabbage, onion, radish, beetroot, carrot, onion, tomato, parsnip, turnip, sweetcorn, green beans, and peas. The flower seeds were mixed colours of marigolds, zinnias and candytufts. The kits also contained a combination weeder and three handheld garden hoes. The kits only weighed six pounds but could plant up to one eighth of an acre (465 square meters) of garden! \r\n\r\nThe kits served two purposes - to improve the nutritional quality of camp food and to provide the men with something to do to fill the long boring days in camp. \r\n\r\nAlthough the gardening kits were intended to go to all POW camps in Europe holding American prisoners, British POWs had access to seeds and tools too. Evidence suggests that gardening activities were found more often in Oflags and in Stalags that held many officers. This may be because officers did not need to work and would have had more time to cultivate the garden." eulac3d Image IMAGE "With meagre food rations and disruption to the supply of Red Cross food parcels, the charity had to think of other ways of increasing food supplies for POWs. \r\n\r\nThe American Red Cross shipped garden seeds and small tools to the International Committee of the Red Cross in Geneva who distributed the gardening kits to POW camps across Europe. \r\n\r\nThe gardening kits contained a carefully selected mixture of vegetable seeds and flower seeds. The vegetable seeds included lettuce, spinach, Swiss chard, cabbage, onion, radish, beetroot, carrot, onion, tomato, parsnip, turnip, sweetcorn, green beans, and peas. The flower seeds were mixed colours of marigolds, zinnias and candytufts. The kits also contained a combination weeder and three handheld garden hoes. The kits only weighed six pounds but could plant up to one eighth of an acre (465 square meters) of garden! \r\n\r\nThe kits served two purposes - to improve the nutritional quality of camp food and to provide the men with something to do to fill the long boring days in camp. \r\n\r\nAlthough the gardening kits were intended to go to all POW camps in Europe holding American prisoners, British POWs had access to seeds and tools too. Evidence suggests that gardening activities were found more often in Oflags and in Stalags that held many officers. This may be because officers did not need to work and would have had more time to cultivate the garden."