The Victory Garden is an American public television program about gardening and other outdoor activities, produced by station WGBH in Boston, Massachusetts, and distributed by PBS. It is the oldest gardening television program in the United States, having first aired in April 16, 1975. It was conceived in response to the tough economy of the early 70’s and an increased interest in self-sufficiency after the Arab oil embargo. The show’s creator, Russell Morash, thought that it was time that people got back to practicalities in their own backyards, and the title itself was chosen to harken back to the homespun victory gardens of World War I and World War II. Accordingly, each of the early programs showed viewers how to get the most from their own plot of land, both in terms of floral beauty and vegetable bounty. In the first seasons of the series, there was an annual contest where viewers sent in photos of their "Victory Gardens"