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Vol.11 February, 1915 No. 2 



Children's Home Gardens 



Alice Jean Patterson 



We have for a number of years in our Normal School made 

 gardening an important part of our nature-study program. We 

 have a school garden in which each grade of the training school, 

 as well as the nature-study classes of the Normal Department, 

 has its own plot for vegetables, flowering plants, and in some 

 cases, farm crops. Each grade has its own social problems in 

 plant propagation, cultivation, etc. In short, the school garden 

 is used largely as a laboratory for practicing the principles of 

 gardening and for carrying on simple experiments. 



One purpose of the garden work in the Training School is to 

 encourage the children to carry gardening over into their homes. 

 We have met with more or less success in this. However, we have 

 felt that closer supervision would lead to more permanent results. 

 We have in our town an Improvement League of women who 

 for a number of years have tried to interest the children of the 

 town in growing plants. Their main work has been to distribute 

 aster seeds to all children of both public and training schools. 

 This was followed by an aster show in the fall with prizes for the 

 best display. There were many reasons why this plan was not 

 altogether satisfactory. In the light of the above facts, it seemed 

 as if the time were ripe for the two forces to combine and make 

 the garden serve somewhat as a civic affair. Accordingly a tenta- 

 tive plan for carrying this out was presented to the Improvement 

 League, and to the Principals of the schools. The proposal met 

 with approval. Its main features are discussed below. 



All the school children of the town were eligible to membership 

 in a Children's Garden Club. Each grade constituted a branch 



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