SCHOOL-GARDENS OF CLEVELAND, OHIO 



By LOUISE KLEIN MILLER 

 Curator of School-Gardens 



The school-gardens of Cleveland were the direct outgrowth of 

 the work inaugurated by the Home Gardening Association. They 

 were organized about three years ago under the auspices of the 

 Home Gardening Association and Board of Education, but last 

 year the Board organized a Department of School-Gardens, under 

 the direction of the Curator of School-Gardens. 



There are various avenues of work. The home-gardens are 

 made from penny packages of seeds sold by the Home Gardening 

 Association. Annual flower shows are held in the various schools 

 to exhibit the season's harvest of flowers and vegetables. Year 

 after year there is a marked improvement in quality of products, 

 demonstrating the fact that the children are increasing in intelli- 

 gence and skill. The Home Gardening Association and interested 

 friends have always given bulbs for indoor and outdoor planting 

 at the schools, and last year Judge Dellenbaugh presented a 

 Catalpa speciosa to each school that had a flower show. 



The home gardens are not under supervision, although many 

 of them are visited during the summer. The practical instruc- 

 tion in gardening is given in the school-gardens, and we have 

 found that the influence is far-reaching, The preparation of soil, 

 planning, laying out of the garden, artistic arrangement, har- 

 monious color effects, succession of flowers and vegetables, all 

 appeal to the children's appreciation of the eternal fitness of 

 things, and a more rational, systematic arrangement of the home- 

 gardens is the consequence. 



Before the seeds are sold to the children in the spring, a series of 

 stereoptican lectures is given by the Curator of School-Gardens in 

 the various schools, and such pertinent suggestions and recom- 

 mendations made as shall be conducive to the most intelligent 

 and effective work. 



There has not been the stability in the school-garden work that 

 is desirable, because in many instances we were obliged to depend 

 upon property loaned for the purpose. The Board of Education 



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