School Grounds and School Gardens. 77 



Where possible a garden should be grown at the school by the school 

 children, but in addition to this, individual gardens should be en- 

 couraged by the school management. If these gardens are grown by 

 school children under direction of the teachers, there is no reason why 

 they should not be called school gardens. To identify them still more 

 closely with the school an exhibition of the products grown by the 

 school children in their individual gardens might be arranged, to bo 

 held as soon as school begins in the fall. 



In some respects the individual gardens have a distinct advantage 

 over a general school garden on the school grounds. They would 

 doubtless be cared for better in the summer vacation at the homefe of 

 the children than at school. In fact the things that can be successfully 

 grown in general gardens are few in comparison to what might well be 

 included in individual gardens. 



"What School Gardens Are For. 



The main purpose of a school garden is to ihterest school children 

 in the growing of plants. As a secondary object school gardens may he 

 used to give instruction in elementary agriculture. A good schoc^ gar- 

 den should afford valuable object lessons in the proper management of 

 the soil and in the propogation and care of various garden crops. 

 Further, but rather incidentally, a school garden might provide material 

 for elementary botanical studies on germination of seeds, the habit of 

 growth of plants and the like. 



Little Room Necessary for School Gardens. 



The larger the garden the better, provided of course, it is well 

 kept, for the more room there is the more kinds of plants can be grown. 

 But if a large garden can not be had there is no reason to despair. A 

 square yard of ground carefully tended is better than a half acre not 

 well cared for or not cared for at all — as is so often apt to be the case. 

 Even a small window box in which plants may be grown in winter, or 

 for growing seedlings or cuttings during the spring, will serve v^ry 

 ■well the purpose of a school garden, and should be chock-full of sug- 

 gestions to both teacher and children. In fact, suggestions are the best 

 thing to grow in a school garden. In place of a box of soil, a dish of 

 moss, such as can be had of any florist or nurserymen, is a very good 

 place in which to grow seedling plants during winter. Moss is an almost 

 ideal medium for starting plants, in that it holds moisture so well 

 ■while admitting air in abundance. If the moss is put in a glass dish 



