202 massachusetts horticultural society. 



Report of the Wellesley Village School Gardexs. 



BY ALICE PARK, TEACHER. 



Awarded Honorable Mention, Class A, 1906. 



The Wellesley School Gardens were started on ]\Iay 5, 1906. They 

 were situated in a lot behind the Hose House which had formerly been a 

 very neglected corner used as a piece of the road, and then levelled oS and 

 fenced in bj' the Fire Department. The Department verA- kindly loaned 

 it to the Village Improvement Society for the Gardens. There were six- 

 teen plots in all, each ten by twelve feet, eight on each side of the middle 

 path. The children had to pay fifty cents a piece for the privilege of 

 having a garden. All sixteen showed great eagerness and interest in the 

 work. 



Each child was provided with a hoe, a rake, and a spade bearing his 

 number, and there were also a dozen trowels and weeders, four watering 

 pots, and grass shears for general use. The gardens were divided into 

 eleven ten foot rows twelve inches apart. The three rows bordering on 

 the middle path were devoted to flowers and the rest to vegetables. There 

 was also a border two feet wide all around the outside fence. On the first 

 day. May 5, peas, lettuce, sweet alyssum, and radishes were planted; on 

 May S corn, pumpkins, and dwarf nasturtimns were planted in the gardens 

 and gourds and dahlias in the east border; on May 11 Swiss chard and 

 beets were planted in the gardens while scarlet rurmer beans, trailing 

 nasturtiums, and sunflowers were put in the south and west borders. It 

 ■was on this day that the radishes and sweet alyssum were found to be well 

 up, much to the delight of the young enthusiasts. Golden wax beans 

 and garden cress, were planted in the gardens on ]\Iay 15. and morning 

 glories in the west borders. At first it was verj^ drj- and the children had 

 to water eveiy day, but in July and a part of August there was so much 

 rain that no watering was needed and everything flourished. Crops which 

 were supposed to be failures suddenly took a start and grew at a veiy 

 lively pace. Lettuce and beets were the only things that had to be re- 

 planted. On IMay 18 tomato plants were set out, three to each garden, 

 and zinnias were also planted. By this time the radishes, peas, sweet 

 alyssum, and lettuce were all well up. On June 5 the first radishes were 

 pulled and on June 29 the Alaska peas and some of the Nott's Excelsior 

 were picked. About the second week in July all the flowers were in full 

 bloom and the gardens began to have a more festive look. The flowers 

 were looked upon with scorn by many of the boys as taking away just so 

 much room from the A^egetables, but they were objects of great pride to 

 the girls. On July 17 all the pea vines were pulled up and the beans 

 began to need picking, the Swiss chard also came at this time, and on July 

 24 the first tomatoes were taken home. 



