Symposium of Garden Supervisors from Coast to 

 Coast. Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Louis- 

 ville, St. Louis, Kansas City, Seattle 



HOME GARDENS OF BALTIMORE 



Adelaide Derringer 

 Supervisor of Gardening, Baltimore, Md. 



The work of the Baltimore School and Home gardens is divided 

 into three sections, field, class-room, and special activities. The 

 field work is also divided into the school community gardens and 

 the school directed home gardens. During the past season there 

 were twenty community gardens located in the school yards, vacant 

 lots, or in the parks. Here the child was given a plot of ground for 

 his individual garden. He was directly responsible for his garden, 

 learned that he got out of his garden what he put into it in the way 

 of effort. Each child has been permitted to carry home all the 

 vegetables which he has grown. Twenty-five schools were repre- 

 sented in these gardens, having an enrollment of 1468 children. 

 The work of the gardens was carried on under the direction of the 

 supervisor and six assistants. Each child was required to cultivate 

 his garden, at least, once a week. 



An enrollment of 3150 children was obtained from 29 schools for 

 home gardens. These gardens were visited during the summer by 

 the garden supervisors, and the enlistment cards were marked 

 accordingly. They were divided into 12 districts. To the three 

 best gardens of each district, prizes $2.00, $1.00, and $.50 were 

 awarded by the Evening Sun. To all successful gardeners certifi- 

 cates of merit were given thru the Department of the Interior, 

 Bureau of Education. 



Aside from the educational and monetary value, as well as the 

 habits of cleanliness and thrift obtained thru the home garden, the 

 visits to the garden tend to form a link between the home and 

 school. The garden supervisors were delightfully entertained with 

 many of the children's stories and doings in their gardens. One 

 child met the supervisor at the door with a very pathetic story 

 explaining why she had no garden to show. "Its broke, she said 

 in a doleful tone. Not knowing that a graden was a brittle object, 

 the supervisor asked, "What could have broken your garden?" 

 The answer came back promptly "The cat laid on it and broke it." 



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