KiLPATRiCK] SYMPOSIUM OF GARDEN SUPERVISORS 119 



keep the nine teachers busy — and when the Autumn Garden Exhibit 

 took place in each of sixty schools, the exhibit rooms were over- 

 crowded. Again and again we heard the remark, *^How much 

 better quality than last year." and how much larger the exhibit is. 

 Not only were fresh vegetables exhibited, but the canned fruits and 

 vegetables which in most cases the girls had raised as well as canned. 

 Awards were made on the basis of quality and effort, and those 

 entries receiving blue ribbons were sent to the High School to which 

 that school was tributary to be a part of the agricultural exhibit 

 there. In that way another tie was made between the grade and 

 high school work. 



NATURE GARDENS IN NEW YORK CITY 



Van Evrie Kilpatrick 



Director 



The School Garden in New York City is now being interpreted as 

 the outdoor laboratory of the school. All nature teaching func- 

 tions in the garden. The natural and physical sciences present a 

 sorry expression indeed without the complete organization of all 

 the outdoor educational opportunities. Every school garden is 

 therefore the garden of a particular school. It is primarily the 

 place where the pupils of that school learn through direct applica- 

 tion about the natural world. 



A number of New York City schools program classes the year 

 round to the garden work. When the seasonal work cannot be done 

 outdoors the more instructional work is taught indoors. 



One of the first efforts of the school garden department has been 

 to organize for a broader interpretation of gardening. The raising 

 of a few hardy vegetables by children is only a first step. 



The school garden — the outdoor laboratory of nature— is the use 

 of every outdoor facility for nature application. The school garden 

 is raising vegetables, flowers, shrubs, vines, rabbits, chickens, etc., 

 at the homes of children. It is applying landscape gardening to 

 the front lawn of the school grounds, vegetable gardening and small- 

 fruit gardening in the rear of the school grounds. School gardening 

 is the use of vacant lots, city property, and park property. 



Indoor gardening in the schoolrooms is becoming more and more 

 popular. Eight thousand first quality paper white narcissus bulbs 

 have been grown in the elementary schools of Manhattan in order 



