children's home gardens. 235 



BY JOSEPH MANNING PERKINS, LYNN, MASS. 



(15 years of age.) 



My garden is at Middleton, Mass. I go there every summer so I have 

 a good chance to care for my garden. This year I kept a diary and put 

 in it a full account of the work I did in my garden. 



About the first of April I plowed the ground with a hand plow. After- 

 ward I leveled it off with a rake, picked out all the stones and roots and 

 made a stone border between the garden and the road. 



I planted my peas, lettuce, radishes, and sage on April 8, 1905. I was 

 careful not to plant them too thick or too deep. I watered the whole 

 garden with the hose. In two weeks my peas were an inch high. On 

 Saturday, May 6 our woods got afire and when the neighbors came to help 

 put it out they walked over part of my garden. After the fire was out I 

 hoed the earth around the peas and thinned the lettuce and radishes. 

 Some of my radishes were ready to eat by May 20. My peas were ready 

 to eat by the first of July and I had about a peck from my garden. 



The limited space I could have prevented me from planting corn or 

 potatoes. I had all the radishes and lettuce we could use. I had ninety- 

 six healthy sage plants and they yielded sage enough to make twenty-five 

 or thirty large bunches which I shall sell at Thanksgiving time at five cents 

 a bunch. 



My folks have promised me a larger garden next spring where I shall 

 plant all kinds of vegetables. 

 October 28, 1905. 



My Gardens. 



BY FRANK A. W^OODS, GROTON, MASS. 



(Nine years of age.) 



I want to tell you about my two gardens. My home garden is twenty 

 feet long and fifteen feet wide. The rows are four feet long and eight 

 inches apart; this is planted with flowers such as two kinds of golden 

 glow, hardy phlox (pink and white), rosebushes, pansies, wallflowers, 

 balsams, verbenas, asters, snapdragons, nasturtiums, morning glories, 

 and a few geraniums.' The remainder is planted with Boston marrow 

 squashes of which I raised 350 pounds. 



My school garden is twenty feet long and sixteen feet wide; this I had 

 planted with radishes, parsnips, carrots, turnips, pumpkins, summer 

 squashes, Hubbard squashes, muskmelons, watemielons, cucumbers, peas, 

 pole beans, lettuce, onions, beets, and tomatoes. These rows are eight 

 inches apart. 



