DIFFERENT KINDS OF SCHOOL GARDENS 



plete garden; to have it built up gradually by the 

 children and their interested associates and older 

 friends. Yet in cities where there is a system of 

 gardens it is well to have one such as a model of 

 attainment. 



At the present time there are, as has been said, 

 school gardens of many varying kinds carried on 

 for different immediate ends though with the one 

 underlying and universal purpose of helping the 

 children to an all round development. Some of 

 these gardens will be briefly sketched. It is 

 probably true that the mental picture which the 

 term "school garden*' most frequently calls up is 

 that of a plot of ground laid out in small individual 

 beds where the common vegetables, together with 

 one or two varieties of flowers, are grown; 

 and larger areas for flowers and observation, or 

 sample plots, on which are grown various plants 

 including the common troublesome garden weeds. 

 In such a garden the children may learn the joy 

 of individual ownership and of co-operative or 

 group work as well. They will at the same time, 

 through sharing in the work on the larger plots, 

 become familiar with a wider range of plant life 

 than that which could be grown on their own 

 small plots. Such a mental picture may have for 

 its setting the congested quarter of a great city, 

 a bit of a public park or playground, a part of 

 town or village schoolyard, or it may be an isolated 

 vacant lot transformed. 



To know how to plan, to care for and conduct 

 49 



