PLANNING AND PLANTING THE GARDEN 



and watermelons demand a warm, light, sandy 

 soil. Excess of nitrate will cause any one of the 

 four to grow too rapidly and give a poor quality 

 of fruit.* Too rich a soil will send nasturtiums 

 to leafage instead of to bloom. 



In addition to planting their own beds, enlist 

 the children, as much as you can, to help plant 

 the flower beds, sample plots, vines, etc. 



On the chart of the garden, not only the chil- 

 dren's plots but all others should be indicated. 

 What and how many they are, will depend upon 

 the extent of the garden. There should be at 

 least a number of flower beds, the commoner 

 vegetables not grown in the children's plots, and 

 if possible, the common grains, grasses, kitchen 

 herbs, staple cereals and one or two things such 

 as peanuts or cotton or sweet potatoes to pique 

 the children's interest. There should be a weed 

 bed with the seeds carefully destroyed just before 

 they are fully ripe. 



"Perhaps you would like to know what flowers 

 we raised. There was a most luxuriant growth 

 of sunflowers, hollyhocks, gladioli and sweet peas. 

 There were pansies, and pansies and pansies every- 

 where. Then there were large double marigolds, 

 calendula, which are even now in bloom, fifty- 

 seven feet of petunias, the same of dianthus pinks, 

 and nasturtiums -handsomer than any I had 

 ever seen before. Our borders of mignonette were 

 perhaps more satisfactory than anything in the 



♦See Miller, Louise Klein: Children's Gardens, p. 174. 

 '7' 



