VACANT LOT GARDENING 17 



Circular to Prospective • Gardeners. — The following 

 wording was incorporated in a small leaflet sent to the pros- 

 pective workers in the Philadelphia vacant lot gardens : 



Opportunity. — Are your wages large enough to enable you to 

 buy all the things you need for yourself and family ? Or do you find 

 that the cost of food, clothing, rent, etc., necessary to properly main- 

 tain yourself and family, is so high that you cannot make your 

 dollars go as far as they should? Hundreds of families in Philadel- 

 phia have found a big aid in meeting this difficulty by working. 



Vacant Lot Gardens. — Has your health been poor? Have you 

 therefore been prevented from working as you otherwise could and 

 would like to? Many invalids, including those wlio have tuberculosis, 

 have found great improvement in. health, while at the same time 

 producing needed supplies in the healthful open-air work on vacant 

 lot gardens. 



Are you among those who hav'e reached an age which prevents 

 you from competing with the younger ones in the rush of modern 

 working methods? Many old men and women, some over eighty 

 years of age, have kept in good health while producing a great deal 

 for their own support on vac<mt lot gardens. 



If for any reason you need a vacant lot garden write at once 

 to the Superintendent. 



Our Method. — Our Association has made arrangements with 

 owners of various wasting tracts of idle land, which afford a splendid 

 .opportunity for cultivating in different parts of the city, to use this 

 land for vdcant lot' ga/rdens until the land is needed for building 

 or other purposes.," 



Our Association prepares the land, plows and harrows it (and 

 fertilizes it wheil necessary) and divides it into gardens, generally 

 about one-eighth of an acre in size. These gardens are then assigned 

 to various persons or families, who have made application, in the 

 order in which the applications have been received. Therefore, you 

 will see that if you want to be sure to get a garden, you should send 

 your application now. 



With each garden our Association distributes an assortment of 

 good seeds and plants, sufficient in quantity for a good start. This 

 assortment is generally about as follows: 1 basket seed potatoes, 

 1 quart lima beans, 1 quart string beans, 1 quart butter beans, 1 pint 

 corn, 1 quart peas, 2 ounces beet seed, 2 ounces radish seed, several 

 dozen tomato and cabbage plants. 



As the Association secures the land free of charge, it assigns 



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