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; GARDENING 



YOUNcf folks; 



CONDUCTED BY ELLEN EDDY SHAW 



Gifts from the Garden 



ALL the fall, boys and girls have been bal- 

 ancing up their accounts to see the actual 

 results of the season's garden work. Now these 

 results are not financial ones always, although they 

 may be expressed in terms of money value. It 

 is amazing to discover the amount of produce a 

 small strip of soil in the backyard, after proper 

 cultivation, will yield to the worker. Each spring 

 a large number of boys and girls all over America 

 pick up their hoes and spades and attack their 

 allotted garden spaces. Accounts of this work and 

 its results seem to have something of the Christmas 

 spirit in them. 



Each year about the first of November we go over 

 the articles which come to us as a result of our 

 National Children's Garden Contest. Prizes are 

 awarded but many times the children's own accounts 

 of their work do not appear in our magazine. The 

 following articles from prize winners show what has 

 been accomplished under given conditions. Many 

 other stories could be added to these: 



WON PRIZES AT THE SHOWS 



My garden is thirty-five feet wide and forty-five 

 long. I first planted my pepper and tomato seeds 

 in the hotbed and watered them with warm water 

 every morning. After they got about three inches 

 high I transplanted each into a flower pot. Then 

 after it was warm enough to put them into the 

 earth I set them out about a foot and a half apart in 

 rows. I planted my cabbage seed the first of April. 

 I had about 100 plants. I gave away about forty 

 and kept sixty which I set out for myself. 1 kept 

 some plants for transplanting in case any should not 

 head. I transplanted them the first of July. After 

 I had set out my plants I so\ved four rows of Swiss 

 chard and two rows of lettuce. About a week later 

 I planted four hills of potatoes and two hills each of 

 squash and cucumber. When my vegetables were 

 just beginning to grown I was careful not to let the 

 weeds smother the little plants. I went through my 

 garden every day pulling the weeds and getting the 

 bugs off. After my plants got bigger I hoed them, 

 being careful not to hoe too near the plants so as not 

 to injure their roots. When I hoed my cabbages 

 and potatoes I put phosphate around the roots to 

 enrich the soil. The first to blossom were my pep- 

 pers and tomatoes, then my potatoes, and while 

 they were in bloom I was careful not to knock off the 

 buds and flowers. The first things I had to eat 

 out of my garden were my lettuce and Swiss chard. 

 When my peppers got ripe I sold three bushels. 



Alice's thirty-cent garden won for her an automobile 



My first tomato was ripe before the supervisor made 

 her first visit. I sold two bushels of tomatoes and 

 have saved some for seed for another year. The 

 cabbage and potatoes were the last to ripen. I 

 gave away some cucumbers and squashes. Three 

 of my squashes were white. I took two to the fair 

 at North Adams and saved one for seed. My 

 potatoes were nice and smooth but I had only one 

 peck which I have put away to keep for seed. I 

 have about sixty perfect heads of cabbage for winter 

 use. The Hoosac Valley Agricultural Society's 

 Fair at North Adams offers premiums, so I exhibited 

 three squashes, eight peppers, and eight tomatoes. 

 The judges awarded first prize on my peppers. 

 The Good Will Club of Williamstown, Mass., where 

 my garden is, awarded me first prize of one dollar 

 for the best garden kept by any pupil of the Eighth 

 Grade. — Owen Larabee. 



COMMUNITY GARDENS STARTED 



The Larchmont, N. Y., branch of the National 

 Plant Flower and Fruit Guild was organized in Feb- 

 ruary 1913. The principal object being to start chil- 

 dren's school gardens. In May 1914 the gardens 

 opened with fifty-six children enrolled, average atten- 

 dance thirty-three. In the centre of each garden this 

 year the children planted three stalks of corn, with 

 very satisfactory results, much preferring this to 

 the tomato plant of last year. Our teacher's salary 

 was raised to thirty dollars a month, as she has made 

 such a success of the work. The radishes and beets 

 were of very good quality, an improvement over 

 last year. The beans were not so good, but as other 

 gardens also failed with beans it was thought to be 

 the result of a cold June. Crops for 1914 were as 

 follows: radishes, 3,766; beets, 410; carrots, 1,617; 

 lettuce, 22 heads; tomatoes, 65; cabbage, 12 heads; 

 beans, 101 quarts; parsley, 15 bunches; corn, 131 

 ears; strawberries, 2 quarts. We had community 

 gardens of tomatoes, parsley, cabbage and straw- 

 berries; the latter having been given to the gardens, 

 as small plants in the early spring. Our plant mar- 

 ket this year brought in forty-two dollars, which 

 was used for seeds, fertilizer, etc., and to help with 

 our increased expenses. We give prizes at the close 

 of the garden season for attendance, diligence and 

 community work. — Martha Bintliff. 



A GARDEN OF MANY FLOWERS 



My garden is about 45 x 475 ft. but part of that 

 is taken up by a small barn, arbor and hotbed. On 

 the arbor I have six kinds of flowering vines and one 

 banana squash vine. Against the barn are gourds 

 and nasturtiums. In my pond are lilies, water 

 hyacinths and water poppies. Against the house 

 are blue lilies and Canterbury bells. In front of 

 the house are wild flowers. Along the street are 

 roses, a honeysuckle bush, snowballs, hydrangea 

 and several other hardy shrubs. My flower seed 

 cost thirty cents. They were pennypackets; 

 some bulbs were given to me. My favorite flowers 

 are salpiglossis, snapdragon, tuberose, a kind of 

 blue lily, forget-me-not, roses, pansies, and sweet 

 William. First against the fence, because they grow 

 so very tall, are artichokes, then a row of golden 

 glow, then cosmos, next about twelve althaea, then 

 iris and wild wood-lilies. In front of them is a bed 

 of daisies and the other small bed, even with the dai- 

 sies, has snapdragons. In the back of the snap- 

 dragons, even with the iris, are dahlias. Then I 

 have portulaca, pansies, asters, cockscombs, spider- 

 wort and castor oil beans to hide the arbor till the 

 vines cover it. When the daisies were through 

 blooming, I cut them down and planted zinnias. 

 I mustn't forget the roses! Mine grow wild in a 

 round bed and the blossoms are as big as if the 

 bushes were pruned. All the pruning they get is 

 when I cut off the blossoms. I tell you all this 

 about my flowers because I am competing in the 

 class of "greatest variety of flowers raised in a home 

 garden." — Alice Budweg, Cleveland, O. 



166 



VEGETABLES IN VARIETY 



You would be surprised to see how many kinds 

 of vegetables I have in my garden. The judges 

 won't consider a garden that has only a few kinds. 

 Early in the spring I start tomatoes, red and green 

 cabbage, self-blanching celery, cauliflower, parsley, 

 peppers, and onions in my hot box, which is 15 x 5 ft. 

 My garden is 45 x 475 ft. I divided it into three 

 parts. My walks are even with Alice's so they are 

 90 feet long from the house to the front of our yard. 

 The picture shows some of the products that I 

 had at the show. On the top row are a few tomatoes 

 and peppers. The next row has an eggplant, three 



William's vegetable exhibit. This represents nineteen 

 dollars in cash 



kinds of squash and two large peppers. In the third 

 row are cauliflower, butter beans, my first prize 

 turnips and third prize pumpkin. The next row 

 has kohlrabi, first prize salsify, lima beans, third 

 prize pop-corn, beets and summer squash. On the 

 walk are cucumbers nearly a foot long, first prize 

 red cabbage, sugar beet, rhubarb and field corn. 

 In front of the cucumbers are root celery, two small 

 watermelons, parsley and gourds. 



In my garden I also have eight rows of carrots, 

 one row Swiss chard, one row parsnips, two rows 

 self-blanching celery, one row green cabbage, one 

 row blackberries. I also had three rows of sweet 

 corn, two rows field corn and nine rows popcorn; 

 next were two rows turnips and three rows salsify. 

 Among my tomatoes I had peas, and radishes, 

 lettuce and butter beans. Later I planted cabbage 

 and cauliflower in the same rows. — William Bug- 

 weg, Cleveland, O. 



a successful first year 



I planted my garden May 5, 1914. In it I had 

 potatoes, cucumbers, sweet peas, cauliflower, 

 cabbages, pumpkins, squash, and nasturtiums. 

 The garden was watered every day from a little 

 brook which runs in back of our house; I kept it 

 hoed and free from weeds. My brother, William, 

 and I tried to see who could get the most money from 

 our gardens. I was not troubled much by the worm 

 this year, except for a few which came in the latter 

 part of the year in my cabbages. In my garden I 

 had some large pumpkins which brought me a prize 

 at the North Adams Fair. The cauliflower took a 

 prize and also my Green Mountain potatoes. In 

 three prizes, -counting the fair money, I got about 

 $1.75 in all. The pumpkin prize was 50 cents, the 

 prize for the cauliflower was 75 cents, for potatoes 

 50 cents. — Joseph Danaher, Williamstown, Mass. 



