92 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



October, 1917 



matters were discussed as, why lime is applied 

 to gardens, the value of manure as a plant 

 food, the place of fertilizers, the purpose of 

 digging, how to make drills, why the soil is 

 cultivated, advantages and disadvantages of 

 artificial watering, tools required and the way 

 to use them. The course in fact was a be- 

 ginner's A. B. C. of gardening from the digging 

 of the ground to the storing of the crops. 



The organizers, working on the theory that 

 anything had for nothing was 

 held too cheaply, agreed to fur- 

 nish all seeds, fertilizers, and 

 other requisites at cost, and to 

 meet the cases of those who could 

 not afford the expenditure at 

 seeding time arrangements were 

 made for payment when the 

 crops were gathered, or by in- 

 stallments if so desired. This 

 proved a real incentive, better 

 than scattering a quantity of 

 free seed, and then visiting the 

 garden in fall and finding only 

 the garden wreck hidden by a 

 tall monument of weeds; for 

 those who didn't pay cash for 

 their seeds felt that some one 

 had a mortgage on their garden 

 and they were trying hard to lift 

 it and with few exceptions they 

 did. 



Home gardens were preferred 

 to community centre gardens for 

 several reasons, firstly, the gar- 

 den at home was more conveni- 

 ent for the owners to cultivate; 

 secondly, where a number of gar- 

 dens are closely connected the 

 owners of the poorer gardens get 

 discouraged and give up; thirdly, an hour per 

 day in the garden is vastly superior to one 

 day a week; fourthly, the produce of a garden 

 away from home is liable to waste because of 

 the inconvenience; fifthly, considerable time 

 is wasted in garden centres where the children 

 predominate unless some one is there to look 

 after them. 



Itwas the duty of the instructorto frequently 

 inspect the various gardens, giving lessons to 

 the children on any problem that came up, in- 

 cluding such questions as these: What can I do 

 to get rid of ants that destroy my seed? How 

 far apart must I thin my beets? What shall I 

 sow after the early peas and spinach? This 

 idea worked splendidly, it kept up the interest, 



because the youngsters felt that they were 

 actually learning something. 



The one great stumbling block in teaching 

 children gardening (or anything else for that 

 matter) is to get them to take things seriously 

 and it was thought best to be frank with them 

 at the start, insisting that gardening meant 

 hard work, that successful crops were the re- 

 sult of hard work and plenty of it. This course 

 frightened off a number who wouldn't have 



Beans are always satisfying for beginners, for they are not exacting in soil requirements and 



yield good crops 



taken the matter seriously, and so would have 

 given up their gardens at the critical time. 

 Some garden organizers in other sections 

 worked on a different theory, painting the 

 bright side very rosily and thought much had 

 been accomplished by getting a very large 

 number to start irrespective of the chances for 

 a successful conclusion. 



Unquestionably one of the greatest ob- 

 stacles to surmount was the tendency to 

 abandon the gardens during midsummer. 

 Any one can garden during May and June 

 when nature smiles her sweetest, but in July 

 and August, when the sun is strong, when the 

 mosquitoes are thick, when the swimming 

 is fine, and when the pesky weeds grow a foot 



or more a day (or seem to at least) is the criti- 

 cal time in the beginner's garden. Here the 

 big part played by the principal had its effect; 

 frequent visits being made to the gardens, and 

 a word of encouragement here, or a suggestion 

 there, kept many a half inclined slacker close 

 up to the firing line. Any garden enthusiast 

 would have found something worth while 

 in a visit to these gardens during the summer, 

 the originality of ideas displayed showed in- 

 itiative. A dozen different types 

 of tomato trellis were found and 

 all had good sound common sense 

 back of them; one garden was 

 neatly hedged with carrots and 

 parsley — practical, sensible and 

 pleasing; in another lima beans 

 and corn were sown in the same 

 hill with the idea of using the 

 corn to support the beans; still 

 another garden was the work of 

 a lad who had but one arm, but 

 he hadn't asked for any handicap 

 and he started from scratch 

 along with the others. 



Just think what these gardens 

 meant in this one little commun- 

 ity alone! More than 150 plots 

 that had never been planted be- 

 fore, the yield — even though 

 these gardens didn't have any- 

 thing in quantity that Uncle Sam 

 might send across the water, yet 

 they did have plenty for the 

 families of the youthful garden- 

 ers — which released an equivalent 

 amount for shipment abroad. 



One of the hardest points to 

 teach was gathering the vege- 

 tables when ready. This mat- 

 ter can only be handled properly by fre- 

 quent visits to the gardens; there must be 

 persuasion. The youngsters had the idea that 

 the garden was to grow vegetables and that 

 when the vegetables were gathered their 

 gardens suffered somewhat. This, of course, 

 is true as far as appearance is concerned, but 

 not from an economic viewpoint. It took no 

 little effort to convince the youthful gardeners 

 that their peas or beans should be picked. 



To sum up this success can be attributed 

 to the following reasons, placed according to 

 their importance: close application of the or- 

 ganizers; frequent inspection of the gardens; 

 frequent and timely advice by some one who 

 knows. 



This was one of the really successful gardens, neatly ordered and well cared for throughout 



the season 



A back yard that in former years was a rubbish heap literally covered with empty paint 



cans 



