REN'S GARDENS 



Our Garden Contests 



THE pictures this month are taken 

 from those sent in for our children's 

 garden contest. Those of next month 

 will also be contest pictures. A list of 

 winners will be printed in one of our 

 subsequent nvunbers. 



I wonder if you notice how much the 

 quality of pictures lias improved this year 

 over that of last. A number of times this 

 year we have mentioned the pictures as 

 one of the weak points in our school gar- 

 den work. They have been weak and 

 characterless. Just a picture of a lot of 

 children posed in a garden is of little value. 

 The picture should tell a story. 



We were delighted this year as the good 

 pictures began coming in. The pictures 

 showed something. And they really typi- 

 fied better work, too. That's worth a 

 year's struggle, is it not? 



Those two pictures, which take such a 

 conspicuous place across the following 

 page, are of work done in Rhode 

 Island. It is solid, real work. The 

 gardens look like business, do they not? 

 And notice too that these are artistic 

 gardens also. A garden need not be a 

 set ugly affair because it is a garden 

 composed of many owners. I shall show 

 you more of Rhode Island work later. 

 There are a number of excellent lessons 



A barren door step. April 15. No soil but stones 

 and gravel 



LET US LEARN LESSONS FROM THESE 

 PICTURES TAKEN BY OUR FRIENDS 

 IN THE WORK. THESE ARE CIVIC, 

 ECONOMIC, EDUCATIONAL, ESTHETIC 

 AND SPIRITUAL LESSONS 



Conducted by 

 ELLEN EDDY SHAW 



New York 



to be observed. Rhode Island might 

 be a garden state — a perfect bower — 

 if work such as this was put in all over 

 the state. 



This other garden is in Lancaster, 

 Pennsylvania. It is connected with one 

 of the public schools. The children 

 from the kindergarten up have a share 

 in it. I choose this special picture be- 

 cause it shows the janitor doing a little 

 work in it. He just had to help. We 

 do not approve of janitors doing the 

 work but we do like janitors who feel a 

 personal interest in the garden. 



The two pictures of a back yard before 

 and after improvement represent work 

 done in Waltham, Massachusetts. They 

 have school gardens there too. But this 

 shows an end carefully followed up in 

 Waltham. The home garden work after 

 all is the most vital of all our garden 

 work. This piece of work shows what 

 could be done in any town or city if you 

 all really cared. Do not these two pic- 

 tures tell the story? Is it worth while 

 to invest ten cents in such a work. Or 

 better is it not worth while to so stir up 

 such neighborhoods, as this picture typi- 

 fies, so that each householder will pre- 

 fer to invest ten cents in his own back 

 yard. 



Soils and Soil Experiments 



THE kinds of soils most of you boys 

 and girls have to deal with are 

 sand, clay or humus. These kinds are 

 not difficult to distinguish. 



Sandy soil is made up of more or less 

 finely ground rock masses. The clay 

 is told by its stickiness. When you take 

 in your hand a lump of damp soil which 

 can be easily formed into a ball, which 

 adheres closely together, you may be 

 certain there is clay in that soil. Humus 

 soil is made up of decayed or partly de- 

 cayed vegetable matter. It usually is of 

 a nice dark brown color. 



The two great needs of soil are air and 

 water. Let us think of the soil as made 

 up of individual particles. Each parti- 

 cle should have a little air space all about 

 it. Each particle has a film of water 

 over it. Do you understand this? Sup- 

 pose you take a marble, just an ordinary 

 little marble not a fine glass agate, and 

 275 



dip this marble in water. You will 

 notice a film or thin coating of water 

 over it. To be sure, this dries right off; 

 but not before you have seen it. So 

 soil particles have their coverings of 

 water. They must have the air spaces 

 and the water films. If any soil prevents 

 or shuts off either of these soil necessities 

 something must be done to such a soil 

 to make conditions right. On the other 

 hand a soil which holds too much water 

 is not ideal. 



Try the following experiments with 

 soils, either at home or at school: 



Experiment i — Take three lamp chim- 

 neys. Tie cheese cloth over the small, or 

 what is ordinarily called, the upper end of 

 the chimney. Turn the chimney upside 

 down so the cheese cloth covered end will 

 be down. Fill into each chimney 3 inches 

 of soil. In the first chimney put sand, in 

 the second clay and in the third humus. 

 Now set these cheese cloths end down into 

 a pan which has an inch of water in it. 

 Observe the time each takes to soak up 

 water so that the soil is wet to the upper 

 surface. What does this teach you about 

 the power of sand, clay and humus to 

 absorb water? 



Experiment 2 — Take the soils from 

 experiment i and spread these out on 



What a few morning glory seeds can do in the 

 same yard. Avigust 15 



