AT THE AVENUE A GARDENS— EVERY MAN FOR HIMSELF IN SEED-TIME 



Some of the boys on the grounds of the Rockefeller Foundation, where six hundred school children 

 planted vegetable seeds inoculated with bacteria to produce twice the crop yielded by an ordinary seed 



Paul Thompson, Photo. 



THE UNFORTUNATE MR. WEED 



R. WEED was a member of a world-known family, more 

 celebrated than esteemed. The mistake he made in the 

 choice of a scene of his activities, was what led to his 

 ultimate down-fall. 



With the whole world to choose from, he selected the Effendi 

 Garden over on the East Side of New York City in a tenement 

 district. The Effendi Garden is one of six hundred plots, each 

 5x10 feet, planted and cultivated by poor children who other- 

 wise would be playing in the streets and exposing their young 

 lives to automobiles and even worse dangers of the crowded city. 



The Effendi Garden gets its name from the generous gentle- 

 man who contributed the ten dollars needed to provide a tene- 

 ment child with the necessary seeds and tools to plant and 

 cultivate it and raise a crop of flowers and vegetables. The 

 ten dollars also helps in the instruction and supervision of the 

 child during the spring, summer, and autumn while engaged in 

 this joyous out-of-door playwork of planting and cultivating. 



The child didn't recognize Mr. Weed at first sight. In child- 

 ish ignorance it thought Mr. Weed might be Mr. Beet, Mr. 

 Onion, Mr. Green Pea, or Mr. Radish whose arrival on the 

 scene the little gardener was anxiously and impatiently expect- 

 ing. Therefore the child welcomed Mr. Weed's arrival and en- 

 joyed the way the new-comer made himself at home and pro- 

 ceeded to grow and show every sign of prosperity and satisfac- 

 tion with himself and his surroundings. 



The instructor at the Avenue A Gardens in her regular rounds 

 came to see how the child who was cultivating the Effendi Gar- 

 den was getting along with that particular plot. Her experi- 

 enced eye recognized Mr. Weed at once and it did not take her 

 long to explain to the child that Mr. Weed belonged to a very 

 objectionable family none of whose members were permitted to 

 be received as temporary or permanent guests in the Avenue A 

 Gardens. She also instructed the child how to execute Mr. 

 Weed painlessly and permanently. This the child promptly 

 did with its little hoe. And the child was also taught to look 

 out for any other members of the family. Thus it will be seen 

 that Mr. Weed was indeed unfortunate to select one of the 

 Avenue A Gardens where six hundred pairs of bright eyes are 

 now on constant watch for any of his kin. 



OVER in Brooklyn, which is really part of New York City, al- 

 though Brooklyn does not always seem proud of that fact, 

 dwell the Marsh children. The Garden Magazine received a 

 letter from the Marsh children; with the letter came ten 

 dollars. That sum has now established the ELF Garden which 



is giving to a little East Side child of the tenement the " good 

 time " and " good fun " the Marsh children so generously wish 

 for it. Here is part of the letter: 



«- h i 14- r<- >-i Kb h CI \/<- eus. 



X 



W-e- /i^t^A/D i~o^<jfn Th<. 

 inon-e.y -£><.t w-c-e.ii ovr — 



Vv^, wo v l<£ i ik-e to 

 h c{ v-c- "i* h -e. <s- ff re Den 



h c\ i-ri *fcj^J = J~qft<. f 

 01/ f OW\-\ wofmcs, 



vV-e- q q v*. a- c.oun tt-y 

 r(q.C-e o f~ Ol/r © v^m cvjjD 



-t~i)wzb ~t"h<. re. 



This contribution, it seems to The Garden Magazine, means 

 something more than the mere giving of the sum necessary 

 to maintain one of the Avenue A Gardens. In the hearts 

 of the young donors, who are giving of their own to help another 

 less fortunate child to know some of their own happiness, there 

 must have been implanted impulses which tend to make fine men 

 and fine women. The instance is one of those things which helps 

 every one concerned — the givers, the child who gets the gift, and 

 all of us who know it. 



FUNDS have been received by The Garden Magazine to establish Avenue A 

 Gardens from 



The New Canaan Branch, National Plant, Flower and Fruit 



Guild, New Canaan., Conn, for The Cecelia Garden 

 The Holland Dames, New York City, for 



The Caro Cooke Macdonald Garden 

 Edward, Lee, and Frances Marsh, Brooklyn, N. Y., for 



The ELF Garden 

 Mrs. E. G. Vaughan, New York City, for 



The Margaret Vaughan Garden 

 Miss M. I. Johnson, Akron, Ohio, for 



The Biggie Garden 

 Mrs. Alice De Graff, Oyster Bay, N. Y., for 



One plot, not named 

 Mrs. Moses H. Cone, Baltimore, Md., for 



The Blowing Rock Garden 

 The Garden Club of Englewood, N. J., for 



The Englewood Garden Club Garden 



Ten dollars maintains for the entire season one of the 5 x 10 gardens in the 

 total of six hundred located on Avenue A in New York City, between Sixty- 

 third and Sixty-fifth Streets. The Avenue A Gardens are cultivated under 

 proper supervision and instruction by children from the neighboring tenements 

 for whom this sum provides the necessary seeds, tools, and oversight. Checks 

 to the order of The Avenue A Gardens may be sent to The Garden Magazine, 

 Garden City, N. Y. or to the Plant, Flower and Fruit Guild, 70 Fifth Avenue, 

 New York City. 



330 



