5 GARDENS EVERYWHERE 



The National School Garden 

 Association 



CHRISTMAS time is a good time to 

 tell of nice things and talk them 

 over. The new National School Garden 

 Association is the nice thing I would like 

 to tell you boys and girls about. A long 

 time ago, about twenty years it was, a 

 school principal in Boston had his boys 

 and girls make a little wild flower garden 

 in the school yard. That was the very 

 first school garden in America. Of course, < 

 boys and girls had their own home gardens 

 before this time. But schools did not 

 garden then. It is quite different now. . 

 If you and I should take a journey over 

 the United States and up into Canada, 

 too, we would find a great many gardens % 

 for children. To be sure, these gardens ' 

 are not all connected with schools. We?' , 

 would find some supported and supervised 

 by women's clubs, others by" civic associa- '' 

 tions, still others by park boards and some 

 by business firms. Every one seems in- 

 terested in this work for boys and girls. 

 I think you can all see why. It isn't 

 only that there are many, many lessons 

 to be taught about the soil and the culture 

 of flowers and vegetables, but it's a pretty 

 good piece of citizenship to make your 

 school yard, your own yard, and your 

 town look better than it ever has looked 

 before. This work means money in the 

 pocket, too. 



We might say, then, that this new asso- 

 ciation started from that first Boston 

 school garden. But, you ask, what is 

 this new association and what has it to 

 do with boys and girls? Let us go back 

 to the start of it. A year ago last July, 

 when the National Educational Association 

 met in Boston, a number of people inter- 

 ested in boys' and girls' garden work met 

 together to talk over their work. They 

 chose a committee of five to start an 

 association for the promotion of this 

 work. If you read The Garden Magazine 

 for October, 1910, you will have known of 

 that meeting. This last June the second 

 meeting was held with the meeting of The 

 National Educational Association 'way 

 across the country from Boston in San 

 Francisco. The real garden association 

 was formed there. 



FORMATION AND HISTORY OF THE 

 NEW NATIONAL GARDEN ASSOCI- 

 ATION—REPORT OF THE FIRST 

 MEETING — THIS DEPARTMENT 

 THE OFFICIAL ORGAN OF THE 

 ASSOCIATION— SOME SUGGES- 

 TIONS FOR CHRISTMAS GIFTS 



Conducted by 



ELLEN EDDY SHAW 



New York 



You would like a report of these meet- 

 ings. It is really the business of this 

 department to make such a report, since 

 The Garden Magazine is the organ of 

 the new association. 



Just a printing of the programme gives 

 a very little idea of a meeting, but there are 

 certain special features which stand out 

 prominently and remain. One feature 

 of interest was this : that the meetings were 

 not only indoor discussions, but they were 

 outdoor ones, too. All these garden folk 

 wished to see real garden work and results. 

 So one morning was spent in visiting, the 

 gardens on the campus of the University 

 of California and the Le Conte School 

 Gardens, following a visit on the previous 

 day to the gardens of the Sutro and Parental 

 Schools of San Francisco. The campus 

 gardens were somewhat depleted, having 

 been drawn upon for vegetables and flowers 

 to supply the tables for the luncheon given 

 in Hearst Hall. 



This luncheon was another point of 

 special interest. And here is where the 

 children come in. For the California 

 Junior Gardeners grew the vegetables 

 and flowers used at the luncheon. They 

 prepared and served the lunch for some 

 two hundred guests. The menu cards 



The centre of the basket should look like this 

 when completed 



220 



were made by the children, the souvenirs 

 (cornucopias filled with sweet peas) were 

 theirs, too, and even the music was rendered 

 by a children's orchestra. It was children's 

 garden day. 



So often associations working with chil- 

 dren's interests leave out the children. 

 Just here enters in the most significant 

 feature of all. The children themselves 

 are asking to come into this new garden 

 association. The first class to enter as a 

 class is one from a Los Angeles school. It 

 . is an eighth grade grammar-school class of 

 forty children. These children wrote 

 letters to their new association. The 

 following extracts from these letters will 

 be of interest to other boys and girls who 

 may wish to join, too: 



■ " I am writing you a letter of thanks for admitting 

 our class into the National Garden Association. 

 It is a great advantage to us. We have already 

 a good start in our garden work. I used to feel 

 drowsy and sleepy but since I have been working 

 in the gardens I am feeling exceptionally fine. 

 The garden work makes our homes more beautiful. 

 The lawns and flowers have gotten a great start 

 and our homes look very much better." 



"There are about forty pupils in our class and 

 each pupil has a large piece of land next to the 

 school for his garden. Our class has nearly as 

 large a piece of ground as all the other rooms put 

 together and different pupils go out every morn- 

 ing and afternoon to work in their gardens. We 

 hope in time to have the best garden in the city." 



"In the city of Los Angeles we have planted 

 flower gardens and also vegetable gardens on a 

 great many of the empty lots. This not only 

 beautifies the city but also gives us children much 

 pleasure." 



"The schools of California have one great benefit 

 over the Eastern schools which is that we can have 

 a garden at school and also gardens at home, the 

 year round. Each pupil of our school has a plot 

 in the garden. We are all very proud of our gar- 

 dens and I think that through the class I have 

 learned to see much more clearly." 



"We planted a garden at school and it looked 

 better than the vacant lot full of weeds." 



"Our schools have a lot where each pupil can 

 plant what he wants. Each pupil has a plot 

 four feet square, except the eighth grade, which 

 has a plot eight feet square for each pupil." 



At one of the business meetings the 

 constitution was adopted and the following 

 officers were elected for 191 2: 



President, V. E. Kilpatrick, New York; 

 Secretary, D. J. Crosby, District of Col- 

 umbia; Treasurer, Ellen Eddy Shaw, New 

 York. 



