188 



HOME AND FLOWERS 



FULL OF ENTHUSIASM OVER THEIR WORK 



of insects to flowers — an entirely new 

 world would have been opened to them^ 

 and the gardens would have had a deeper 

 significance. 



Lowthorpe, a school of horticultural and 

 landscape gardening for women, has been 

 established at Groton, Massachusetts. The 

 course includes horticulture, arboricul- 

 ture, botany, care of the greenhouse, work 

 in the flower, fruit and vegetable gardens, 

 entomology and ornithology, agricultural 

 chemistry, plain and solid geometry, sur- 

 veying, free-hand and mechanical draw- 

 ing, landscape gardening, and garden de- 

 signing. A special feature of the work at 

 Lowthorpe is the training of women to 

 be supervisors of school gardens. The 

 theoretical and practical work is done at 

 the schools, and the students get experience 

 with the children in the garden. 

 ' The Lowthorpe garden is on the recre- 

 ation park, a short distance from the vil- 

 lage. I planned and directed the garden 

 myself with the aid of some students, lay- 

 ing out each garden ten by ninety feet. 

 The boys planted flowers, cucumbers, 

 radishes, lettuce, carrots, turnips, toma- 



toes, peas, beans, potatoes and corn. Be- 

 fore beginning the work I made a careful 

 plan, which we studied. After the ground 

 had been plowed and harrowed we laid 

 out the garden and beds with a tape line 

 and staked them off. This was the most 

 difficult part of the work, as it was neces- 

 sary to have it exact, but it was excellent 

 practice for the boys. 



Conditions were fortunate for us. The 

 ground was given us by the park com- 

 missioners. A farmer sent two horses and 

 a man to prepare the ground. A man 

 from Boston, who heard of the work and 

 became interested, sent a donation of 

 money which I used for buying tools. 

 Each boy was supplied with a hoe, rake, 

 trowel and spading fork, and there were 

 wheelbarrows and watering pots for gen- 

 eral use. The seeds and tomato plants 

 were also given. A load of manure was 

 donated, and we bought some commercial 

 fertilizer. The owner of a small barn 

 across the road allowed us to use it for 

 storing our tools. 



The boys came from the school in the 

 village. All the gardens were occupied at 



