GARDENING 
FOR 
YOUNG FOLKS 
CONDUCTED BY ELLEN EDDY SHAW 
Garden Work for the Month 
A PRIL is the busiest month of all in the school 
garden. This must be so because spring vaca- 
tion holds the work back. We all wait until this 
vacation is over and then go to work, which may be 
that of a school garden, the beautification of school 
grounds, or home garden work. 
If a school garden is decided upon 
it ought to be of such a character as 
to involve the entire school. When 
the ground space is so limited that 
each grade cannot garden, then give 
some grades other pieces of work 
which help the outdoor gardeners. 
The older boys and girls can make 
the diagrams and lay off the garden. 
Excellent mathematical problems 
enter into this. Have another class 
find out those crops which mature 
before school closes, such as onion 
sets, radish, lettuce, early bush 
beans, early carrots and beets, also 
sweet alyssum and dwarf marigold. 
Another class might make a selection 
of vines to sow as covers. Choose 
such vines as cypress, moonflower, 
morning-glory, gourds and scarlet 
runner bean. Find out the soil 
these vines thrive in, how to prepare 
the ground for them, the color of 
their blossom, and how to train them. 
Another class could make, in the work-shop, the 
garden stakes, labels, dibbers, reels for lines and 
cultivating sticks. 
If a poor unkempt bank is a part of the garden 
problem try sowing peanuts, fig-marigold and 
morning-glories to run wild over the ground and thus 
cover the unsightly spot. This is another piece of 
grade work. 
Make a study of pests and so be ahead of the game. 
Write to the Department of Agriculture at Wash- 
ington, for its collection of the seeds of economic 
plants. Here is a splendid field for upper grade 
students. 
Study weed pests of your garden. “Weeds and 
Their Use in Medicine” is the title of a helpful 
bulletin issued at Washingron, D. C. So the school 
garden may become the vital piece of nature study 
in the school for the spring season. 
If the home garden is to be the centre of your 
interest this year, then it too should have its start in 
the school. It is a good plan for different classes to 
start seeds in boxes and then distribute the seedlings 
through the school to the children who are to culti- 
vate backyard gardens. Start seeds of cabbage, 
kohlrabi, onion, cauliflower, lettuce, tomato, lobelia, 
pansy, salvia, and stock. When the seedlings have 
their second leaves transplant to other boxes, 
allowing more space for each young seedling than it 
had at first; transplant again, and finally put the 
young plants into paper flower pots, for this will 
make it far easier for you to carry them home. There 
is an enormous amount of work which could be done 
in this way. 
If one vegetable be chosen for competition 
purposes, then printed or typewritten directions 
concerning care, etc., should go to each home. In 
this way each child starts with the same information 
and, although the soil conditions may vary in the 
different home yards, the child will have before him 
the method to use in order to put the soil in good 
condition. 
There is in California a Junior Garden Club. 
This club has a sweet pea contest each year. The 
following directions are sent to the boys and girls all 
over the State and may be helpful as a basis for work 
in other states: 
“Select a place partly shaded and if possible near 
a fence or shed, so that you will not need build a 
trellis for the vines. The sun will have its best effect 
if you plant north and south. Dig a trench twenty- 
four inches deep and sixteen inches wide, and fill it 
with water several times. Then put lime, wood 
ashes or well rotted barnyard manure in the bottom 
of the trench and sift the soil in on top of the 
fertilizer until within eight inches of the top. Use 
your marking line and place the seeds exactly under 
the line two inches apart. Cover seeds only one 
“As stated above all of this work was done by the 
pupils and the change in the appearance of this 
school yard is very marked. The picture really does 
not convey to you a correct impression of the 
wonderful change which this work made in this 
particular school yard. The work was done at the 
Grove Street School, Providence, R. I.” 
T! 
An ornamental school yard showing the flower border that extends around it and the practical 
use of vines to hide the plain board fence 
half inch. Soak the seeds twenty-four hours before 
planting and they will sprout in a few days. When 
the little plants are about one inch high fill in along 
both sides of the row until the little plant just has its 
head out; keep on filling in the trench as the plant 
grows until it is only two inches lower than the 
surface. This two-inch depression will help to hold 
the moisture when you irrigate. Cultivate always 
before your irrigate. It is much better to dig a 
trench close to the vines and irrigate twice a week. 
Use plenty of water when you do water and do not 
use the sprinkler every day. Plants between two 
and three feet high need a great deal of water.” 
Improvement of School Grounds 
1 A HE school yard and its beautification is another 
side of garden work with children. Often the 
space around the school building is so limited that 
all of it must be kept for a playground. But even so 
a better balance to strike is that of setting aside a 
portion of whatever space there be for the improve- 
ment of the school grounds. Not a great deal of 
space need be saved for this purpose as border strips 
close to the building may be used. A playground 
with a background of flowers or shrubs is certainly 
to be desired. The following, from a report by Mr. 
E. K. Thomas of Providence, R. I., is full of practi- 
cal suggestions: 
“ Our school yard was all gravel and no sign of 
vegetation was found anywhere near the building. 
The pupils excavated a trench four feet wide all 
around the school yard. Loam was brought in 
from various places and street sweepings were also 
brought in and mixed with the loam. Some com- 
mercial fertilizer was added to the soil. Morning- 
glories, canary bird vine and moonflowers were 
planted at the back of the border; nails were driven 
into the fence and the vines trained to this on twine. 
In front of the vines a row of marigolds, zinnias, 
cosmos, phlox and petunias was planted. The front 
of the border was occupied by sweet alyssum and 
portulaca. All of this work was accomplished by 
the pupils with the exception of a little help, by one 
of the florists, in the excavation and the bringing in 
of loam. Trees were set out in the yard and these 
grew nicely. In front of the building sod was laid 
which sloped down toward the pavement. A row 
of dwarf nasturtiums was planted at the top of the 
sod. 
Rural School Work 
HE rural school has certain ad- 
vantages in that it may draw 
from the country side for its trees, 
vines and some of its shrubbery. 
Rural work offers vast opportunity. 
Usually the grounds belonging to 
the country school seem well nigh 
hopeless if improvements. First 
clear the grounds, sow grass seed, 
screen outbuildings with vines, put 
in some trees and plant the sturdiest 
of flowers. An account of the 
Briggsville School appeared in the 
February, igio, Garden Magazine, 
which told of the beginnings of the 
work. The following tells of a later 
stage from a report submitted by 
the teacher, Miss Addie Ayer, in our 
last garden contest. 
“ By candy and jelly sales, sale of 
chestnuts, bowls of partridge berries, 
old rubbers, and entertainments, 
the children earned the money ($87), for a flight of 
eighteen cement steps from the street to the top of 
the terrace. They worked with a contractor in ex- 
cavating, drawing sand, mixing cement, etc. 
“The lumber was given to the school for an out- 
house. The boys did all of the work under a manual 
training teacher in measuring and sawing lumber, 
laying the foundation, boarding, shingling, painting, 
and in fact every bit of the work. Both projects 
have been done in 'earned time’ so that they have 
not missed any recitations. The pupils earned 
money for a lawn mower and all through the year 
they have kept the grass mowed. 
“Three or four years ago, the school won the Na- 
ture Library as a prize in The Garden Magazine 
garden contest. I presume the garden work is not 
so different now though each year it is a little better 
than the last. The more marked changes have been 
in other lines of improvement. The garden is to be 
doubled in size this year, which will give another 
opportunity for us to compete in the contest and 
perhaps win another prize. 
“In summer garden work, a teacher meets two 
pupils from each room one morning a week and they 
do what is necessary in cultivating, harvesting, 
mowing the lawn, etc. This plan worked admirably 
last summer and is to be tried again.” 
Seeds That Travel 
D O YOU know that some seeds actually fly? The 
seeds of the maple tree are provided with 
wings, and when they become detached from the 
parent tree a gentle breeze will carry them a con- 
siderable distance from the branch to which they 
were attached. There are many forms and modifi- 
cations of the winged seed, such as the linden, the 
hornbeam, the elm and the pine, for instance. 
And there are some seeds that are provided with 
little parachutes or umbrellas, not for protection 
from rain and storm, but for purposes of locomo- 
tion. Seeds of the thistle, milkweed, and dandelion 
- — in fact, the seeds of all plants that have a cot- 
tony growth — are provided for little trips through 
the air. 
There are also other seeds that travel by means 
of hooked appendages, by which they attach them- 
selves to the clothing of men or to the hair of 
animals, and in that way are carried from place to 
place, such as the tickseed, for instance. 
164 
