WHAT NATIONAL GARDEN WEEK 
MEANS IN DES MOINES 
MRS. ADDISON PARKER 
President of the Des Moines (Iowa) Garden Club 
Constructive Suggestions for Garden Clubs and Communities 
Everywhere by An “Up-and-Doing” Group of Western Women 
Editors’ Note: Soon after the successful inauguration of National Garden Week last spring 
by The Garden Magazine with the enthusiastic and effective cooperation of the General Feder¬ 
ation of Women's Clubs and other clubs and individuals, a prize ($50) was offered by the magazine for "the best article illustrated with adequate photographs 
on what has been accomplished in some one place as a result of the stimulus of National Garden Week.” 
Among the considerable number of manuscripts which had reached us by October first, the closing date of this competition, unfortunately none completely 
met the requirements, particularly in the matter of illustrations which were for the most part inadequate and unsuitable for reproduction. 
Nevertheless, the judges, appreciating the spirit of earnest endeavor thus shown, selected the account of the Des Moines Club for a special honorary award 
(§25) and are now presenting this account in the hope that it may initiate similarly generous and practical action in other communities during the National Gar¬ 
den Week just ahead, April 20th to 26th. 
PARTICULARLY fortunate in its location, Des Moines 
G* is situated at the junction of two rivers along whose 
, banks grow hardy native Oaks and Elms as well as the 
i-)‘Wi lovely flowering Hawthorn, Crabapple, Dogwood, etc. 
We found that in some of our city parks, many of which are 
veritable woodlands, these trees were being thinned or inju¬ 
diciously cut merely to supply logs for cabins. We protested 
against this destruction and brought sufficient pressure to bear 
so that the cutting was discontinued. This protest brought a 
good deal of publicity which we followed up by a “Save the 
frees’’ campaign, made possible through the generous coopera¬ 
tion and interest of our local press. 
Making a Christmas Tree City 
CARTOON BY JAY DARLING 
(DING) 
A quick and effective way of get¬ 
ting the conservation idea over 
to the public. (Reprinted by cour¬ 
tesy of The Des Moines Register) 
Conserving Native Wild 
Flowers, Flowering 
Shrubs, and Bird Life 
T HE Civic Committee 
of our Garden Club 
which worked out the Conservation Program for our observance 
of National Garden Week was allowed fifty dollars from the club 
treasury. With these funds, placards were printed and placed in 
the schools during National Carden Week urging the conserva- 
T HROUGHOUT the year our club has been endeavoring to 
create a sentiment in Des Moines for the planting of ever¬ 
greens for permanent Christmas trees, to “ Make Des Moines 
the Christmas free City, ” 
in order that we may aid 
the nation-wide movement 
to stem the wanton des¬ 
truction of evergreens 
during the holiday season 
as well as add to the beauty 
of our city. To increase 
public interest in this pro¬ 
ject we arranged to have a 
film run in six of our lead¬ 
ing picture theatres with a 
picture captioned “ Des 
Moines Observes National 
Garden Week by Planting 
Live frees for Christmas 
Trees, ” accompanied by a 
brief explanatory verse. 
The film itself showed the 
method of planting an 
tion of native wild (lowers and flowering shrubs, and bird life. 
With the cooperation of the Campfire Girls and the aid of the 
teachers, the subject was brought to the attention of all the 
school children in Des Moines. It was pointed out that merely 
picking the flowers does no harm, but the ruthless pulling up of 
flowers by the roots, and the breaking of branches of flowering 
trees and shrubs permanently destroys them. To bring this 
thought home to the public imagination our cartoonist, Mr. 
Jay Darling (Ding), made the cartoon shown below at left. 
I he Boy Scouts we interested in the cause of conservation of 
bird life and they, too, cooperated splendidly. 
At our final meeting of the year (October) we further pursued 
the subject with a talk on “Bird Conservation’’ bv the Rev. 
T. Weeks, a well-known authority on birds. At the same time 
an exhibit of bird-feeding trays, boxes, etc., for winter feeding, 
was arranged by one of our members, who has done a great deal 
in awakening among the school children of Des Moines an in¬ 
terest in the study and preservation of these friendly little 
visitors and residents of our city. 
Through our “Save the Wild Flowers” campaign, we be¬ 
came interested in the permanent conservation, if possible, 
of an acreage of native prairie about ten miles from the city. 
It may not be generally known that there is very little native 
prairie left in the state of Iowa. The plows of the pioneers 
and their successors have converted it into great fields of Corn 
and Wheat. Many of the beautiful wild prairie flowers and 
grasses are nearly extinct. If we succeed in saving just a little 
of this prairie for our children, it should be a great heritage. 
Landscaping and Planting the Children’s City Home 
A T THE beginning of our club year last February, it was 
decided that the Des Moines Garden Club should attempt 
a piece of constructive garden work, and for this project the 
EAST EIGHTH STREET,- 
Iowa 
Children's Home 
DBS MOlNIfi 
Ft CHILDRENS 
j ; PLAYGROUND • LAWN 
ll LAWN 
/CHILDRENS () 
\ GARDENS' 
LAWAi 
MAIN RESIDENCE 
LAWN 
NLAWN 
LAWN 
EAST NINTH STREET 
PLANTING PLAN FOR THE IOWA CHILDREN’S HOME 
Made by Miss Etta M. Bardwell, L. A., member of the Des Moines Gar¬ 
den Club which carried through this fine bit of constructive civic garden¬ 
ing as part of their National Garden Week program as described in 
the accompanying text. (Reprinted by courtesy of Farm and Garden) 
346 
