THE GIFT OF A 
GARDEN 
?ROM time to time slight reference 
has been made in this magazine 
the influence of a garden. What 
our garden means to us is every day more and more realized. 
Not only is there physical benefit, but we begin to feel the subtle 
power of the flowers working in us, making us a little happier, a 
little better. We try to make the garden a real part of the child’s 
education and understand that it necessarily should occupy that 
position. All this we realize, but perhaps Jacob Riis' statement, 
“I have seen a handful of daisies keep the peace of a whole 
block better than a half dozen policemen's clubs,” seems a trifle 
euphemistic. It is sober truth, though, and a visit to the Delaney 
Street Community Gardens in New York would quickly demon¬ 
strate its force. The love of flowers is a natural one that flour¬ 
ishes in the absence of culture, and seems often to be greater in 
the hearts of those who have little opportunity to indulge it than 
where man and nature offer greatest wealth. 
Aware of these facts, the National Plant, Flower and Fruit 
Guild was formed. It occupies itself in equalizing the unequal 
distribution of natural beauties and draws on the superfluities 
of country village and suburban town for the advantage of the 
bare wastes of tenement house blocks, factory neighborhoods, 
hospitals and city institutions. Without some such institution it 
would be impossible to disburse flowers and fruit and plants 
where they are most needed, and the Guild has taken up the work 
with great intelligence. 
First realizing that local co-operation was necessary, the flower 
market was urged. This is its method: A committee is formed 
to advise the ladies in the vicinity that a flower exchange is to 
be held on a certain, date. , Everyone is invited to contribute 
some plants f.rom that part of the garden most prolific, and in 
nearly all cases this results in a sufficient,'diversity of specimens. 
There is considerable inducement to each individual to come and 
purchase these plants, for one may have had poor luck with 
certain plants and desire others; another’s garden may be very 
deficient in several ftovyers that' tire overrunning the garden of 
someone else. The/plahY are s'old at a few cents, valuation being 
established by the committee according to conditions, rarity or 
difficulty of cultivation. The receipts go toward the committee’s 
incidentals and defray the expenses of collecting and boxing cut 
flowers, plants, fruits and vegetables to be sent later to the dis¬ 
tributing center of the Guild, whose activities have resulted in 
obtaining concessions from the express companies to transport 
free of charge packages of this sort destined for any charitable 
institution. It is necessary, however, to receive a certain large, 
yellow label from the Guild to accomplish this, as only in such a 
manner can the indiscriminate use of free transportation be 
avoided. 
The estimable results of this plant market system are manifest 
at once. It stimulates garden beautifying throughout the neigh¬ 
borhood and makes it possible for many to grow flowers who 
might not be able to do so under other circumstances. Then, too, 
the work is capable of further extension. The public flower beds 
are supplied, railway station grounds much improved, and the 
approaches to factories made attractive. 
These satisfactory results are incidental, however, to the work 
of the Guild. Its field of service is enlarged by the stimulation 
given to gardening, for, from the successful grounds in the 
vicinity, the committee receives contributions that may be sent 
to the office of the Guild for distribution. More gardens mean 
a more available source of supply for the poor in cities. The de¬ 
velopment of the work has given rise to greater activity on the 
part of the organization and, besides the merely philanthropic 
work of sending flowers to the poor and sick, there is much ac¬ 
complished in the way of educational and economic betterment. 
The incoming plants and seeds are sent to establish gardens 
which are worked by children at the schools or public play¬ 
grounds. I he eagerness with which these small plots are sought 
for and the care and earnest application with which they are so 
sedulously tended is proof positive of their value. Vacant lots 
and odd corners of the city are obtained for these purposes. The 
work in the open air and the knowledge of growing things ob¬ 
tained, result in benefits to the individuals and to the whole dis¬ 
trict that are incalculable. This kind of work is extended to 
the various city institutions — hospitals, orphanages, etc.—and a 
salubrious open-air labor is thus afforded to those unable to take 
part in more active exercise. 
This, then, is a form of charity well worthy of the name. It 
is a co-operation that bears with it much more than often comes 
from pompous philanthropy which, while it may alleviate the 
immediate wants of sufferers, brings little affection and no spirit¬ 
uality. There is something more necessary than the gift that is 
thrust out with no more consideration than change is passed to 
a waiter. The touch of color, the living beauty in the plants, is 
enough to relieve the miserable sordidness of tenement surround¬ 
ings. There is an innate sentiment in plants that brightens and 
brings happiness there, a mental attitude that is essential to solve 
the growing difficulties of life in our cities. 
One must not be skeptical of the appreciation shown for blos¬ 
soms in a neighborhood of physical want. Those who work in 
the slum sections can easily convince us that they find a love of 
flowers and plants developed far beyond the opportunity of grat¬ 
ification ; much more, perhaps, than among those whose culture 
and education should teach them to love nature. 
If then you wish to send a little of the sweetness of your 
gardens or your fields, a living gift that carries more brightness 
than libraries or crowded recreation piers afford, get the National 
Plant, Flower and Fruit Guild to help you. Their address is 70 
Fifth Avenue, New York City — and they wish to assist in making 
the country more beautiful and the city blessed with a little of 
the life that radiates from growing things. 
W E believe that all FIouse & 
__ Garden readers are interested 
in that type of conservation which 
seeks to preserve the beauties of natural scenery. All of us 
probably agree that the great ugly signboards displayed through 
these United States are a desecration of our countryside. But da 
we not simply take the attitude of passive sufferance and wait 
for some potent enactment to set things right ? Such a position 
must last till the millennium, for seldom has a paternal govern¬ 
ment achieved successful abolishment of evils at the mere passage 
of a legal prohibition. 
There is something to do for each of us in his own locality. 
By activity in correcting the particular unpleasantnesses near at 
hand a big step in the right direction is taken; not only is our 
own section made better but there is a mental attitude resultant 
that spreads and works far beyond the limits of our particular 
village or town. Although we may be powerless to check the 
destruction of Niagara Fall’s beauty we can by a unified action- 
see that our own nighborhood is not defiled by advertisements 
plastered over barn and fence and tree. 
Another thing along this line of activity is the planting of 
roadside gardens. Why is it that the highway edge of so many 
country places is in such a disreputable condition, when within 
the hedge is a miniature Eden? The planting of flowers and 
shrubs along our roads has an influence on the ruthless land¬ 
scape destroyers and is the first step in gaining a national con¬ 
servation of scenic beauty. 
