Gardening for women

by Viscountess Frances Garnet Wolseley

THE SCHOOL GARDENS OF CARLETON COUNTY, ONTARIO

The county of Carleton was selected by Prof. Robertson for the initiation of school gardens in Ontario, and the work that is being carried on here is typical of what is being done in the other four provinces. In all five gardens have been established under the Macdonald fund in Carleton County. Two of these are placed at Carp and Galetta, points on the Canada Atlantic Railway, distant twenty and thirty-three miles respectively from Ottawa. A third is located at Richmond, a small incorporated village in the heart of the county, distant from the capital about twenty miles by stage. The remaining gardens are situated at North Gower and Bowesville, the former about twenty-five miles and the latter five miles from the city. As the five schools at which these gardens have been established are from seven to fifteen miles apart, the experiment is being brought fairly under the scrutiny of the entire county. The garden at Richmond is within a short distance of the grounds of the County Agricultural Society, and will annually be open to the inspection of many hundred visitors to the fair. Already the gardens have attracted much local attention, and last autumn the products of the gardens won about a hundred dollars in prizes, given both by the agricultural societies and by private citizens who have taken a generous interest in this educational experiment.

After full discussion with trustees and ratepayers each garden was established under the direct approval and control of the school board concerned, and in harmony with the already existing regulations of the Education Department, which provide in a general way for instruction in agriculture and nature-study, and also for enlarging school grounds. It is worthy of note that while the ratepayers interested were not indifferent to the question of expense involved, they paid special attention to the fact that they were being asked to take up an experiment of a very novel nature which required a marked departure from the beaten path of elementary school work. Thus the educational aspects of school gardens were specially considered, the result being that the people have taken up the enterprise with an open-minded interest that has already carried the experiment far on the way to success.

The size of the gardens, including the usual school grounds, is in each case two acres, excepting the garden at Richmond, which contains three acres. Where additional land had to be acquired, the Macdonald fund bore half the cost, as also the whole cost of fencing and preparing the garden, erecting garden shed and providing the necessary tools, etc. The cost of maintenance of the garden is likewise met by the Macdonald fund for a period of three years. For the same period Sir William Macdonald pays the salary of the travelling instructor, Mr. J. W. Gibson, who visits each garden one day per week to assist the teachers in directing the garden work of the pupils, to give lessons in certain practical aspects of nature-study, and generally to encourage the association of the garden work with the ordinary exercises of the classrooms.

One of the most useful accessories to the school garden is the garden shed, which is used for storing tools and produce, and for carrying on work not suited to the classroom, such as preparing tickets and labels, analysing soils, assorting seeds, arranging plants, etc. The average cost of the garden sheds is about seventy-five dollars. They are of various shapes and sizes, according to the number of pupils to be accommodated. A popular plan is that of a shed, ten feet by twenty feet, with an extension on one side about five feet wide, and finished as a greenhouse. This obviates the necessity of having special hot-beds. The garden tools are disposed along the walls of the shed in places numbered to accord with the numbering of the pupils’ plots. Along one side of each shed is a bench or table of plain boards, about eighteen inches wide, running close to the wall, along which are several small windows giving abundant light to pupils engaged in practical work.

The chief tools and implements requisite to the school garden are hoes, rakes, hand weeders, garden lines, one or two spades and shovels, a wheelbarrow, hammer, saw, nails, etc. The pupils, as a rule, require only hoes, rakes and hand weeders. Those pupils who are sufficiently mature to work a plot by themselves, or along with a companion, can get along very well with hoes and rakes of the average size. In one case, where smaller tools were supplied, the pupils abandoned them after a little practice for those of the standard size.

While the plan of laying out the gardens varies according to soil, surface and location, the arrangement of the Bowesville garden suggests the general features that have been kept in view. These include a belt of ornamental native trees and shrubs surrounding the grounds two walks, each about one hundred yards long, between rows of trees a playground about half an acre in area for boys; a lawn of about a quarter of an acre for the girls, bordered with some light and graceful shade, such as the cut-leaf birch; a small orchard, in which are grown a few varieties of the fruit trees most profitable to the district; a forest plot, in which the most important Canadian trees will be grown from seed and by transplanting; a plot for cultivating the wild herbs, vines and shrubs of the district; space for individual plots and special experimental plots; an attractive approach to the school, including open lawn, large flowering plants, foliage, rockery, ornamental shrubs, etc.

The special experimental plots are, as a rule, larger than the individual plots. They are used for such purposes as the special study of rotation of crops, values of fertilisers, effects of spraying, selection of seeds, merits of soils, productiveness and quality of different varieties of crops, and many other similar subjects. At one school a special study was made of corn, clover, tomatoes, and cabbage at another beans, peas, beets, and potatoes occupied the experimental plots; and at still another, some extra attention was given to plots of pumpkins, squash, cabbage, and cauliflower. At all the gardens special plots will be devoted to small fruits, such as strawberries, raspberries, gooseberries, and currants. The experimental plots vary in area from 200 to 2,000 square feet, but where the extent of ground is restricted the experiments may be successfully carried out on plots of a much smaller average size.

The gardens are managed throughout on the basis of individual ownership, individual effort and individual responsibility on the part of the pupils. At all the gardens the pupils are given plots that are solely their own. According to the age and strength of the pupils, these plots vary in size from 72 square feet to 120 square feet. At some schools each pupil has two plots, one for vegetables, etc., and the other for flowers. In other cases the flowers and vegetables are kept in different parts of the same plot. The former plan presents no inconvenience, and is found to contribute to the general appearance of the garden. At one of the school gardens the pupils’ plots were uniformly 10 feet wide by 20 feet in length, each plot being worked in partnership, a junior pupil working with a senior pupil in each case. Though very good results were secured by this method, the instructor considers the individual method preferable, and will pursue it in future.