LEAFLET XXXVIII.
A CHILDREN'S GARDEN.[52]
By L. H. BAILEY.
We want every school child in the State to grow a few plants. We want every one of them to learn something of why and how plants grow; and the best and surest way to learn is to grow the plants and to watch them carefully. We want everyone to become interested in everything that lives and grows. It does not matter so very much just what kinds of plants one grows as it does that he grows something and grows it the best that he knows how. We want the children to grow these plants for the love of it,—that is, for the fun of it,—hence we propose that they grow flowers; for when one grows pumpkins and potatoes, and such things, he is usually thinking of how much money he is going to make at the end of the season. Yet, we should like some rivalry in the matter in every school, and we therefore propose that a kind of a fair be held at the school-house next September, soon after school begins, so that each child may show the flowers which he has grown. What a jolly time that will be!
Now, we must not try to grow too many things or to do too much. Therefore, we propose that you grow sweet peas and China asters. They are both easy to grow, and the seeds are cheap. Each one has many colors, and everybody likes them. Now let us tell you just how we should grow them.
1. The place.—Never put them—or any other flowers—in the middle of the lawn,—that is, out in the center of the yard. They do not look well there, and the grass roots run under them and steal the food and the moisture. I am sure that you would not like to see a picture hung up on a fence-post. It has no background, and it looks out of place. The picture does not mean anything when hung in such a spot. In the same way, a flower bed does not mean anything when set out in the center of a lawn. We must have a background for it, if possible,—a wall upon which to hang it. So we will put the flower bed just in front of some bushes or near the back fence, or alongside the smoke-house, or along the walk at the side of the house, or in the back yard. The flowers will not only look better in such places, but it will not matter so much if we make a failure of our flower bed; there are always risks to run, for the old hen may scratch up the seeds, the cow may break into the yard some summer night, or some bug may eat the plants up.
Perhaps some of the children may live so near to the school-house that they can grow their plants upon the school grounds, and so have sweet peas and asters where there are usually docks and smartweeds. Grow them alongside the fence, or against the school-house if there is a place where the eaves will not drip on them.
2. How to make the bed.—Spade the ground up deep. Take out all the roots of docks and thistles and other weeds. Shake the dirt all out of the sods and throw the grass away. You may need a little manure in the soil, especially if the land is either very hard or very loose and sandy. But the manure must be very fine and well mixed into the soil. It is easy, however, to make sweet pea soil so rich that the plants will run to vine and not bloom well.
Make the bed long and narrow, but not narrower than three feet. If it is narrower than this the grass roots will be likely to run under it and suck up the moisture. If the bed can be got at on both sides it may be as wide as five feet.
Sow the seeds in little rows crosswise the bed. The plants can then be weeded and hoed easily from either side. If the rows are marked by little sticks, or if a strong mark is left in the earth, you can break the crust between the rows (with a rake) before the plants are up. The rows ought to be four or five inches further apart than the width of a narrow rake.