Chapter I: Front Matter

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GARDENING FOR LITTLE GIRLS

PRACTICAL ARTS FOR LITTLE GIRLS

A Series Uniform with this Volume

_Each book, illustrated, 75 cents net_

COOKERY FOR LITTLE GIRLS
SEWING FOR LITTLE GIRLS
WORK AND PLAY FOR LITTLE GIRLS
HOUSEKEEPING FOR LITTLE GIRLS
GARDENING FOR LITTLE GIRLS

GARDENING FOR LITTLE GIRLS

OLIVE HYDE FOSTER

AUTHOR OF
"COOKERY FOR LITTLE GIRLS"
"SEWING FOR LITTLE GIRLS"
"HOUSEKEEPING FOR LITTLE GIRLS"

NEW YORK
DUFFIELD & COMPANY
1917

_DEDICATED TO
Junior and Allan,
Two of the dearest children that ever showed
love for the soil._

Preface

Children take naturally to gardening, and few occupations count so much for their development,--mental, moral and physical.

Where children's garden clubs and community gardens have been tried, the little folks have shown an aptitude surprising to their elders, and under exactly the same natural, climatic conditions, the children have often obtained astonishingly greater results. Moreover, in the poor districts many a family table, previously unattractive and lacking in nourishment, has been made attractive as well as nutritious, with their fresh green vegetables and flowers.

Ideas of industry and thrift, too, are at the same time inculcated without words, and habits formed that affect their character for life. A well-known New York City Public School superintendent once said to me that she had a flower bed every year in the children's gardens, where a troublesome boy could always be controlled by giving to him the honor of its care and keeping.

The love of nature, whether inborn or acquired, is one of the greatest sources of pleasure, and any scientific knowledge connected with it of inestimable satisfaction. Carlyle's lament was, "Would that some one had taught me in childhood the names of the stars and the grasses."

It is with the hope of helping both mothers and children that this little book has been most lovingly prepared.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE
I FIRST STEPS TOWARD A GARDEN 1
II PLANNING AND PLANTING THE FLOWER BEDS 9
III FLOWERS THAT MUST BE RENEWED EVERY YEAR (ANNUALS) 19
IV FLOWERS THAT LIVE THROUGH TWO YEARS 30
V FLOWERS THAT COME UP EVERY YEAR BY THEMSELVES (PERENNIALS) 37
VI FLOWERS THAT SPRING FROM A STOREHOUSE (BULBS AND TUBERS) 48
VII THAT QUEEN--THE ROSE 58
VIII VINES, TENDER AND HARDY 71
IX SHRUBS WE LOVE TO SEE 78
X VEGETABLE GROWING FOR THE HOME TABLE 82
XI YOUR GARDEN'S FRIENDS AND FOES 94
XII A MORNING-GLORY PLAYHOUSE 102
XIII THE WORK OF A CHILDREN'S GARDEN CLUB 107
XIV THE CARE OF HOUSE PLANTS 115
XV GIFTS THAT WILL PLEASE A FLOWER LOVER 130
XVI THE GENTLEWOMAN'S ART--ARRANGING FLOWERS 137

ILLUSTRATIONS

PUZZLE PICTURE,--FIND THE LITTLE GIRL, _Frontispiece_
FACING PAGE
FIRST WORK IN THE SPRING 14
KIM AND COLUMBINE 40
TAKING CARE OF TABLE FERNS 56
CLEANING UP AROUND THE SHRUBS 78
ALL READY TO HOE 90
AN OUTGROWN PLAYHOUSE 112
SPRING BEAUTIES 126

LINE DRAWINGS IN TEXT

PAGE
PLAN FOR A SMALL BACK YARD 12
AN ARTISTIC ARRANGEMENT OF A NARROW CITY LOT 14
FLOWERS THAT WILL BLOOM FROM EARLY SUMMER UNTIL FROST 16
BLOSSOMS IN JAPANESE ARRANGEMENT 138

NOTE

As the desire is to give the widest possible range of information about the plants and flowers mentioned herein, and space forbids going into details in each case, the writer has endeavored to mention all the colors, extremes of height, and entire season of bloom of each kind. But the grower must find out the particular variety obtained, and NOT expect a shrubby clematis to climb, or a fall rose to blossom in the spring!

GARDENING FOR LITTLE GIRLS

A garden is a lovesome thing, God wot!
Rose plot,
Fringed pool,
Fern'd grot--
The veriest school
Of peace; and yet the fool
Contends that God is not--
Not God! in gardens! when the eve is cool?
Nay but I have a sign:
'Tis very sure God walks in mine.
--_Thomas Edward Brown._

GARDENING FOR LITTLE GIRLS

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