History of the Children's Garden
"Today (1910) there are eighty-one thousand school gardens in Europe, extending from Sweden to Switzerland. It is very remarkable that so extensive a movement as the establishment of these gardens could have been carried on for more than a quarter of a century without attracting the attention and securing the recognition of the live educators in America." Henry Lincoln Clapp. "School Gardens, " Education, May, 1901, p. 527		Fortney L.R., (1996-1999). Lloyd R. Fortney. Retrieved March 5, 2001 from the world wide web: http://www.phy.duke.edu/~fortney/flowers/ ncgardens/image-index.html
When garden activity was added in the early part of the century, the main reason was to pick up the drift from country to the city, trying to include the healthy interest in the beauty of nature and to counteract the influence of impure and artificial tendencies of city life. At one time schools were having problems attracting and holding students. During this period, parents viewed the intellectual subjects at school as nonsense and preferred the children stay at home and work, which made more sense to them. Therefore, nature studies and hands on training was introduced to keep students enrolled. After that, school gardening took off everywhere.		Rhodus, Dr. Tim. Ohio State University. Retrieved March 6, 2001 from the world wide web: http://www.hcs.osu.edu/ HCS/TMI/HCS401.02.99/HCS401Au99.html
Rhodus, Dr. Tim. Ohio State University. Retrieved March 6, 2001 from the world wide web: http://www.hcs.osu.edu/HCS/TMI/HCS401.02.99/HCS401Au99.html		In the United States, the school gardening movement grew between 1910 and 1920. During the 1920's and up through the depression school gardening was highly respected for its moral and economic value. As society became more suburban during World War II, school gardening began to loose support. It was the junipers and lawns that covered school grounds, and the athletic fields that took over the remaining ground. During the post-war period to the mid-sixties, there was no interest in the school garden programs. Since the, interest in gardening has grown with realizing its value and pleasure. Everything from people's backyards to vacant city lots have been found to include more flowers and vegetable, than weeds. Schools have begun to plant more flowers in the landscape and teachers have included plants in their classrooms. Gardening in schools will continue to have its ups and downs as society changes, but it will always be there in some form or another.
Dunks, T. (1976). Gardening with children. Santa Cruz: Harvest Press.
Cox Interactive, Inc., (2000). DiscoverOmaha.com. Retrieved March 5, 2001 from the world wide web: http://www.discoveromaha.com/community/groups/history/Garden_Pictures.html "Historically, school gardening, as an educational movement had its beginning, ... in 1890, ... . In 1891, Mr. H. L. Clapp instituted in his school at Roxbury, the first school garden in America.... Themovement spread until in 1917, school directed home gardens were conducted in 488 cities with an enrollment of 335,715 children, and in 278 cities, there were 29,308 children enroled (sic)." David A. Ward, "The Future of School Gardens." National Education Association Journal XVI
"During 1903 over 132,000 packets of seed were distributed to school children." J.L. Jewell, Agriculture Education, U.S. Bureau of Education #2 (1907), p.32
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