CHILDREN'S GARDENS.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1040, 1 February 1911, Page 9

CHILDREN'S GARDENS.

The opening of the infant school.at Coburg a few. weeks ago attracted many people to ah educational centre .which has proved the. practical use of teaching children gardening (says an Australian paper). The main school stands right under (ho walls of Pentridge. The aweinspiring pile of bluestono constitutes a background to nearly 200 garden plots as gay as flowers can make them, and a long stretch in which the- boys learn to grow vegetables on scientific principles. Thero are arches covered with roses, arbors and shelter sheds, and every such accessary the. garden boasts was paid for by means of penny concerts; got up by the children themselves for. the benefit of their beloved garden. A demonstration on rose pruning, given last year by an expert, was as eagerly followed by 700 children as if tho demonstrator hud. been a conjuror. Instruction in gardening is supposed to be given for an hour or so after school one? a week. As a matter of fact, the. enthusiasm of the youthful workers induces experts to devote tho later hours of nearly every aftmioon to the gardens, where for the last half-dozen years' the children of Coburg have been taught one 6f the finest elements in home making.