The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-02-05
ABOUT THE VACANT LOT
 GARDENS IN MINNEAPOLIS
Fly CtyE Tn neapoIisT VacanI Lot Garde

Exclusive Service The Survey Press
 Bureau.)
 The Garden club of Minneapolis closed a successful vacant lot garden ing campaign in the fall of 1911 with harvest of vegetables that demon- strated the practical value of cultivat- ing city vacant lots, put Minneapolis on the map as one of the most pro- Pressive cities in the country and re- suited in other cities less successful in similar venture, swamping myself as president of the Minneapolis Garden club with requests for information in regard to our plan and methods of campaign.
 The members of the Minneapolis Garden club planted 325 vacant lots 10 vegetables and flowers in the year of 1911-200,000 square feet to vege- tables and 250,OOo to flowers. It dis tributed 22,000 packages of nasturtium seedG to children, covered every va cant lot along two miles of the main arterial street with grass or flowers, cleared 500 acres of rubbish and screen ed 10000 feet frontage with bushy plants. Under it's influence TOO per sons (not it's members), also gardened vacant lots and 1S.O00 had gardens at home. Nineteen hundred acres in all were improved. The cost to the Garden club was s3.5S4.43; the value of the crop was $11,801.7S.
 h. Minneapolis there are 5000 acres of vacant lot, sufficient to supply the entire state with vegetables. The economic Value of vacant lot gardens to those who took them up greatly outweighed the cost So many vegetables were grown that complaints were made by the groc- CTS. Many of the stores were supplied with freshef vegetables at a lower cost. People in vacant lot garden neighbor- hoods bought from the gardeners, the hotels during the week of the Mlnneapo. lis civic celebration served vacant los vegetables.
 Three hundred and twenty Live vacant lot gardens were started or these only eight were abandoned through lack ol interest on the part of the gardeners The move for the general garden move ment was provided by the decision to laake Minneapolis a city of gardens in lonor of the civic celebration week held carly in July. The appeal was made first to civic pride to get people to do wha. Was for then economic benefit
 For fee of one dollar the Garden club gave seeds for lot i0x120 feet Flowed anc narrowed the lot provided supervision and instruction all summer and offered valuable prizes Ii was soon discovered that 1t was not necessary tl aet formal permisslcn for the use ul lots Since there was no cost to theW and the lots were 10 be restored in the same, if not in better condition, the owners hal no objections. The local con aressmen secured government seeds for eli the planting
 Before the middle of the summer the garden fever had spread like a eonta- gion. Appeals were made through the newspapers and then by members of the club personally appearing before the clubs, lodges. Improvement organizations and other associations.
 When the agitation had progressed q little the Young Mems Christian associa- tion organized a course of six lectures CT gardening, the farm school supplying the lecturers X local seed house planted model Vacat lot garden in a pen eight feet long and displayed 1t in show window. Hundreds watched it daily to See the seeds come up and hundreds oi applications resulted.
 The oversight of gardens was entrusted to a superintendent and six assistants each of them being given assistance and advice. The first two societies were dropped in June. two more the first oi Jnly. and another the first of August They started work two months befona planting time-
 Two objections were made by almost every person who was urged to gar den or who applied for garden; one that on account Of inability to fence chickens, dogs and vandals would de, stroy the garden. and that on account Of the inability 10 water nothing would grow even after marauders did leave them alone.
 It was soon discovered that no big dogs ran at large in the city. and that nc danger resulted from that cause. Van dals could not be excluded even by fences, but the extent of vandalism was so small as to exclude anybody from applying for a garden for 1912. The sec ond objection was in reality none at all for the dry farming method was adopted hnd imposed on members by providing a penalty in the competition for prizes,