Corvallis' School Gardens

While researching KOAC offerings in old newspapers, I came across a column in the Gazette Times of  March 15, 1935 entitled “Do You Remember?” Some of the items I have already written about (moving the depot, the opera house, and the ferries).  Another item on the newspaper list was the “war time school garden at Ninth and Monroe...”

The school garden at Ninth and Monroe was one of four school gardens in Corvallis in 1915.  Each of the three grammar schools had a garden. Two of the gardens were located across the street from their respective schools (the North and South schools). The land at these two sites had good soil which was plowed and fertilized using funds from the school board. After fencing was erected at the South site, the land was divided into beds of seven feet by eleven feet for each student in fourth or higher grade. Younger students shared a larger bed. The North school garden, the largest, was divided in a similar fashion.  Both schools grew mostly radishes, lettuce, turnips, carrots, peas, and onions.

The garden for the Central School (located in what is now Central Park) was the one located at Ninth and Monroe that was mentioned in the reminiscences.  A house and tennis court had previously stood on this site and the soil was heavy yellow clay.  It had to be deeply plowed twice before students could plant. The plots were laid out on a diagonal and planted with peas, beans, corn, and cabbage as root crops would not do well in the soil there.  The four small triangular beds at the corners were planted with flowers:  pansies, asters, nasturtiums, and sweet alyssum.

The high school's agricultural department also had a garden at Sixth and Monroe. The 46 students in the agricultural class each had an individual plot which they worked outside of school hours under the supervision of Professor Scott.

The high school students used dwarf nasturtiums to spell out “C.H. S. Agricultural Dept.” in two-foot-  high letters.

Local residents donated the use of the land:  Mrs. P.  Avery (South), O. J. Blackledge (Central), Mr. Stutt (North), and C. E. Hout (high school).  The school district allocated $75 to the program; the local Parent-Teacher organizations also helped. Many students participated:  200 at North, 230 at Central, and 150 at South and 45 or 46 students at the high school level. Some students volunteered to continue maintaining the gardens over the summer. Much of the success of the program was due to M. O. Evans, assistant state leader of co-operative farm demonstration work with the extension division of Oregon Agricultural College (OSU). Before assuming that position, he had been in charge of a very successful school garden program in Portland and had given numerous talks around the state about their educational advantages and how the school garden work could incorporate lessons in writing, mathematics, and art.

The following year only the South school had an on-site garden as the district could not find available land for the other schools.  The emphasis instead was on home gardens, with teachers visiting the gardens of participating students.  This emphasis on home gardens became a national policy in 1917 under the United States School Garden Army program. Students could sign up to become “Soldiers of the Soil” and ensure adequate food supplies by raising food crops in home gardens. 

By Martha Fraundorf, Volunteer for Benton County Historical Society, Philomath, Oregon