Now, how to store these boxes when they are not in the sunny places near the windows?  Why, we set up four posts of one-inch stuff at the four corners, so that the box looks like a kitchen table turned upside down (see illustration).  Now the boxes filled with earth and with the young plants growing can be stored at night, one on top of the other, by the wall of the schoolroom.

If it is going to be cold, and over Sundays, the pile of them can be covered with newspapers, which keep them from getting chilled and from drying up, or the boxes can be covered and carried home by the children.  We found that for most plants nine inches is high enough for the posts, and that well-seasoned one-inch lumber is heavy enough not to warp if it is painted inside and out, and it is not too heavy to lift.

By the way, better paint the joints before the sides are nailed together.  It makes them more water-tight.  Four screws at the corners will make them still tighter.

The scholars raise lettuce, parsley, onions, and strawberries, and all kinds of small plants, as well as flowers, in the winter; and when the plants get too big or two crowded for the boxes, they are separated and transplanted into other boxes to be taken home.

This was so successful that we devised a big window box which is suited for home use also; it is just as wide as the window and half as long again as it is wide.  But this box does not stand outside on the window sill; if it did, the plants would freeze.  One end only rests on the inside window sill where it gets the sun; the end is supported by two legs of the same height that the window sill is from the floor.

When a nice warm day comes, the other end of the box is pushed out of the window and the sash closed down on it to keep it from falling out.  A couple of cleats or nails in the window jamb help to hold it in place.

Of course, the box has to be watched and taken in if it turns cold, but it’s astonishing how much can be raised and how much more can be learned out of season by the school desk boxes and the home window sliding boxes.

Try it and see for yourself.

The children can learn as much about some things from a box 2X1 ft. as they can from a children’s garden.  Here are a couple of samples of what the kids themselves in a city school think of it.

“Department of education

"Office of the Principal of Public School No. 7

“Van ALST Ave., Astoria, Queens

“I inclose a few compositions that were written by some of our boys and girls of the Fourth Year.  You will recognize the descriptions of your Garden Trays for classroom use Unfortunately the free space in the classroom is limited, so we have found it necessary to allow each pupil only part of a box.

“The children themselves are delighted, as you can see by their compositions.