Community Gardens 

Traveling Garden

Courtesy of Parks Photo Archive, Neg. 8919. Parks Commissioner Robert Moses debuted the "Traveling Garden," a six-ton, 17-foot-long trellis-covered trailer that parked at playgrounds across city for a few days at a time. The Traveling Garden exhibited 100 different plant samples; corn and beans in varying stages of growth; animals including a cow, calf, pigs, ducks, chickens, turkeys, and pigeons; and a poison ivy exhibit in a special glass enclosure: "Know it when you see it--notice the three leaves... Fingers Three Turn and Flee." Always up for a competition, the Moses Administration awarded children medals at harvest time for the best vegetables. By 1950, there were nine farm gardens in city parks and farm gardens lasted in parks until at least the 1960s, when there were 894 plots in six parks.