Boys pick corn at the Fort Greene Farm Garden. The first "Farm Garden" was established by Frances "Fannie" Griscom Parsons. Parsons served on her local school board from 1902 until 1906, a position not typically held by women at the time. Parsons came from a long lineage of reformers. Her grandfather, John Griscom, had established the first city high school and juvenile detention center. His son and Frances' father, John Hoskins Griscom, was a tenement house reformer. Frances Griscom went on to become one of the first women to serve as a senior-level parks administrator.

The Children's Garden at the Brooklyn Botanical Garden, which opened in 1914, likely received inspiration from Parson's program. Parsons believed that farming was crucial to a child's education. Skills and values taught cultivating vegetables were particularly valuable for city children "whose knowledge is limited to stone pavements and one small room in a tenement house."

Pictured here is Parsons' first Farm Garden. Fortunate to have land in upstate New York, Parsons often took her seven children to the countryside to learn how to take care of the earth. However, she recognized this as a luxury not afforded to most city children.

Children tend to the Betsy Head Memorial Park Farm Garden. Betsy Head has given the community a space for health and recreation for over 100 years. Thus, Parsons came up with the idea for a "Farm Garden," the first of which she built adjacent to tenement houses in what is now Hell's Kitchen. The fruition of the idea was simulatenous with the playground movement, and the premise was simple: To keep kids busy and to give them a space that is their own is to keep them out of trouble.

Another scene from the Betsy Head Memorial Park Farm Garden. Progressive Parks Commissioner William R. Willcox and Mayor Seth Low immediately saw the value of Parson's program after visiting the first Farm Garden at De Witt Clinton Park.

Tending the garden outside of the Poppenhusen Branch of the Queens Public Library. According to Parsons, there were waiting lists in the hundreds to join the first Farm Gardens. She said that the program provided "contact with nature, the learning to use her ways...is a wonderful educator." Boys and girls ages nine through twelve farmed alongside each other. Additionally, girls learned house chores in a 200-square foot farmhouse, while boys learned chores outside. Though these duties were separated by gender, all of the children participated in learning how to cook their harvest.

The Farm Garden at Highland Park, pictured here, is still used by nearby PS 140 as part of their curriculum. Upon seeing Parson's first Farm Garden, Parks Commissioner Willcox said: "older persons who live thereabout declare they can see a decided difference in the courtesy and general conduct of youngsters since the plan was first adopted."

McCarren Park, in Brooklyn, was also home to one of the first Farm Gardens. Parsons summarized her program: "In the first place the children are taught economy of space. Economy of other things follows. We teach them honesty in their work, neatness and order, justice as well as kindness to their neighbors. I assure you that all the virtues can be taught from a little patch of ground not eight feet square."

This park on the east side of Manhattan was an unlikely home to yet another Farm Garden. By 1908, Farm Gardens received so much praise that they were added to the Board of Education's curriculum which was practiced by schools throughout the city.

This Farm Garden in Tompkins Square Park provided East Village children a place to learn and grow. Eventually, Robert Moses expanded Parsons' original model. He called it a "bit of country in the city." Farm Gardens under Moses grew crop of economic interest such as cotton, peanut, flax, wheat, and corn in addition to various herbs.

Children at the Fort Greene Farm Garden show off their crops. By 1950, there were nine Farm Gardens throughout the city. One notable of such gardens was the "Traveling Garden," a garden on wheels covered by a 17-foot long trellis. Originating in Fort Greene park, this mobile unit was a teaching tool, stocked with 100 plant samples and various animals. The Traveling Garden would be stationed by playgrounds across the city for a few days at a time. Though the original Farm Garden was lost during the construction of the West Side Highway, its legacy lives on. Many community gardens across the city provide a similar refuge for children across the five boroughs.