By Mary Jo Greene
As the weather warms and we start thinking about the end of the school year, it’s time to formulate a plan. Not only for spring planting, but for your school learning garden over the summer break. While it may seem odd to be thinking about summer planning when we're just a few days removed from winter, in reality all spring planting should be done with summer in mind.
Do you have someone who will regularly water, harvest, and weed your school garden during the summer? Is your garden dormant in summer and active during the school year only? Is it somewhere in between? Whichever way you go, you need to make that decision now and start planning -- and planting -- accordingly. We like to think of this as the long, medium, and short game of summer gardening!
Short Game
This is for gardens that are relatively inactive during summer break. Continue to plant quick-growing crops like lettuce, radishes, spinach, peas, and others now. Harvest and clear all garden beds just before the end of the school year. Then “put you gardens to bed.” Cover all growing areas in cardboard and cover with mulch. This will prevent weed growth and ensure your garden beds are in great condition for planting when you return to school in the fall. No garden oversight is required over the break.
Medium Game
Garden not dormant but not consistently maintained? Continue to plant quick-growing crops like lettuce, radishes, and spinach. Clear out the beds in May and consider planting low-maintenance crops like sweet potatoes and watermelons. Once established, they need only occasional attention for watering and have minimal issues with pests. Their vining habit will spread and help suppress weeds and retain moisture in the soil. Another option is a cover crop such as cowpeas (black-eyed peas/Southern peas). Cowpeas not only produce delicious beans, but they help prevent erosion, block out weeds, and condition the soil by “fixing nitrogen” back into the beds.
Long Game
If your school garden is one of those lucky ones and you’re assured that you’ll have someone or some group overseeing the watering, weeding, and harvesting throughout the summer, go ahead and plan on planting crops that love the Texas heat. Peppers, tomatoes, eggplant, okra, squash, melons, and cucumbers are all great choices and will be producing in abundance when you return to school for the fall. Also make sure you’ve taken the following steps before the end of the year:
- Create a Garden Maintenance Group;
- Identify a tool for communications and scheduling, such as Sign-up Genius, Google Docs, or WhatsApp;
- Create a to-do and task checklist for the summer;
- Inform the school custodian and/or district facilities staff that you have a summer garden plan and will be working in the garden throughout the break;
- Make sure you have a water hose and water hose key available and in an accessible place for all volunteers;
- Have a plan for how to distribute summer produce once harvested.
Whichever approach you choose for your school garden, having a plan is the key to ensuring sustainability and success. As the old adage goes, failing to plan is planning to fail!
Looking for a Spring Planting Calendar? Check out the KidsGardening.org Interactive Spring Planting Calendar. Download the interactive PDF, enter your Average Last Spring Frost Date (here in North Texas, it’s March 21) and the planting dates automatically fill in! You’ll find other gardening resources there too.