Growing Together: Open Forum

Thanks in advance for your help - and for all these threads I didn't even know I needed answers for!

In preparation of summer and school being out, I wonder what you utilize for keeping track of to-do's and tasks, as well as watering and weeding? Any great resource that's an easy click away or are you creating your own? This will be our garden's first summer and as School Garden Coordinator I am erring on the side of planting and caring for fewer things but doing it in a quality way, rather than a full garden that we don't have enough care for.

This is SO helpful John!  And I have long watched the amazing things you do and keep trying to rally some colleagues to come down to your Life Lab summer week...maybe next year.

Hi Anna,

This is my first year working with my school garden. In the past the garden committee attempted to grow summer vegetables but quickly abandoned this as it was just too much work to water, weed, and stay on top of harvesting. They ended up just leaving the garden fallow over the summer and planting when the students came back in the fall. This works okay for us because we are in a mild climate and can grow things all year in our location, but it does leave gaps where there's not much going on in the garden. This year we are planning on planting a few vegetables that don't require as much maintenance over the summer, namely popcorn and pumpkins. Students will seed the popcorn and pumpkins in the spring and the garden committee will check on the plants occasionally (we'll water with an automated system) and the crops will hopefully be ready to harvest when students return to school in the fall. To reduce our workload I'm planning on using straw mulch to reduce watering and suppress weeds over the summer.

Emily

If you want low maintenance over the summer and to improve the soil, you can plant a summer cover crop and then till it into the soil when you're ready to start your fall crop. It helps keep pests out of the soil and weeds. I'm planning to do that this year to make the soil healthier.

In previous years I have planted a late tomato crop (zone 7b) and pumpkins in July so that they're ready for the students when they start the year and they can care for and harvest them. we keep herbs going year round as well in our zone.

You can get great cover crops here, this is the summer mix I'm getting (again zone 7b): https://www.groworganic.com/products/summer-soil-builder-mix-raw-lb