On a brisk and sunny May 1st, several community volunteers,
teachers, and many, many children helped to seed a total of 17 raised beds at
Traverse Heights Elementary School Garden. Our planting schedule had been
pushed back several weeks due to cold, wet weather. Each grade level planted a
certain kind of vegetable: we seeded radishes, lettuce, peas, carrots, beets,
kale, and a variety of annual and perennial herbs.
We planted several different
varieties of each crop. When it comes to “learning gardens” it is fun and
educational to try out growing different varieties. The different colors,
shapes, and flavors are fun and interesting for young gardeners (well, all ages
really!), but there is also much to be learned when it comes to experimenting
by observing the difference in maturation rate, cold hardiness, bolt
resistance, etc., in unique varieties of lettuce, for example.
Here is a
list of some of the varieties we planted at Traverse Heights Elementary School
on May 1st :
Carrots: Bolero,
Scarlet Nantes, Rainbow, and Cosmic Purple
Peas: Amish Snap,
Golden Sweet, Dwarf Gray Sugar, Mammoth Melting Snow Peas
Kale: Red
Russian, Red Winter Bor, and Green Curly Leaf
Lettuce: Lolla
Rossa, Winter Density, Skyphos Red Butterhead, Tango, Merveille Des Quatre
Saisons, Waldmann’s Dark Green Lettuce
Radishes: Cherry
Belle, White Icicle, Rat Tailed Radish (for the seed pod)b n and Scarlet Globe
Note: All of the seeds we
planted are for cool season crops that grow well in the early spring and fall.
This is a good strategy for planting within the constraints of the school year
(if your school does not provide summer programming or camps). I like to plant
early harvest crops in the spring so that we can harvest and enjoy the “fruits
of our labor” before the end of the school year in June. Additionally, it is a
good idea to plant late summer/early fall crops such as carrots, beets, and
winter squash that students can harvest when they return to school in
September.
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