Veggie Gardens

What to Plant, and When to Plant It?

The options of what to plant in a school garden can be overwhelming. With so many fun vegetable and flower varieties to choose from, how do you know what to grow? While there’s no right or wrong answer, this section will walk you through some of the different considerations when choosing your plants.

Consider the Garden Goals:

What do you hope your students will gain from the gardening experience?

Healthy eating outcomes and the ability to taste plants that they grew?
Positive interactions with nature
Appreciation for pollinator- and bird-friendly habitat?
An understanding of plant biology?

Reviewing the Teaching and Curriculum section of this site may inform your decisions on what to plant; it may be helpful, for example, to build your planting plan around a series of lesson plans. If you hope your students will eat the food they produce, choose crops that will mature while the students are in school. Planting a crop that takes several months to mature, such as tomatoes, cucumbers or squash may mean your students never get to harvest those vegetables when they are at their peak in the summer.

Seed catalogues are wonderful sources of information, and often list the “days to maturity” of various crops. Look for things like radishes, that are quick to grow from seed to harvest, or peas that can be planted very early in the spring so that your students can have the best chance of tasting what they plant.

However, if your garden goals don’t require eating your produce, and you’d rather students understand plant biology, choose a variety of plants so students can understand all the ways that plants grow. While vegetables are always fun, flowers can add a nice pop of color into the garden and attract pollinators. Bulbs like tulips or daffodils can be great because their entire growing cycle from planting to flowering takes place during the academic year.

Know Your Limitations:

1. Plant to match your space: Are you growing in containers? Do you have a very large space or a small space? Consider how large plants become before you plant them.

Container gardens

If you are growing in small pots or containers look for shallow rooted plants that don’t require a lot of nutrients, including the following:

Greens – chard, kale, spinach, arugula, mustards, sorrel

Herbs – basil, rosemary, cilantro, dill, mint, lemon verbena, etc.

Alliums - Chives, scallions, leeks or even onions

Small Roots - Radishes and salad turnips

Nasturtiums - An edible flower that adds a pop of color with a spicy flavor.

Marigolds - These bright orange and yellow flowers are easy to grow and attract insects to the garden

Find more guidance in the Indoor Gardening section.

Small spaces

If your garden is small, consider things that are productive in small areas. All plants listed to the left (in container garden column) could work, in addition to:

Peas and beans that you trellis to grow upward

Peppers

Eggplant

Carrots

Beets

Large spaces

If you want to fill up a large space without too much work, consider these plants that spread:

Sweet potatoes

Winter squash

Cucumbers

Watermelons

Potatoes: Can be harvested in the early fall

Strawberries: This perennial plant will produce berries for several years

2. Consider maintenance: Who if anyone will take care of your garden in the summer? Who weeds the garden during the school year? How often does someone water? Tomatoes are a notoriously high maintenance crop, although the rewards can be sweet. What’s your gardening skill level?

Easy

These are great plants for the beginning gardener:

Greens - mustards, chard, kale, lettuces, arugula, etc.

Herbs

Radishes

Peas & beans: but may require trellising.

Popcorn, and other dried corns: plant in spring and harvest in fall. It can dry on the stalk before harvest. Note, corn may require support.

Peppers: If you have activity in the summer, these are productive crops that will fruit well into fall. The fun colors of different varieties are a hit with kids.

Sunflowers: Look for shorter varieties for small spaces.

Daffodils: Mark where you planted them! These fall-planted flowers make a reliable showing in early spring

Native pollinator plants

Hard

These plants challenge even experienced farmers. Don’t be afraid to give them a try, but don’t be discouraged by failure.

Carrots: These delicious roots are notoriously difficult to germinate

Celery: Slow growing and needs a lot of water

Broccoli & Cauliflower: While these crops grow best during the school year in the spring and fall, it can be difficult to get nice heads.

Brussels Sprouts: While the plants grow well, they are difficult to get to sprout

Melons: While watermelons can have a long shelf life on the vine, many other varieties of melons have a very short harvest window, making them challenging for school gardens.

3. Choose seasonally appropriate plants: Some plants love the cool weather, while others like the heat. Knowing what to plant when can have a big impact on your success as a gardener.

See the University of Maryland’s Planting Dates Guide for an overview of when to plant various vegetables.

Plant in the spring for a late spring harvest

Peas

Turnips

Radishes

Greens

Sprouting broccoli (the varieties that form tight heads are more challenging to grow)

Kohlrabi: Introduce your students to this veggie that looks like an alien creature

Plant at the end of the school year for an early fall harvest

Sweet potatoes: These low maintenance vines cover the soil surface and can be harvested when students return in the early fall.

Winter squash and pumpkins: Similar to sweet potatoes, these crops quickly spread to outcompete weeds and are ready for an early fall harvest.

Peppers, eggplant, or tomatoes: These crops produce well into the fall but require summer maintenance (weeding, watering, and harvesting)

Potatoes: The plants may die back before September, so mark the location and dig up the potatoes during the first weeks of the school year.

Crop Planning

Once you determine what you want in your garden. The next step is to figure out when to plant it. This spreadsheet is a handy tool for creating a planting calendar. Copy the template to your own google drive to edit, and follow the step by step instructions to create your plan.

Crop Planning Garden Template

Additional Planting Resources

These additional resources can also help guide your planting plan:

University of Maryland Extension has compiled a list of 20 vegetable crops for school gardens
Find month-to-month reminders and suggestions in this New York Botanical Garden guide
American Community Gardening Association offers how-to manuals and other resources to members to assist in planting, growing, financing, and learning in your garden
The Sustainable Gardening Library is “an online, easy-to-use, curated collection of resources on how to grow flowers and food in Earth-friendly ways”
Maryland’s Department of Natural Resources offers a Simple School Wildlife Garden Guide for those interested in attracting songbirds, pollinators, and butterflies.
Patterson Park Audobon Center provides information on Bird-Friendly Communities, a list of Top 10 Native Plants for Your Habitat Garden, and other resources.

Obtaining Plants and Seeds

See the materials and supplies section of the Toolkit for more info on where to find plants and seeds.

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