It is officially spring, and the Schoolyard Gardens staff have been hard  at work planting with their member schools. As schools return from their spring break, we encourage them to plant their spring garden to ensure a harvest before the end of the school year.

Between March 20 and March 24 alone, over 60 schools throughout the metro planted their spring gardens, and this week even more schoolyard gardens are set to be planted. Our hope is that each of our 217 schools will plant spring gardens!

Schoolyard Gardens staff provides planting support, including low-cost seeds and plants, to all of our enrolled schools. If your school does not have a planting date set yet, contact your Schoolyard Gardens staff person to get a date scheduled!

The benefit of planting our recommended plant and seed varieties is that our staff preselect varieties that will grow well within the fast-moving school calendar. Our staff eliminates seeds and plants that take an extended time to mature to make sure that the bulk of the harvest is ready before Memorial Day, when many metro schools are wrapping up their school year. Additionally, our staff sets achievable planting goals with each school. Starting in April, Schoolyard Gardens staff will be bringing out fast-growing vegetables like lettuce and radishes to schools that will be wrapping up the school year in May.

Once we get all of our Schoolyard Gardens planted, we’ll be scheduling check-ins with some of our schools to make sure the vegetables are growing on track.

If you have questions regarding your newly-planted vegetable garden, please email your KCCG contact. Happy growing!