Summer, a time when gardens are their most productive, is also vacation time for many students. While most students are on summer break, school gardens are growing and producing lots of fruits and vegetables. Schools throughout Kansas City that held summer sessions were able to take advantage of their garden’s bounty, like at Academie Lafayette, where Madame Werner’s 5th grade class tended to the garden every week by pulling weeds, watering and harvesting.

Academie Lafayette, a French immersion charter school in Kansas City, has summer school session from May through July, so students were hard at work every week in the garden. Madame Werner’s 5th graders were also able to enjoy the garden’s summer bounty: tomatoes, peppers, and more. On July 21, the students harvested jalapeños from the school’s pepper plants, and emptied a bed of carrots. The students, on one of their last days of summer school, cleaned out three of their raised beds by pulling out all of the weeds, and loosening the soil, so that it is ready to be planted with fall crops. The students were able to see how pervasive weeds are in the warmer months. By staying on top of the weeds in their garden and pulling them regularly, the students were able to maintain successful vegetable plants in their garden.