GardenLA Schools

Plants and Growing Advice

THEME GARDENS

School gardens very often are organized into "Theme Gardens," collections of plants with a central theme. Here are some possible or actual themes in use, and some comments.

Name: Native garden
What: All California native plants
Comments: If you can't control the irrigation system, you may be in for trouble.
Even drought tolerant plants often need regular water the first year to get established.
After that, too frequent watering on timers may kill many of the plants.
If you do decide on such a garden, check the Theodore Payne Foundation, local experts in CA native plants in Southern California.

Name: Kitchen/veggie garden
What: All edible plants
Comments: You should always have some veggies growing. Nutrition education is important. BTW, toss out planting radishes, and replace with growing leaf lettuce. It's almost as fast, and tastes much better.
See the section "Individual Plants-Vegetables & Other Edibles" below.

Name: Butterfly/hummingbird garden
What: Plants for butterflies, caterpillars, and hummingbirds
Comments: ADD CONTENT

Name: (Peter) Rabbit garden
What: Plants edible for rabbits
Comments: One school for many years had rabbits actually living in their fenced-off garden. Of course, the rabbits eventually (and fairly often) found their way out of this one section and into the main garden.

Name: Fairy garden/statue garden/art garden
What: Garden with statues of fairies, other statues, misc. garden art.
Comment: Kids can be rough on statues. However, the final effect is very nice if it works.

Name: Orchard garden
What: Fruiting trees
Comments: Areas w/ trees can get easily crowded, but the shade can be really nice.
For apples, check chill requirements. Lemons are good. Oranges/Tangerines are good, but sometimes a little fussy. Avoid peaches/plums unless you have a way to harvest in the summer when school is out, and even then think twice. (They drop & make a mess, attract fruit flies, etc.) With avocadoes, watch the tree size.

Name: Tribute garden
What: A garden dedicated to a student/teacher/person who has died.
Comments: Often a garden with a sitting area or two. Usually includes a plaque.

Name: Pond garden
What: A garden with a man-made pond, with water plants and usually with fish.
Comments: Wildlife/birdlife often end up eating the fish. If you do create, get some mosquito fish (free from Vector Control) to avoid problems with mosquitoes.

Name: Reading garden/poetry garden/Shakesphere garden
What: A quiet garden, in the shade on sunny days, with lots of seating for a teacher to read to their students.
Comments: Often behind bungalows in a secluded area of the school. Many reading gardens use free cut tree stumps for student seating.

Name: Shade garden
What: Area for plants that prefer shade.
Comments: Often the result of HAVING to plant shade plants, rather than WANTING to.

Name: Native American garden/Mission garden
What: A garden consisting of plants that have been around for hundreds of years, during the time of California missions, or the time of the settling of our original 13 colonies.
Comments: Not much experience here, sorry. We do know that growing corn can be tough, due to pests that attack ears. (The corn's, not yours.)

INDIVIDUAL PLANTS--VEGETABLES & OTHER EDIBLES

Our favorites:

Leaf lettuce--Easy to grow from seed, hundreds of seeds in a pack, everyone will eat. Cool weather.
Sugar snap peas--Grow on a chain link fence from seed. Plant in fall.

You probably will or should; fun!:

Strawberries--Everyone loves them, but there are never enough. If you grow, make sure you get Ever-bearing, not June-bearing. Purchase bare-root in Winter in pack of 25 if you can.
Tomatoes--They won't do much in cool weather. Purchase as seedlings. Reduce watering as they get bigger.
Sunflowers--Plant seeds at beginning of rainy season.
Peanuts--They grow only in warm weather. Best in a large pot. (Warning: Consider peanut allergies!)
Potatoes (from seed potatoes)--Would be highly recommended, except can be difficult to grow well. Recommend growing in large barrels/pots in potting soil.
Celery--Very hard to start, easy after that. Simply buy seedlings. Cool season.
Cilantro--Those chopped green leaves at El Pollo Loco. Wonderful. Plant in fall from seed.
Garlic--Mixed success getting them large. Plant cloves to get heads.
Peppers--Watch out for hot ones. All like warmer weather. Nurseries sometimes offer "variety packs" of 6 different types.
Onions--Sold as sets of 100 or so in a bag. Let's everyone plant one.
Lemon trees--Reliable, dwarf varieties available.
Apple trees--As for help at nursery selecting variety; need certain # of hours of cold weather.
Eggplant
Asparagus--Purchase box of 10 in the winter. Will take a couple of years to establish.

Think twice or a challenge:

Carrots--Difficult for 2 reasons: need very regular water & loose soil.
Artichoke-Easy to grow, but plants get huge (6' wide and tall).
Corn--Easy to grow the stalks, but an insect usually eats the corn. Still, such an important crop and so impressive as they grow tall, you almost have to grow it. Grow from seed.
Spinach--Leaves often get eaten by bugs, or get dirt in the creases and are hard to clean.
Grape vines--Nothing for first 3 years, and challenging even after that. However, if you succeed, wow.
Blackberries/rasberries--Easy to grow, but vines have nasty thorns. Thornless varieties aren't as hearty.

NOT recommended:

Radishes--The first thing children grow shouldn't taste so bad by itself. Replace w/ leaf lettuce.
Peach trees--Often drop their fruit in summer, but who's around to see it?

INDIVIDUAL PLANTS-FLOWERING

Our favorites:

This section is under construction. Check back soon!

GARDENING TIPS & TECHNIQUES

Soil amendments--Our favorite for cost, effectiveness, longevity is redwood compost.
Hard soils--Consider adding gypsum to the soil. Looks like chalk or sand, you spread it out and water it in. Loosens clay soils and helps soil with too much salt from water brought in via aquaduct.
Fertilizers--Our favorite is worm tea, made from worm castings. It's natural and works great. Also repels certain pests. You can make your own if you get worms and a worm bin.