For families with children, the start of the school year is also a time of transition in the home and school garden. As time marches on, warm season crops make way for a fall semester of cool-season crops.
Simplify the fall planting season with one or more of five easy ways to make growing systems for the family or classroom garden.
Bag Gardens
Plastic bags of potting soil from the garden center come ready to make a pillow shaped garden. Drag the bags, which are usually 25 pounds or more, to the ideal sunny location. Puncture 2-3 drainage holes across the bottom of the bag. With a trowel, space holes for transplants or seeds on the bag’s top surface.
Fall annual flowers like marigold, calendula, and pansies; herbs like cilantro, parsley, and chives; and cool-season vegetables like radishes, baby carrots, and lettuces will flourish in the bag as long as they do not get overwatered. Children can test soil moisture with their fingers.
Bucket Planters
One to five gallon food-grade plastic buckets from restaurants and bakeries make portable planters. Most have handles and can be easily transported by children. The circular buckets are best filled with lightweight soilless potting mix after an adult has cut a drainage hole in the bottom.
Salad greens, cereal grains, edible flowers and cat grasses grow well on the bowl-like circular growing surface.
Tire Towers
Old tires are available from auto repair and service stations. Before placing tires on the ground, spread mulch across the area. Position the tires singly or in tiers making towers. Tires can be tiered for needed root depth and to the gardener’s height. Single tires are easy for toddlers to reach into.
Line the interior of the tower with food-grade plastic to safeguard against contaminants, which may be in tire fabric. Fill tires with commercial potting mix and compost before adding seeds or transplants. The dark tire holds heat and is a good insulator for plant roots.
Cold-hardy herbs including chervil, cilantro, garlic chives, hyssop, oregano, parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme add fragrances and flavorings. Potatoes, white and sweet, are a favorite crop for car tires.
Children like to personalize tire planters by painting them. If you have a spare, add a tire swing to the garden.
Straw Bale Beds
Straw bales are useful for more than autumn décor with displays of pumpkins, gourds, and Indian corn. Bales of wheat, rye, barley and oats make distinctive planting beds especially for property with poor soil, rocky land, and an abundance of invasive weeds. Bales can also provide a raised planting platform for gardeners with back problems or in wheelchairs.
If tied with synthetic twine or wire, bales can last for several seasons. Freshly formed bales need cooling down prior to planting seeds or transplants. For best root development, set bales with twine running horizontal and straw set vertically in the desired pattern and location.
Soak the bales thoroughly with water and give 7 or 10 days to cool down before adding a top dressing of commercial potting mix or a 6-inch layer of homemade compost. Use a compost thermometer to measure interior temperature of bales.
Hardy cool-season broccoli, cabbage, collards, chard, kale, and spinach will succeed in bales. Annual herbs, Asian greens, lettuces, mesclun mixes, and edible flowers like chrysanthemum, marigold, calendula and nasturtium prosper too. Root crops do not grow well in the shallow potting mixture. Tall and top-heavy plants like corn and sunflowers are not good choices for straw bales either.
Square Foot Boxes
The square foot garden design introduced by civil engineer Mel Bartholomew is an intensive method of gardening with high yields in a small space. The basic square foot garden for a child is a bottomless 3 ft by 3 ft box containing 9 squares. A child must be able to reach into the box to plant, weed, water, and harvest without stepping on the soil.
The box frame, usually constructed of wood, is set on the ground in a spot with 6-8 hours of sunlight per day. Fill the box with bags of commercial potting mix or Bartholomew’s recipe: one-third each of vermiculite, compost, and peat moss.
Rake and level the soil before adding a wooden grid dividing the square foot planting sections. The number of plants per square is determined by the variety, plant size, and space needed to grow and develop. Seeds or transplants are placed the distance apart recommended on the seed packets for thinning. Leafy greens, carrots, onions and radishes take up small amounts of space whereas cauliflower, broccoli, and cabbage need more room to grow.
Experiment this fall with cold-hardy Asian greens like pak choy, tatsoi, mizuna, napa cabbage, mustards, and radishes for refreshing salads and stir-fries.
County extension agents in each state can advise on the particular cool-season crops and flowers for your hardiness zone.
Let the garden work overtime to supply an abundance of fresh fall food.
Sources
- Bartholomew, Mel. Square Foot Gardening. Emmaus, PA: Rodale Press, 1981.
- Nick, Jean. “The Nickel Pincher: How to Grow Vegetables Anywhere,” Rodale News online
- Ocone, Lynn and Eve Pranis. The National Gardening Association Guide to Kid’s Gardening. New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1990.
- Saunders, Charles. “A New Use for Old Tires – A Garden Using Tires,” Backwoods Home Magazine online
Arlene Marturano - Arlene Marturano, an educator, consultant, master gardener, and writer advocates gardens as a context and gardening as a tool for ...
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