Beyond Wishful Thinking: How to Set Up Your School Garden for Summer Success

For many teachers, the last bell of the school year signals a much-needed shift—from classroom chaos to summer calm. But if you’ve started a school garden, that shift may be accompanied by a different kind of anxiety:

"What will happen to my garden while I’m away?"

This question haunts far too many well-intentioned educators every June. After months of hard work from you and your students, your school garden is vulnerable—exposed to heat, pests, drought, and the unpredictability of volunteer support.

And here’s the hard truth:
Most school gardens are not set up to survive summer.

But that’s not because school gardens can’t thrive in your absence.
It’s because we often underestimate how much strategy is required—and overestimate how far good intentions will get us.

In this post, I want to help you flip that narrative.

✋ First, Let’s Get Real About Summer

If you’ve followed my work through Kids Growing City, you know I’m all about regenerative garden design; working with nature, not against it. And summer is where this approach is tested the most.

Summer is when:

• Plants grow fastest

• Pests hit hardest

• Water evaporates quickest

• And you’re not there

And yet, too many school gardens are designed like short-term class projects rather than living ecosystems. Rows of lettuce, isolated tomato plants, and a few cucumbers. Sound familiar?

This kind of layout might look tidy in a gardening catalog, but it creates a weak system. These gardens rely on daily attention, nutrient-heavy soil, frequent watering, and constant oversight—none of which are guaranteed in July and August.

🌱 Common Mistakes That Doom Summer Gardens

Here’s a sampling of the most common pitfalls I see (and hear about from exhausted teachers and volunteers every fall):

1. Accepting free or poor-quality soil
   If it’s compacted clay or low in nutrients, your plants won’t thrive—no matter how lovingly planted.

2. Planting monocultures
   Grouping the same crops together—like “tomato bed,” “lettuce bed,” “cucumber bed”—attracts pests and weakens plant immunity.

3. Leaving soil bare
   Exposed soil heats up, dries out, and becomes a haven for weeds. Nature will cover it—if you don’t.

4. Choosing the wrong crops
   Broccoli, cauliflower, and cherry tomatoes might grow, but they’re high-maintenance and often struggle without frequent care.

5. Using poor watering systems
   Volunteers won’t lug heavy cans across a schoolyard daily. If watering feels like a chore, it won’t happen.

6. Locking up the garden
   Fences and storage room keys might seem secure, but they can block access to the very people you’re counting on.

Any one of these mistakes can compromise the garden. Combined? They almost guarantee failure.

🧠 Nature Doesn’t Reward Good Intentions

This might be tough to hear—but it’s important:

Mama Nature doesn’t respond to hope, hard work, or even good deeds. She responds to design.

I’ve seen too many gardens started with love and passion fizzle out by the time September rolls around—usually because the garden wasn’t created to function independently.

Here’s what I always remind the teachers I coach:

A school garden isn’t just a teaching tool. It’s a living system.
And living systems need structure.

🌻 What Actually Works: A Smarter Summer Garden Strategy

So what does work?
You don't need fancy equipment or a professional landscaper. Just a better design philosophy.

Here’s the short version of my summer-proof school garden framework:

✅ Grow only what works for your context

Not all crops are school-friendly. Choose those that grow strong in spring, mature over summer, and offer value in fall. Or those that grow so fast that you can harvest before summer.

✅ Use only high-quality soil and seeds

No exceptions. Invest in soil that holds moisture and seeds with strong germination rates.

✅ Plant densely and diversely

Let plants shade the soil, support each other, and build natural pest resistance. Think food forests, not farm rows.

✅ Design for water conservation

Mulch generously and use the right type of mulch for vegetable gardens. Or use plants that act like mulch. Use watering tools that volunteers will want to use (like lightweight hoses that reach the garden easily).

✅ Make access simple

No locked fences. No maze of doors. Volunteers need to get in and get out without friction.

✅ Prepare volunteers like a team, not a backup plan

Give them a system, not a vague task. Who’s watering? When? What tools? How do they know what’s “normal” vs. a red flag?

💧 Watering: The One Job You Can’t Automate

Let’s be clear: you can cut summer maintenance down by 80–90%, but you can’t eliminate it completely.

Plants need water.

But if you’ve followed the right design principles, watering becomes a once-a-week task that’s easy to delegate, not a daily crisis to dread.

And volunteers? They’re much more likely to show up if they see a garden that’s clearly thriving and easy to support.

🔗 Want Help Setting It All Up?

If you’re thinking, “I wish I had done all of this before we planted,” don’t worry—it’s not too late.

In fact, I’ve put together three resources just for this purpose:

• My Free Guide: School Gardens with Almost No Summer Maintenance

• An On-Demand Webinar: Easy setup strategies and design mistakes to avoid

• A Full Online Class: Deep dive into summer-proof garden planning, perfect for forward-thinking teachers and garden leads

👉 All of them are linked in the podcast show notes here (and some are discounted right now).

🎙 Prefer to Listen Instead?

This blog post was inspired by Episode 51 of my podcast, School Gardens with Ease.
I go deeper into the strategy, share examples from real teachers, and talk through how you can take action this week—even if school’s already out.

🎧 Listen to the episode here

Final Thought: Let’s Stop Treating Summer Like a Surprise

Summer comes every year. Your absence is predictable. The weather, the weeds, the watering—they’re all expected challenges.

That’s why designing a resilient, low-maintenance school garden isn’t just nice—it’s necessary.

And when done well, it becomes a thriving, lush space that welcomes you back in September with open arms, overflowing herbs, and a bounty of learning opportunities.

Let’s make that your reality.

—
Leila Mireskandari
Founder of Kids Growing City
Permaculture Educator & School Gardening Coach