Our Resources

• GARDENS FOR LEARNING: Chapter 7 - Planting Your School Garden - Planting Guide, pp. 65-68
• CSYSG TRAINING HANDOUTS: See downloads below

More Information

Choosing Plants and Planting Times

• Learn how to make an annual crop plan for a school garden calendar. Resources from Life Lab including links to more planning guides

• Planting details including when to plant, spacing, and days to maturity for a wide variety of vegetable crops from seed companies Burpee, Johnny's and Bonnie Plants.

• Climate Zone Finders from Sunset and from USDA

• Sunset's Plant Finder can help choose plants by climate zone, or purchase their Sunset Western Garden Book for thousands of plant descriptions with growing information

• Articles on many individual fruit and vegetable crops from UC Santa Cruz (CASFS)

• Planting and harvesting details by crop in the Food Garden Guide from National Gardening Association

• Vegetable Planting Guide from Let's Grow Veggies helps to choose spring and fall plantings by your zip code

• Free publications on home gardening and specific crops from UC's Agriculture and Natural Resources Catalog

• BOOK: Plants for Play: A Plant Selection Guide for Children's Outdoor Environments by Robin C. Moore

• BOOK: The Zoo Garden: Forty Animal-Named Plants Families Can Grow Together by Chris Hastings

Sample Crop Plans

• How to create a seed-starting plan from OrganicGardening.com

• Edible Theme Garden Planting Guide by Life Lab - download these planting calendars to plan an edible harvest, including suggested planting dates and generalized days to harvest for a California Coastal climate. Includes crop plans you can modify for the following edible theme beds:

  • Spring Planting: Pizza Bed, Three Sisters Garden, Salsa Garden, Stir Fry Garden, Grazers Garden, Salad Garden

  • Fall Planting: Stir Fry Garden, Salad Garden

• Sample School Garden Crop Plan by Urban Sprouts - download a sample year-long crop plan for a San Francisco school garden, view as a sample or use as a template

• Children's Gardens - A Field Guide for Teachers, Parents, and Volunteers gives a simple charts on when to plant in a California school garden (from UC Cooperative Extension, Los Angeles County)

Choosing California Native Plants

• School Gardens and Native Plants from the California Native Plant Society, plus why to choose native plants, Native Plant Lists by region, where to buy native plants, and more

• Las Pilitas Native Nursery has an online plant database plus tips and videos for planting and landscaping with native plants

• Yerba Buena Nursery has an extensive list of downloadable Garden Guides for growing native plants, plus offers expert advice and small grants to school gardens

• PlantRight.org can help to identify invasive plants in California, learn how they can damage the environment, and choose alternatives to plant.

Fruit Trees and Orchards

• Simple and concise tips on selecting and growing fruit trees from Earth Easy

• The Fruit Tree Planting Foundation resource page shares good information including aftercare planting tips and a quick guide to planting trees.

• The UCSC Farm and Garden Program provides more detailed description on planting bare root fruit trees.

• Ooze Tube and TreeGator are products you can use to water your fruit trees where an irrigation is not feasible.

• California Backyard Orchard on growing non-commercial fruit trees in California

• Learn about less common fruit trees from California Rare Fruit Growers

• More on backyard orchards from Dave Wilson Nursery

Go Back to Creating and Sustaining Your School Garden Agenda

Downloads