Planning for the school holidays

Yay for summer holidays! Summer holidays are a great time to take a break and rejuvenate and, with a little planning, they can also be a productive time in the garden.

• Visiting

We recommend drawing up a roster of volunteers to visit over the holidays and help with watering, harvesting and chicken feeding. You’ll be surprised by the number of families and willing locals happy to drop by – it’s a fun way for the community to get involved, particularly if they haven’t previously had the opportunity. Use the roster to work out how often volunteers need to visit, it may be as little as once week or as much as every couple of days.

• Watering

If you use an automatic irrigation system, be sure to check that the automatic timer works and all of your pipes and nozzles are functioning properly. If you rely on hand watering, look to your roster of volunteers to take care of it and identify how you are going to manage any emergency watering needed on those really hot days.

• Harvesting

Before you break for the holidays, have a wander through the garden and harvest as much produce as you can before the end of term. And during the break, you don’t have to leave delicious ripe produce to shrivel on the plant – as with watering, use your team of volunteers to harvest crops as they ripen. Their reward will be beautiful fresh produce!

• Planting

You don’t have to stop planting just because the school holidays are around the corner. Instead, have a look at what’s in season in your climate and plant out seeds and seedlings that will be ready for harvesting when school returns. If you have a good irrigation system or team of watering volunteers, there’s no reason why you couldn’t have a healthy crop ready for picking in the new school year.

• Resting

Be sure to give any garden beds that are not going to be productive over the summer holidays a proper rest. Cover them with a blanket of mulch or plant out a cover crop to protect the soil and nutrients, making sure they are all ready to go in the new year.

• Preserving

If you have beautiful stone fruits and tomatoes ripe and ready but don’t have time to preserve them before the summer holidays, don’t worry – just pop them in the freezer whole and they’ll be ready for preserving or processing when you all return.

• Don’t forget the chickens!

Schools and learning centres with chickens need to plan how they’ll be fed and cared for over the holidays. For some this may be relying on their trusty team of volunteers, for others this may be giving the chooks a little holiday of their own at the homes of willing families.

If you’re a Program School or Member and have any curly questions about summer planning, don’t hesitate to give us a call on 13000 SAKGF (13000 72543) or email support@kitchengardenfoundation.org.au.

If you’re not a Program School or Member, learn how you can join the Kitchen Garden Classroom. Get the first 3 months free if you sign up before end of November!