“Our Veggie Garden” at the International Bilingual Montessori School Our gardening season is the reverse of folks up North. We start our vegetable gardens in September/October and taper off in April/May when the bugs, heat and weeds really kick in. Winter vegetable gardening is lovely: no heat, fewer bugs, and gorgeous South Florida days to be outside in your garden. We must plan before we dig! There are many user-friendly designs for an attractive vegetable garden plot. Let’s make all sides of the garden easy to access, so that we can plant and harvest easily. We plant in 12" square plots, with one type of vegetable for every square. Square foot gardening makes crop rotation easier. And, we are dividing the garden in 4 big square plots (approx. 6 feet by 6 feet each plot) with large garden stones. Then, each square plot will have a walking path made with small stones. The vegetables, herbs and flowers will be planted in straight rows parallel to the  small stone walking path. To help balance soil nutrients from harvest to harvest, we are growing a light-feeding root crop or a nitrogen-fixing legume where we raised a heavy feeder the year before. Tomatoes and corn are heavy feeders and use a lot of nitrogen and phosphorus. Likewise, we should try to follow a legume with a nitrogen-hungry type (pea and bean family). In addition, rotating the crops discourages crop-specific insects and diseases. Close planting requires great soil, full of compost and manure. We’ve got to keep the weeds at bay or they will consume nutrients and scarce water. You’d be surprised how quickly the soil dries after a rain when the plants are packed together. This is why each plant has a recommended planting distance, some more than a foot apart. Mulching our inter-planted bed is a must to keep soil moist. A good vegetable garden must have at least six hours of full sun each day in order for our food crops to mature properly. No amount of fertilizer, water, or care can replace needed sunshine. The soil should be very fertile and well draining so that water never puddles after a rain storm. Well drained soil is necessary for a successful garden. The exact type of soil is not so important as that it be well drained, well supplied with organic matter, reasonably free of stones, and moisture retentive. Best time to water the garden is in the morning, to avoid another problem of close planting. Soggy plants overnight can develop a number of diseases, mostly of the fungal variety. There is no rule that says vegetables and flowers can’t mix! In fact, the vegetable garden will benefit greatly from the addition of some flowers and herbs. It’s not just aesthetics that make flowers and herbs welcome in the vegetable garden. Inter-planting flowers and herbs offers several beneficial features that can protect our vegetables from insect pests and even make them more productive. Vegetables and flowers growing healthy at the Int. Bilingual Montessori School garden

Tips to Attract Beneficial Insects and Pollinators Attract Pollinators - Vegetables don’t always have the showiest flowers. To make sure the bees can find our vegetable plants, interplant flowers with high nectar concentrations and / or in shades of blue, yellow or white. Some choices: cosmos, larkspur, mints, sunflowers, sweet peas and zinnias. Attract Beneficial Insects - There are insects that are good to have in our garden, like ladybugs, lacewings, parasitic wasps and ground beetles. As with every other insect, beneficial insects have certain preferences in plants. Interplant their favorites and we’ll eventually have insects patrolling our bad insects.   What We’ll Need to Provide To Attract Beneficial Insects: * Low growing plants as cover for ground beetles (thyme, rosemary, or mint) * Shady, protected areas for laying eggs * Tiny flowers for tiny wasps, like plants from the Umbelliferae family: fennel,  angelica, coriander, dill, Queen Anne’s Lace, clovers, yarrow, and rue * Composite flowers (daisy and chamomile) and mints (spearmint, peppermint, or catnip) to attract predatory wasps, hover flies, and robber flies Repel Garden Pest Insects - OK, this is a debatable point. But it’s worth further study and why not experiment in our garden? Some to try: * Anise Hyssop repels Cabbage Moths * Borage repels Tomato Hornworm * Catmint repels Aphids, Colorado Potato Beetles and Squash Bugs * Geraniums (Pelargonium) repel Japanese Beetles * Pot Marigolds repel Asparagus Beetles * Sage repels Cabbage Moths and Carrot Rust Flies   Beneficial Insects That Should be Welcome In Our Garden * Parasitoid wasps - feed on aphids, caterpillars and grubs * Lacewing larvae - feed on aphids * Ladybug larvae - feed on aphids * Ground beetles - feed on ground-dwelling pests. * Hover flies, and Robber flies - feed on many insects, including leafhoppers and caterpillars "Vegetables: Cucumbers, beans, lima beans, pole beans, beets, eggplant, squash, melons, strawberry, onions, sunflowers. Different types of Lettuces: Chicory, Endive, Cardoon, Globe Artichoke, Jerusalem Artichoke, Salsify and Scorzonera. Herbs of most types (especially dill, parsley, thyme, rosemary, or mint, shady, fennel, angelica, coriander, dill, Queen Anne’s Lace, clovers, yarrow, and rue) "Flower Plants: Daisy, chamomile, spearmint, peppermint, catnip, pot marigolds, cosmos, larkspur, zinnias and geraniums.  NOTE: Tomatoes and corn are heavy feeders and use a lot of nitrogen and phosphorus. So, we are going to give the soil a brake! Please NO tomatoes or corn for this season.