C.I.P. - How to Plant an Iris Garden

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Early Preparation:
1. Choose a sunny, well-drained site that won’t get trampled and is convenient to lawn mowing. (25 ft x 25 ft is plenty big for 4 classes to plant).
2. Gather supplies:

*** Garden markers (1/2" PVC Hot Temperature pipe cut into 18" sections. Use a hack saw.)
*** Paint brushes and paint (or grease pencils) for labeling garden markers
*** 4 hand trowels
*** 4 shovels
*** 2 steel rakes
*** wheel barrow (or buckets for moving dirt and mulch)
*** top soil
*** mulch
*** milk jugs for watering
*** (optional) gloves
*** bulb fertilizer or alfalfa pellets

3. Students choose perennials for garden (drought tolerant, full sun, not invasive)
4. Mark edges of garden and spray with RoundUp herbicide to kill grass. (Need 10 days for grass to die)
5. Prepare irises:

*** Assign irises to students
*** Paint or label garden markers
*** Keep irises and markers in labeled paper bags
*** Practice planting irises in sand or dirt in the classroom

Planting

Day 1 – Dig garden. Use shovels to turn over sod.
Day 2 – Spread top soil 4-6 inches deep. Spread mulch 1-2 inches deep (no deeper)
Day 3 – Plant irises 2 feet apart. Place markers. When planting be sure to pull back mulch, plant rhizomes shallow, and keep mulch off rhizomes.  Water irises.  Make a map of the garden.
Day 4 – Add perennial plants to garden

Hints for Classroom Management during Planting
Give everyone a job. Here are some ideas:

*** Everyone shovels. Create shoveling teams. Each person in the team turns over 10 shovels full of dirt. Or each team adds 2 wheelbarrows full of dirt to garden.
*** Shovel Master – carries shovels out and back to classroom.
*** Fertilizer Master – Adds fertilizer to holes before irises are planted
*** Hand trowel Master – Carries and collects hand trowels.
*** Map Maker (2 people) – Grid paper works well
*** Dirt and mulch measurers – Measure depth as these materials are added.
*** Iris Distributor – hands out bags of irises.