Grow a Pizza Garden

KIDS LOVE PIZZA...

Pizza is the most popular choice on the school lunch menu in the United States. So why not grow a Pizza Garden? It can contain all the ingredients we find in a pizza pie.... Tomatoes, Onions, Peppers, Eggplant, Scallion, Parsley, Basil and Greek Oregano, among others.

Here is what you can plant:
All the photos below were taken from a wonderful Better Homes and Gardens article on a Pizza Garden

'Husky Red' Cherry Tomatoes

'Golden Jubilee' Tomato

Basil

Sweet Green Bell Pepper or Other Color Peppers

Hot Jalapeno pepper

You can also plant Greek Oregano, Parsley 'Italian Flat Leaf', Tomato 'Roma' ( small, oblong tomatoes with a thick meaty flesh), Basil 'Dark Opal', Red Leaf  Lettuce and Onion 'Spartan Banner' ...

The Pizza Garden can be shaped like a pizza.  Tie a piece of string to a center stake and mark off a circle with it. The radius can measure 4 ft. to create an 8 ft diameter circle (or it can be smaller).  Divide the circle into six or 8 equal wedges.  Plant a different crop in each one - the herbs can be planted together, if you like.

Remember it is all about the soil - so prepare the soil beautifully before you plant.

This above is taken from the University Nebraska-Lincoln Youth Gardening site

The Pizza Garden can also be rectangular....

This is from the better Homes and Garden article

The best part of all this is the idea that the kids get to make pizza in the end..

This photo is from a 4H children's Garden at Michigan State university

Now farmers are realizing this is a good way to introduce kids to farming so large scale PIZZA FARMS are croppin up all over the US and in other countries as well. The Pizza Farm website is a wonderful intro to the value of pizza farms...

and Walt Gregory in Illinois has been doing it for years. (read the USA Today article if you click on his name....)

So go out and plant that pizza garden now ...the mozzarella plant is hard to find but.....