School Permaculture Garden

Hi!

I'm in North Texas (zone 7 I think...could be totally wrong; I don't totally understand all that), and I'm in a club at my school that's centered around school beautification. I'm designing a ring of about 4-8 hugelkultur beds of different heights and levels of shadiness and water exposure (2 will be at the foot of a hill).

I have a couple questions:

-The soil in the center of the mandala we planted some things in has a lot of clay. I was thinking of planting dandelion and another ground cover to break down some of the clay (I heard that dandelion can do that to clay) and act as a living mulch. What other edible ground cover would be good to put with the dandelion? The area is in full sun as long as the sun is up. Maybe clover from my backyard??

-In each of these circular beds, my goal is to create a closed system that is entirely edible and works with Texas heat. For a half-circle bed (each bed in this ring will be a 8-10ft diameter circle with a path/set of stairs splitting the middle) that is semi-shaded, I was thinking of planting mint and carrots. What are ya'll's thoughts on that? I figured the mint would be prolific and keep some sort of ground cover no matter what, and I read that any garden vegetable pairs well with mint. (follow-up question: what type of mint would be appropriate in Texas? The mint I have in my backyard is dried out right now, but I think the roots are okay, and in the shade it did well- I have no idea what type of mint it is though)

-Does anybody have suggestions on what material I should use to build the beds? I was thinking of cynderblock (it's cheap) packed with mud for insulation during winter frosts.

-Finally- any suggestions on prolific edible/vegetable combinations?

The vegetables will be donated, and the edible ground covers are for living mulch and the edibles are my way of sneaking in an herb farm/to make the gardens look lush.

This is my first post- so excited that a website like this exists!!!

I'm surprised no one else has jumped on this topic yet. Maybe they're afraid what influence they'd have on impressionable young minds

My experience with mint is that it keeps dying in the heat. Oregano, thyme, garlic chives, winter savory, and lemon thyme have all done much better as low growing edible ground covers. The thyme tends to get woody and unattractive if you don't trim it regularly, so be aware of that. The nice thing about herbs is that produce great flowers to bring in the pollinators.

When are you planning on planting this garden, how do you plan on watering it, will you be fertilizing (and if so, how) and how to you plan to keep it maintained after planting. All these things can have a big impact on what you plant.  

Casie Becker wrote:I'm surprised no one else has jumped on this topic yet. Maybe they're afraid what influence they'd have on impressionable young minds

My experience with mint is that it keeps dying in the heat. Oregano, thyme, garlic chives, winter savory, and lemon thyme have all done much better as low growing edible ground covers. The thyme tends to get woody and unattractive if you don't trim it regularly, so be aware of that. The nice thing about herbs is that produce great flowers to bring in the pollinators.

When are you planning on planting this garden, how do you plan on watering it, will you be fertilizing (and if so, how) and how to you plan to keep it maintained after planting. All these things can have a big impact on what you plant.  

The mint will be in a semi-shaded area in a hugelkultur bed at the base of a hill, so I figured that it wouldn't get too dry if we water it every other week or so during the dryest part of summer. Lemon thyme might be good for the other half of that bed with the mint.
We're most likely planting in the later half of February. I was thinking as far as fertilizer that if we start with rich soil the hugelkultur set up should keep it moist and rich for the next few years with minimal maintenance- I'm trying to anticipate people getting busy and forgetting to maintain it by building it to maintain itself.

Not really answering your questions, since I am in a quite different climate than yours. But don't forget about timing of the harvest. You probably don't want the edibles to be ready to harvest when school is on summer vacation.