School gardens often struggle not because people don’t care—but because they’re designed to need care at the hardest time of year. In this Seedling post, I explore what it might look like to adopt a maintenance mindset for school gardens: one that aligns growing with the school calendar, treats summer as a season for soil-building and rest, and values stewardship as much as harvest.

Urban foodscapes don’t fail because we can’t plant them—they fail because we don’t plan to care for them. A reflection on why maintenance is a mindset, not an afterthought.