by Judy, Killen, Yellowstone County News.
WORDEN — Students at Huntley Project Schools are growing plants in a new greenhouse in hopes of harvesting skills that will pay off over a lifetime.
Students will celebrate their success with a plant sale at the school’s new greenhouse, which is behind the school next to the complex that houses vocational-agriculture classes.
Students and teachers in the Special Education Department and FFA will host the plant sale.
It begins this week, when the greenhouse is open to customers from noon to 3 p.m. on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
Round two is May 11-12, with the greenhouse open noon to 3 p.m. on Friday and Saturday.
Proceeds from the sale will be reinvested in plants, materials, and students, who are learning how to care for plants, operate the greenhouse and plan for their futures.
The sale is “first come, first served,” said special education teacher Sarah Reynolds. “Whoever comes up first, gets it.”
The teachers leading the greenhouse project are Reynolds, Tim Kaczmarek and Bambi Dalke.
But putting everything together has been “a joint effort, collaborative,” Dalke said. School officials, including Superintendent Mark Wandle, helped gather information to apply for grant money that helped purchase the building and supplies, along with other sources of funding.
“The district hasn’t had to pay for the building or any of the materials,” Reynolds said.
Putting everything together has “been a real district-wide effort,” she said.
The district’s maintenance staff, led by Scott Gierke, constructed the building, which arrived as a kit. It’s on the site of the district’s former greenhouse, but eclipses it in size and usability, Dalke said.
“There’s close to 6,000 plants in here,” she said.
Students in the school’s shop classes built raised beds and some of Dalke’s students created large flowerpots or planters out of recycled materials, including towels and concrete.
Stepping into the greenhouse reveals a burst of color on a drizzly spring day. Students have nurtured a wide range of plants, including flowers of dozens of annual varieties and vegetables like squash, peppers and cucumbers.
And tomatoes.
“If you like tomatoes, we’re your hookup in Yellowstone County,” Wandle told the Huntley Project School board at its April 16 meeting.
There are also a few watermelon and cantaloupe plants, Dalke said.
Buyers will be able to choose from bedding plants as well as hanging baskets and other decorative items crafted by students.
Dalke said that traditionally, “flowers and what-not have been a fundraiser for the FFA” so as the greenhouse sales continue over the years, they are working out a formula to fairly distribute proceeds from the plant sales.
Kaczmarek said the greenhouse has already given students an educational boost. With the help of Kate Vogel of North 40 Ag, they learned which plants do well when planted together — called companion plants — and which should be kept apart.
For the first year, they are happy with how it’s working out, the teachers said. As with any large, multi-disciplinary project, it’s a matter of seeing what works and what doesn’t “on a year to year basis,” Kaczmarek said.
One goal is to help students gain skills they could use to find jobs in greenhouses or similar industries. Dalke said since they started the seeds and plants in the first part of March, “I can already see the skills developing in students.”
“The big thing is watering,” Dalke said. Students learn to keep the plants on the right watering schedule. Dalke teaches a class on greenhouse management, and hopes to develop that beginning next year into a mentor program between FFA students and special education students, who will have a gardening “buddy.”
Reynolds said they all want the greenhouse to become a self-sustaining effort, with proceeds from plant sales helping students buy more plants and materials they can use to keep the greenhouse growing both produce and life skills.
“It doesn’t matter what color your thumb is,” Reynolds said, referring to a gardener’s “green thumb.” What matters is the dedication students have already shown.
