Midland Valley High School is starting the school year with a larger greenhouse, and Agricultural Education teacher Jean Smith says it was time for a change. “It’s twice the size of the greenhouse we had, and the other one pretty much was just falling apart,” she said.
The original 1,344-square-foot greenhouse was replaced with one nearly double its size, a 2,592-square-foot facility with an irrigation system.
Smith said that last year the school wasn’t able to plant ferns because they had no room to grow – a stark contrast between the 200 which have been planted this semester in the new facility.
There are plans to use the greenhouse for plants like geraniums, Gerbera daisies, tomatoes and peppers. In the space where the previous greenhouse sat, Smith said Midland Valley hopes to start a community garden with cabbage, broccoli, collards and blueberries. “That’s kind of our intention for this whole area,” she said.
Every year Midland Valley hosts a plant sale, and this spring will be no different — although the outlook is now bigger and brighter. “We normally sell out everything, and since this is double the size, I hope we sell everything this year,” said Smith.
The school has also started a plot of chrysanthemums which will be sold at a flash plant sale in the fall, set for sometime in mid-September.
Lauren Dean and Brinley Atkinson, MVHS juniors and officers for Future Farmers of America spent class time on Wednesday working in the greenhouse to start the plants that will be sold in the spring.
“Today we worked on taking cuttings off of the other plants, and then in about two to four weeks, they’ll root and so we can get our new plants from that,” said Dean. “This is a good way for the students to learn how to plant flowers and grow them.”
“I know I’ll definitely always keep a garden,” said Atkinson. “Like, if I have a house, I’ll definitely always keep a garden with flowers, vegetables, stuff like that. So it’s something I definitely want to continue.”
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