Sowing Parties

All six Kannapolis City Schools elementary schools recently had a seeding party at the NC State Plants for Human Health Institute (PHHI) greenhouses. Doug asked the KCS garden leaders to submit their spring garden plans in mid-December to earn an invite to the party. Plans included diagrams from Kitchen Garden planner (or another program) and a tally of the number of transplants they would need to grow. Teachers then gathered at the greenhouse on January 7 where PHHI provided flats, soil and seeds for the teachers to use. Seeds were sown and watered by the teachers. Doug and the greenhouse staff will care for the seedlings until late February when teachers will pick them up and their students will plant into their garden beds. Flats will be returned, cleaned and reused in the future.

In late January, school nurse Dallas Picard brought 16 excited students from Charles E Boger Elementary’s Art and Garden Club to the greenhouse at Northwest Cabarrus High School to plant seeds for their garden. Jacob Sykes, agriculture teacher at NCHS, hosted the Boger students and trained them in some basic greenhouse skills, such as filling flats, seeding and watering. The high school will grow the transplants and return them to Boger to plant in early March.

Could this happen in your school district, possibly partnering with the high school or middle school agriculture programs to provide the greenhouse space and growing expertise? Contact Doug to discuss how a network like this could work for you!