[dropcap]W[/dropcap]allace Middle School’s Green Team is going even greener with the new addition of a greenhouse to their gardening club.
The greenhouse was funded by the Healthier U.S. School Challenge Grant. Co-sponsors of the club, retired secretary Holly Cass, art teacher Britt Irick and cafeteria manager Kate Webster, posed with students at a ribbon cutting ceremony last week.
The middle school has had the gardening and nutrition program dating back to a 2011 Education Foundation Innovative Teaching Grant. This grant, and subsequent others, allowed the club to buy rain collection tanks that keep the garden hydrated during the summer months.
The garden has also benefitted from a community project hosted by Lowes which helped build the Green Team’s first garden boxes behind the school. Lowes donated tools, plants and labor to help kick off the club’s initiative.
Students at Wallace Middle School who are part of the Green Team meet weekly after school to work in the garden.
“Kids are learning that not everything comes from HEB. We want them to learn the joy of growing things for themselves and learning how stuff grows and when it grows,”
“Kids are learning that not everything comes from HEB. We want them to learn the joy of growing things for themselves and learning how stuff grows and when it grows.”
Holly Cass, co-sponsor of the Wallace Green Team
The Green Team has planted peach and apple trees behind the school and some of the crops and herbs are used for school lunches. Broccoli, squash, cucumbers, potatoes, onions, snow peas and honey dew melons are just some of the bounty that Wallace students have planted and harvested throughout the years.
“A couple of years ago, we had broccoli as big as soccer balls I’d say, and we prepared a dish that was served to the Hays School Board with our broccoli.” Cass said.
The greenhouse arrived in a box and Webster put it together over the summer so students could begin using it when school started. The new addition to the garden is only about 4 feet by 5 feet but it gives the Green Team new opportunities to grow plants from seeds and protect more delicate plants from harsh weather. For example, they have a lemon tree they can put in the green house to protect it from freezing temperatures in the winter.
Each year the club tries to expand the garden in some way. “We’re pretty proud of our accomplishments,” Cass said.
