photo by Kris Seltzer
Symi Seltzer, WGHS Senior with the first harvest from the tower garden project at the high school.
Green with Envy
by Emmylou Harmon
The WGHS Greenhouse program currently has 14 tower gardens that are growing greens for the school lunch program. The tower gardens were purchased through multiple funding sources: Freeport-McMoRan minigrant, Carl Perkins funding, a raffle of a grill donated by Heather Graves, and greenhouse funds from the annual plant sale. The towers are located throughout the high school building adding light and color to many classrooms and the library. Symi Seltzer has been instrumental in the operation and general maintenance of the gardens. She has helped put the tower together, selected seeds, germinated them, planted maintained pH,nutrient levels, and water in all 14 towers. West Grand has started its pathway in the social movement of farm to table, providing locally grown greens to the food service program for all students to enjoy. The current goal of the WGHS Greenhouse Program Tower Gardens are to provide enough greens for the high school lunch program.
Greenhouse instructor Emmylou Harmon says, “We are still experimenting with plant type, production methods, plant growth timing, and harvesting. Over the next couple of years the greenhouse program hopes to have the process down to a science and possibly to expand into the WGK8 Building. Great job Symi and the WGHS Greenhouse students.”
photo by Kris Seltzer
An example of the towers.
