Plant Sale at Dakota School Greenhouse
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On Friday and Saturday, May 13 and 14, 2011, the new greenhouse at Dakota High School, Dakota, Illinois, was open for a public sale of annual flowers and vegetables. Students provided assistance in the purchases and loading the plants into customer vehicles. The sale days were cool and rainy but the greenhouse was warm and bright. It would have been hard to see the riot of colorful flowers and not feel sunny, despite the weather. |
Thanks to the Alumni Association, the school was able to purchase plastic pots, soil, small plants, hoses, clippers, and other gardening tools. During the year, students and adults together worked with old railroad ties to make sturdy potting benches, with wire grid on top to hold trays for plants. Some of the Association's financial assistance was in the form of loans, to be repaid with proceeds from three plants sales during the year. One sale was to the school staff; the second sale was the May sale of annuals and vegetables; and the third sale will take place on June 3 and 4th as part of "Sale-ing Rt 75".
Ms. Obert has been a teacher for six years and teaches all the agriculture classes. She also helps the kids with after school activities. Some of the botany and horticulture science training happens in the school classroom, but then the kids go into the greenhouse to work with the soil and plants. More learning happens as the kids plan the pricing for the sales, advertising, handling the customers' money, as well as keeping the plants pretty for sale.
John Albright (seated) and Parker Ludeking are two seniors who worked the Saturday sale. John is going on to Highland Community College next year for Ag Management and Parker is going to for Soil and Crop studies. Both currently work on farms, outside of school. John said, "What I enjoyed about working in the greenhouse this past year was getting summer in winter. It was warm in here!" Parker not only worked on the greenhouse structure, but also on the potting benches. He enjoyed growing different kinds of plants than he has before.
Mary Zettle, aged 7, and finishing first grade at Dakota Elementary School, brought her grandmother, Jan Boyer to the greenhouse to buy some flowers. Mary delighted in comparing the lavenders, her favorite color, of the . Ms. Boyer said that Mary's older sister had helped to pot some of the petunias in the greenhouse.
Neil Bruegger also came to the plant sale. He is finishing eighth grade at Dakota. In his Ag class, he worked in the greenhouse and explained that the plants were purchased as tiny starts in little peat pellets. His job was to carefully put the tiny starts into 4-pack or larger pots so they could grow to a size for sale.
When asked about future plans for the greenhouse, Ms. Obert indicated that all the remaining plants would be cleaned out of the greenhouse for the summer. The greenhouse has no cooling for the summer months.
Other than the upcoming sale, the future of the greenhouse and further horticulture classes are in doubt. Ms. Obert said she has received a layoff notice and it is not clear if she will be able to teach Ag classes or how the greenhouse would be used next year.
The Benning family has offered to host a plant sale for the FFA students during the "Sale-ing Rt 75" on June 3 and 4, 2011. Not only the greenhouse's remaining annuals, but lots of perennials grown by the Dakota students will be for sale. Look for the FFA sign on Highway 75 between Rock City and Davis.
Thanks for reading! --Diana
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