Marshall County Schools’ student-run greenhouses teach invaluable life lessons and opens to the public next week

CAMERON, W.Va. (WTRF) — If you’re a serious gardener or just looking to brighten up the yard, we have good news.

An amazing variety of flowers, ferns, vegetables, and a wide range of beautiful hanging baskets will be on sale starting next week.

That’s when Marshall County schools open their student-run greenhouses for a massive flower and garden sale.

The prices are fantastic, and the variety rivals what you might find at big-box stores.

It all starts in early to mid-January for the 28 kids in Donald Poage’s class at Cameron High School.

That begins the process that will transform the empty greenhouse into a space full of beautiful flowers and a wide range of vegetables, herbs, and other types of plants.

Each student performs a different task throughout the project process.

It starts with the basics of soil prep. From there, it’s seed planting followed by watering and fertilizing. From there, the students nurture and care for the plants until they are fully grown.

It’s a hands-on environment the kids seem to enjoy.

I love being in the greenhouse, getting my hands dirty and being with my friends and enjoying it.”

Caitlyn Conner, Senior, Cameron High School

Instructors say the program teaches valuable life lessons that will benefit students throughout their adult lives.

I think the main benefit is the real-life experience because they can transfer this skill into the real world. They can make do their own gardening. They can make greenhouse a business.”

Donald Poage. FFA Advisor, Cameron Advisor

What if things go bad one day and you need to sustain yourself. Doing this you can sustain yourself.”

Caitlyn Conner, Senior, Cameron High School

At Sherrard Middle School they start their planting process in mid-March. The kids say they are excited to show off ther resulst of their work.

We water them every day. Come out here and take pictures. We do journals. We have all the plants here we sell them. I have a garden at my house. I learned a lot from hrere and I’ll cary that on to my house and grow those vegetables and plants at my house.”

Zane Gast, 7th Grade Student, Sherrard Middle School

Students also gain valuable business experience as well.

Whenever we have our sale, they’ll have to know how to price so that we can afford to get stuff for the next year. They will see the difference from what we spent to what we will end up making for the sale.”

Bryan Berger. Greenhouse Teacher, Sherrard Middle School

The sale begins next Wednesday, on May 1.

John Marshall High School and Moundsville Middle also have student-run greenhouses and will take part in the sale.

Cameron’s hours are from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m. Monday through Friday and 9 a.m. until noon on Saturdays.

For John Marshall, it’s 8 a.m. until 3:30 on weekdays and 8 a.m. until 3 for the two middle schools.

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