Here at SCHS every sports team picks a community service project to work on. The football team chose the fall garden cleanup event as their project. The garden cleanup took place on October 3rd and it was also an ongoing project for the Future Farmers of America SCHS chapter. Since this is the end of the gardening season, all the plant material in the garden have to be removed and taken away.

This project benefited all of the people who have plots in the community garden. “Fall cleanup also prevents the garden from becoming a major eyesore for the community all winter long, since it along a busy street. Also, in the spring, our FFA members assist the gardeners with getting all plants planted” stated Erin Trotter. Erin Trotter is the Horticulture teacher. She went to college at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln with a major in Horticulture and a focus on Landscape Design. After that she had a few different horticulture jobs, such as floral design, leading garden maintenance crews, and managing the seasonal color department at a high-end landscaping business in Omaha.

In horticulture class, they learn anything that is related to plants. They start with the basics, like terminology and what plants need to grow and thrive. Then they go over the different types of plants, how to grow more plants by starting seed and taking cuttings, a little bit of landscape design, and all the different careers related to horticulture. “The career portion is particularly important to me because there is such a shortage of workers at all skill levels in the horticulture industry” stated Mrs.Trotter. In the future, FFA will be planting some new trees at the elementary school, so the kids there can start to have some shade and wind protection around the playground area.

The Horticulture class is currently working on a project to identify, describe, and label all the different plants in the outdoor classroom here at SCHS. That space was designed by the Nebraska Statewide Arboretum, and plants were chosen because they are native to this area, help support beneficial insects and other wildlife, and soak up extra rainwater that would be running into the street. They are using this project to educate people about that garden and its purpose. Horticulture sounds very interesting and we are excited to hear more about it in the future.