The Cookeville High School greenhouse classes will hold a public plant sale on Saturday with funds raised going toward greenhouse maintenance.
FFA Advisor Walker Weems teaches plant science and hydroculture at Cookeville High School. He said the lessons go beyond the fundamentals of growing plants, and branches out to teach values like responsibility and consistency.
“It’s good for the kids to kind of get a break from your standard education,” Weems said. “That can be really, I mean it’s hard work as we all know, but just having, giving them the opportunity to get out, get hands-on, they can learn a lot about cycles of plants. And plants surround us all obviously.”
With the funds from the sale, Weems said he and his students hope to purchase a new automatic vent closer to improve the quality of the greenhouse and reduce their carbon footprint.
“There’s always constantly the things breaking in the greenhouse,” Weems said. “Especially with the climate control system, it can be really finicky.”
Weems said the money raised will also be used to fund FFA conventions and camps, like the one in Sparta last year. He said he expects to raise between $5,000 and $10,000 from the fundraiser.
“Giving them the opportunity to just participate in these, kind of limit that financial burden and remove that, that can be something that this fundraiser that we’re doing, it’s really going to help students with,” Wees said.
Weems said he and his class work collectively to keep the plants alive by splitting up weekend watering duties. Other than making sure the plants do not perish, Weems said the greenhouse is almost entirely student-ran.
Weems said his students are empowered with the creative directive to design their own bouquets and mixing different baskets. Some students have cultivated plants from seeds, nurturing them from the ground up with their own two hands.
With many options in the career and technical education programs to choose from, Weems said the students that end up in his class are passionate about the course. Many, he said, are looking to have a career in landscaping when they graduate. Others plan to pursue a college degree in agriculture.
“Just having that hands on experience is really what career and technical technical education is about,” Weems said. “And that greenhouse just provides the perfect place to do learning.”