Horticulture Class At Deer Park High Thriving In/Around: Deer Park

The Deer Park High School greenhouse stands empty, the campus covered with snow. But that doesn’t mean the horticulture class has idle time. While spring is for planting, winter is for planning.

Students in Nathan Moore’s advanced horticulture class have been working in groups to come up with a new design for the front of the school. Currently, beds of river rock line walkways leading to a nondescript front door.

“It’s not the most beautiful building around,” said Moore. “There’s a lot to work with.”

Such a blank canvas means lots of work, but that’s OK. Plants aren’t the only things growing here - the horticulture classes themselves have sprouted up from 17 students three years ago to about 70 this year.

“There’s a real need for horticulture here,” Moore said.

“With all the landscaping businesses in town - how many people have lawn services?” added Gary Axtell, Deer Park’s other horticulture teacher. “And, kids have to take more electives now. They get opportunities they wouldn’t have had before.”

That’s what Moore and Axtell want to provide their students - opportunities. During a unit on soil, Axtell’s class went out to the school’s baseball field to determine nutrients. The class ended up aerating, fertilizing, laying sod and getting the old field into better shape.

Moore also wants to start developing turf grass management classes.

“Kids don’t realize turf grass management is a lot more than riding a lawn mower around a golf course,” Axtell said. “It’s the person who designs the holes and lays everything out.”

Students have their own reasons for taking horticulture. Junior Jessica Herbes got interested in the elective after doing a speech on horticultural therapy and the curative powers of growing plants.

“We have a greenhouse at home, so it’s nice to know about these things so I can help my mom out,” she said.

Once the end of winter is in sight, horticulture students’ primary duties fall to maintaining the school’s 30-by-60 foot greenhouse. By the first week of February, the classes receive about 600 geraniums and 300 impatiens that the students must transplant into pots. Before spring break, they receive between 4,000 and 5,000 bedding plants - like pansies, petunias and marigolds - that must be transplanted and maintained.

“It’s hard work. There’s a lot of plants,” said junior Scott Palmer.

But even still, that’s likely part of the reason for the course’s blossoming popularity.

“At least half the class is hands-on,” Moore said. “Kids get to work outside and get their hands dirty.”

From January through May, students are responsible for keeping the greenhouse going. Then, they host a plant sale around Mother’s Day.

During the sale, students collect the money and answer questions people have about the plants.

“It’s good for them - dealing with people and working on customer relations,” Axtell said. “Kids take ownership in the plant sale. They bring their parents and say, `I did this!”’ “They really take pride in it. That’s fun to watch,” Axtell said.